ecomii - a better way
March 12, 2010  |  Login
Grading: Sloping your Home Site To Your Advantage
By Eric Corey Freed
 

In order to drain rainwater, everything is slightly tilted. Decks, patios, roads, even flat roofs are all sloped to drain the rain. The same is true for the ground. If your property is too flat, the water won’t drain and you’ll have a muddy mess. Sloping the ground so it drains water is called grading.

In this section, I discuss two main ways of grading: excavating and using berms. Both of these methods reduce the amount of paving you’ll need to control the water falling on the property. (Typically, concrete is used to control rainwater on a site.)
 

Excavating

Every building needs to have a foundation to help support it in the ground. Even the smallest house requires the foundation to be excavated into the ground. A steeply sloping site requires more excavation — and more money. You can save money and disturbance of the soil using a cut-and-fill technique, which balances the cut (the dirt dug out of the ground) and the fill (the dirt brought in to backfill against the house). This technique (shown below) reduces the cost of your foundation by using less earth and making less waste. Instead of setting your home on stilts above the ground, or burying it into the earth, this balance saves you money and fits the home into the site.

The cut-and-fill technique balances the amount of dirt excavated.

Earth Berms

In addition to excavation, earth berms provide another way to control the slope of the ground. A berm is a mound of dirt piled up against an exterior wall. Berms provide wind protection and thermal insulation to your home, while adding natural beauty and blending the home into the landscape. Berms are an inexpensive method of insulating a building, working especially well in colder climates. When building a berm, be sure to waterproof the wall the same way you would waterproof a foundation.
 
 

Recent Message Board Posts

 

 
 
ecomii featured poll

Are vitamins and supplements effective?

 

 

Are vitamins and supplements effective?
 
the ecomii eight
1 Winter Squash   5 Pistachio Stuffing
2 Chestnuts   6 Cap & Trade
3 Carbon Footprint   7 Pecan Pie
4 Supplements   8 Natural Health
 
ecomii resources
 
ecomii Tips Newsletter 

Sign up today to receive a weekly tip for living greener

 
Get in Touch

Got suggestions? Want to write for us? See something we could improve? Let us know!