Last spring I posted the article below to warn new home owners to closely monitor how the lot grading is done around, and specifically at the sides of your homes. Before gravel is placed between your homes there should be a well defined V - shaped swale formed to direct water away from the home.
(1) The building shall be located or the building site graded so that water will not accumulate at or near the building and will not adversely affect adjacent properties.
The site shall be graded so that water does not accumulate at or near the building. Backfill against a foundation shall be graded to prevent drainage towards the building
Where no grade is specified for a slope, a minimum gradient of 2% is considered acceptable; sodded or gravelled areas may have a minimum gradient of 1%
Lot grading not done yet ?? Then read this.by Andy Shaw - March 9th 2010.
Proper lot grading is vital for the long term health of your home. Often, during year end warranty inspections I find lot grading issues that are difficult to repair. Plus, builders often dump gravel between homes before the grading ( swale ) is done properly. These problems contribute to chronic moisture conditions caused by water leakage and dampness through the basement foundation walls. This can also contribute to sump pump failures, sewer backups, ponding on your lot, and foundation settlement issues.
The basics are simple. The lot grade
must always slope away from your home without negatively effecting the adjacent home. In between homes,
there must be a V-shaped "swale" that directs water away from both homes to the front or to the rear of the home.
This V-shaped "swale" must be well defined before the gravel is placed between the homes.As well, the Ontario Building Code requires that your foundation must extend not less than 150 mm or 5 7/8 inches above finished ground level. This keeps siding, bricks, stucco and other similar materials above grade.
Often during inspections the slope of the lot grading is towards the house, yet only a few inches of foundation is visible above grade. This creates a huge problem because the simple fix, adding soil near the house and sloping the lot away from the house, is now not possible. In cases like this the whole yard should be re-graded to fix the problem.
All I can say is this -
1) Don't allow your builder to dump gravel between your homes unless there is a well defined V-shaped swale directing water away from both homes towards the front or rear of the lot.
2) Don't allow your builder to lay sod down unless you can see that the lot is graded in a way that will direct water away from your home without negatively effecting other homes.
3) Don't allow your builder to grade too high up on your foundation wall. Code requires that you are able to visually see a minimum 5 3/4 inches of your foundation walls and that the foundation extends above grade.
4) Before your builder fills the window wells with gravel, confirm that the weeping tile ( a black pipe full of gravel at the bottom of the well ) is visible and not buried in the dirt, missing, or clogged with mud.
5) Don't have your A/C systems installed until after the lot grading has been done. The unit will interfere with the people doing the lot grading and create a low area under and around the A/C unit. If you already have an A/C unit then make sure that the grading is done properly under the unit and when the workers have finished, check the unit for damage.
Andy Shaw - 905 876 4761
Halton Home Inspection Service
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. I wanted to take the opportunity to stop by and say HI. We will be moving into Lot 24 in April and are super excited.