Lawn Grade Repair? Any Recomendations?

Well here we are in spring with all the rain and our lawn can't take it anymore.

We have a drainage area in our back yard that VM did not grade properly and it's not draining. Our back yard remains a lake for several days after a rain. It's definitally not going to be healthy as more nasty bugs wake up. Our poor dog has to stay on his leash when he should be running in our fenced yard but alas he can't.

We are going to need someone to come in and regrade the lawn to fix it. VM won't. Any recomendations on companies that will haul in the dirt and fix the problem? I know that with this being a drainage area that the regrading has to be done properly and that's why I don't wanna do it myself.

Thanks

 

I understand about how you want to do this properly, as there is a HOA covenants requirement that anything you do must not affect neighboring properties.

My suggestion is find a good landscaping company, they will be able to give you an idea of what it will take to regrade/resod your backyard.

About VM not regrading .. how long have you been in the house ?? I know they've come back to redo properties all over Broadlands.




Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Contact loudoun county and ask them to look at it. If they find standing water after a certain number of days/hours (not sure what it needs to be), they will demand VM to regrade it and resod it.

 

I feel your pain. Drainage on typical 1/4 acre lots in local developments seems to be a constant problem, one we had as well with our M/I home on a relatively flat lot. Our problem was our sump exhaust from the back of the house would pool under the deck, making a big mess and a bug magnet to boot!

My wife and I sweated like pigs over the course of a weekend to run and bury our sump exuast from the back yard to the front of the house via approx 80' of 4" corragated tubing and a "pop-out" drain at the end. It was back-breaking work for a couple of suburban desk jockeys, but now our lot is dry, well drained and much more usable. The reseeded and repatched lawn is now looking no worse for the wear from where we dug it up.

See

http://www.ndspro.com/Drainage.asp

and search for pop-up emitters

 

VM is regrading all over southernwalk last couple of weeks .... are you out of luck because you are outside your one year warranty ?

 

Yes we are outside of our one year. We're at about a year and a half. I called them but they said that the grade was not even covered for a year. I'll check my packet and post the section that they quoted me. Maybe I'll complain again. It sure is a pain. Our backyard is currently nothing but a bumpy mess. You can even see where the bobcats tracks are from when they were building the house.

Thanks

 

When I complained about the drainage from my sump about 6 months after moving in, they just came out and basically re-sodded the area. At least it's not as lumpy as before (we had done too much walking through that swamp and other we parts of my yard at closing time), but it didn't solve the real problem. Can you imagine that VM wouldn't be interested in solving my problem? [:0]

I decided to try to extend the gutter drains further away from the house, and that seems to solve things for me by keeping a lot of the water from getting back into the sump (which really just drains to go back into the system in a vicious cycle).

I saw on Ground Force America that they bury all their gutter drains in England. I will be looking into extending and burying the sump drain and gutters. Does anyone have advice on burying the tubing so that it drains OK without one of those spiffy emitters?



Pam D.

 

If you do extend your downspouts, please remember they must not affect the drainage on your neighbor's property, so any extension must end 3 to 5 feet from your property line.

I seem to remember being told that this is a county requirement.

When we had our downspouts buried, the exit points were placed about 3.5 feet from the end of my property.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

We're in townhouses in Southern Walk and SUPPOSEDLY VM is installing a french drain behind our rows of houses due to the mass swamp that has built up and then drains into our yard. However, I haven't seen much action lately. They did mark the area but that's all I've noticed. Hopefully it'll help but I'm not optimistic (it is VM after all)

 

Has anyone else complained about the crappy soil and the amount of rock in our yards. We have tried to do landscaping and something as simple as digging a hole takes hours of back-breaking and tool-breaking work.

The amount of imported rock and other miscellaneous garbage in our soil is criminal. Our 3 year old discovered a circular saw blade in the ground, unfortunately, it cut the bottom of his foot.

I would have gladly paid extra to have at least decent soil in my yard. I think I would have better luck digging through the sidewalk.

 

Yes I have complained about it. The sod that VM put down originally is almost completely dead now. It also had tons of weeds in it. I spent last summer getting the weeds out and attempting to get the grass to grow again. This year I have horrible grubbs that I'll be needing to deal with. I've also been trying to dethatch the yard because the sod that VM gave us was horribly thatched. I complained about all of this including the soil and the rocks. I was told flat out by VM that there is nothing they can do. It's the nature of the area.

 

The "nature of the area" is hard, compacted red clay soil. That can be treated with gypsum over time, to help break it down, something the homeower can easily do.

Rocks and construction debris buried below the surface IMO is laziness and cheapness on the part of the builder. You would think that when you buy a 500K (and up) home, the builder would do a decent job of clearing the lot and putting down even a small layer of topsoil before sodding....., nope, they generally lay the sod right on top of the crud....

 

I have one of the "older" homes in Broadlands and I saw several of my neighbor's houses get built. The day before closing a crew came out with a small bulldozer and pushed all the dirt and construction debris around until the lot wasn't lumpy (level wasn't possible because we're on a hill). Then they spread sod around the house. You wouldn't believe what they bury. They don't put any topsoil down before sodding, they just put the sod down on the clay and crap.

In my yard I've unearthed all manner of debris items, and I'm sure there is a lot more to be found.

One neighbor did it right. He pulled up all of the builder's sod and threw it away. Then he trucked in 3" of topsoil. Took him a full weekend to spread it around evenly. Then he had a company hydroseed his lawn. Today he has the best lawn in the neighborhood.

Another neighbor had drainage issues. His lawn would flood with every rain. He had
Washington Homes come out and re-grade it. We planted a weeping willow near the propertyline and that seems to suck up all the remaining rain.

I've heard from others that proper grading is county issue. You may want to check with them and see. You may be beyond VM's warranty, but the county may still make them regrade it anyway. As someone else pointed out, the grading of your property affects your neighbors, so even if you decide to change it, you may have to get county approval anyway.

It also occurs to me that it may not be your property that needs regrading. It could be an uphill neighbor. One runoff technique is to get the rain water to run from the backyard to the front so it can go into the gutter and eventually to a drain. My neighbor's drainage problem was also affecting his downhill neighbor, and they were considering re-grading my lot so less rainwater would flow into his lot. They ended up regrading his lot and the adjacent one to make the water flow from back to front.

--- John B.

 

I'm happy that I am not the only one upset with the poor sod. From what I can tell, the guys laying the sod did it at night with their eyes closed. I wonder how many folks have the same issue with patches of dead grass, no topsoil, bad drainage, etc. If it's a large number, is a class action suit possible? You'd think that there would be some quality control regarding the laying of the sod. Uggh! It burns my britches.

 

The sod situation is definitely frustrating. Not to mention the two sets of bushes that have died in my front bed from bad installation and bad soil/drainage. I find it ironic that gardening at my townhome in Alexandria was so much better than out here in the "country."

Its funny to see our section that is less than a year old, where some people were smart and dedicated enough to fertilize and water regularly and some of us weren't. There is a big difference between the lawns. BTW - does the gypsum thing really work, or does it take decades? A colleague was telling me how they put a layer of peat or manure or something over their lawn in the winter every couple of years, and it comes up nice and green.

I was surprised to see them around the courtyard homes behind me, rolling over the sod to flatten it (Although this should have been done right after it was laid) and overseeding. Proves they recognize how badly the sod was laid. (Don't know if it was the landscaping company on its own, or if this was VM initiated.) Do they expect the do-it-yourself houses to rent a roller to fix the mess?

In general, the builder was very careless about a lot of things (chipped tubs, bad painting...). The stuff left in the dirt is just one more. But I think the circular saw takes the cake! I hope the builder got a letter about that one!

Pam D.

 

at my last house when I was digging up the flower bed to put down good soil we found lots of intersting things. The worst one was an oil bottle along with spilled oil and sand that was covering it. None of the builders around here take much care with laying the sod. In fact a lot of people will tell you that we're lucky that they put sod on the entire yard. My last house they only did the front.

 

Ran into the same drainage problems on the side of my house. My neighbors sump would pump into my swale which wasn't graded properly. Then the landscaping company would ride their lawnmowers through and rip into the constantly wet grass/mud mixture making the swamp area worse. I complained enough to VM last year that they finally came out and regraded and resodded it. It's better, but I still have to deal with the wild lawnmower cuts digging into the grass. *sigh*

And I know exactly what you mean re all the cr@p just under the sod. I tried installing simple borders around the mulched areas in the front of my home. One would think I was trying to dig my way through the Earth's core *rollseyes*

 

If the section your home is in is not off of county bond, the county will require them to fix any known drainage deficiencies, regardless of how long you've been in your home. In my battles with Van Metre when I was in my last house, the only way I could get them to fix things was to sick the county on them. They have no fear of homeowners (until lawyers are hired and class action suits started), but they do fear the county.

 

We cleared out our yard and I ended up buying that Canada Green grass seed. It's the only thing that I've has to cut so far this year, it's grown in nice and green, no weeds. The Van Metre sod is brown, and I even fertilized and overseeded. They're telling me it's not covered since they only provide a "starter lawn" which can take up to 2 years. We've been in the house less than a year. I'll probably get more of that Canada Green stuff.

 

Regarding the dead gross, how often did you water your lawn when you moved in? New sod needs to be watered excessively early on. The first few months are critical. Some people think that sod just takes care of it itself, but it doesn't. The sod in our yard was laid at the same time as our neighbor. I watered a ton and they didn't. Two years later you can tell a dramatic difference between the yards.

Plus, in my opinion, the whole topsoil thing is overrated (except for the fact that it would have covered up the rocks and junk that they left in the yard). The clay-type dirt that is under the sod actually holds water much better and for a longer period than regular soil. Thus, it actually promotes good grass growth.