How to fix negative grading in plant bed in between house & front yard?

Submitted by bayside_tigers t3_zv3dvl in DIY

The plant bed in between the house and front yard (pictures linked below) has a negative grade towards the house. The yard has a positive grade and slopes towards the sidewalk but is at a higher than the level in the plant bed (unsure whether the ornamental barrier there does anything to mitigate water coming back towards the house).

It rained last week and we've seen a little bit of water come up between the LVP panels in the room on the other side of the wall. We are on deck to get a couple more inches this week so would very much appreciate folks' input & guidance on anything we can do to DIY a fix. Thanks all!

https://imgur.com/a/eLYnkqY

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danauns t1_j1n4js4 wrote

Adding dirt is the easy answer ...but pay attention to your house.

You just can't fill dirt up against the house as high as you want. There should be some sort of concrete/cement/block foundation and then your house built on top of that. Generally speaking your foundation can be buried and the house shouldn't be.

Your asking for trouble if you bury any of your house's cladding, be it brick, stucco, or siding.

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1n8ich wrote

Hmm got it, thanks for highlighting the risk there. I don’t see any exposed foundation - perhaps the answer is dirt removal and not adding dirt

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TheATrain218 t1_j1nrdrk wrote

Try digging down until you find foundation. Depending on age of your house and the quality of prior owners* the beds may have filled up over time with decomposed mulch and need to be emptied out anyway.

*as a rule, are schmucks who couldn't DIY themselves a hole in the ground... as you will be too, to a future owner 😉

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Alexstarfire t1_j1qenai wrote

Mine didn't even take wall plates off when painting. And also tended to paint over the actual outlets. I just.... can't.

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seg321 t1_j1mujg2 wrote

Well if you believe this is the problem....you need to add dirt/material to change the grade. Yes...that means you will probably have to remove the plants. Are your downspouts in that area keeping water away from the foundation?

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1mw12m wrote

Thanks - yes, the downspouts clear the plant bed and funnel water to the part of the yard that slopes away. Would I need to build up the level of the entire plant bed to be higher than the highest point in the yard? Or just enough to get the grade in the plant bed itself to slope away?

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MobileAccount7337 t1_j1o84nr wrote

Put a stake with a string at the desired height away from the house. Now run that string to the negative grade, same distance from the top of the stake to the bottom. Now you know how much it needs to raise to counteract the negative slope.

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I_AM_NOT_A_WOMBAT t1_j1nwn8e wrote

This looks like stucco. You should (but may not) have a weep screed at the bottom which should have holes exposed to open air. Whe we bought our house part of the screed on one side of the house was completely buried under dirt.

You likely have some dirt removal in your future. If the ground is saturated with water it's an easier time to dig, though.

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1nz0g7 wrote

Thanks - yup, this is stucco. Dug a bit and don’t see any weep screed - house was built in the 50s here in CA so not sure if that was code at the time

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I_AM_NOT_A_WOMBAT t1_j1o55q3 wrote

Ours was 1959 and had a weep screed (bay area), but not all homes do. There should be a clear enough delineation between the stucco and the foundation, so that's a good place to start your slope away from the house (a couple of inches below the stucco at least.

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1oq4i0 wrote

Yup, you’re exactly right - have some digging ahead of me

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2001sleeper t1_j1mux5e wrote

Add dirt. Make sure your gutters are sized right.

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1mw3py wrote

Thanks - would I need to build up the level of the entire plant bed to be higher than the highest point in the yard? Or just enough to get the level in the plant bed itself to slope away?

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2001sleeper t1_j1mxkoz wrote

Needs to be high enough so the water does not pool by the house. Grades don’t have to be drastic to shed water. I would make it slightly higher than that walkway in the picture. If you have low spots in the yard you may want to think about a drainage channel. Yard work is easy, but time consuming.

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michaelrulaz t1_j1nwd3g wrote

Look up “gate city foundation” on YouTube. All he does is fix problems similar to this.

Adding dirt against the house won’t help since the moisture will seep through. You need to remove the grade in the yard or add a French drain

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TheGardenNymph t1_j1o6v9x wrote

You might get more specific advice from r/landscaping or r/gardening

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Likesdirt t1_j1oech9 wrote

For the rain coming tomorrow just dig a ditch outside the flowerbed edging. I'm not convinced the flowerbed is big enough or crooked enough to wet your house, water moves through soil easily enough.

Hopefully your lot has some grade, and there's a direction to point the water in. A little rearranging the flowerbed isn't going to help much if water is just stacking up in the yard.

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1oq1kq wrote

Thanks! Will give that a shot and see if we can’t toss a tarp over the bed to help a bit

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Quallityoverquantity t1_j1r3ize wrote

I'm not buying this is your issue. If it is you still have bigger problems then that small sloped area next to your house. Do you have gutters?

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bayside_tigers OP t1_j1r41fx wrote

Yup, I do have gutters with the downspouts funneling water to the sloped area away from the house

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