There’s no better time to ensure your yard is properly graded than before you plant new sod. Knowing how to grade yards is essential to protect your home from water damage, and is always much easier (and affordable) to accomplish before you have landscaping considerations to worry about.
Grade Yards for Sod
As a general rule, your yard should slope away from your home in every direction at a grade of about 2-3 inches per every 10 feet. Your final grade should drain onto sidewalks and walkways to avoid puddling in the edges of your yard.
Get Expert Help?
The degree of grading issues your lawn suffers may require expert landscaping help, especially if you’re working on a tight timeline. If you need to move large amounts of soil, you’ll likely need to involve machinery that’s more efficient than a shovel and wheelbarrow. Those options can always be rented, but it may be more cost- and time-effective to turn to a professional to speed the process up.
Simulate Rainfall
Maybe the low spots in your lawn are visible from your doorstep. It’s more likely they’re subtle low points. Use your hose to simulate rainfall in all areas around your home, and watch where water accumulates or runs into areas of your yard you’d like it to avoid. Once you understand drainage patterns in your front and back yard, start you can start to grade yards for proper drainage.
Swales and Berms
Don’t let the fancy landscaping terminology trip you up: You were playing with swales and berms in the sandbox as a kid. Swales are slight depressions – almost miniature ditches – placed to direct drainage. Berms are the opposite: lumps of soil placed to keep water from reaching what’s behind it.
Grading yards for sod can seem like an unnecessary step, particularly when you’re impatient to get your lawn planted. It’s essential for the long-term health of your turf, however, even in semi-arid areas like Northern Colorado.
