Can Fill Dirt Prevent Backyard Flooding?

Backyard flooding after heavy rainstorms can be extremely annoying and inconvenient, and is also very common in the summer months. Once the weather clears up, you want to be able to enjoy your backyard without having to avoid puddles or muddy spots. Backyard flooding actually has the potential to bring about serious problems if not properly managed. It can cause damage to the plants in your backyard, create a breeding ground for mosquitoes, cause the environment to be unusable until dried out and cause damage to the home’s foundation. In addition, water can slip into the walls and cause problems such as cracks or mold.

Using Fill Dirt To Prevent Backyard Flooding

There are several approaches you can take to fix backyard flooding. One way you can do this is to improve drainage by changing the composition of your yard’s dirt, land grading, or building a rain garden. These projects are going to require filling dirt or topsoil to get the best results. If you’re looking for fill dirt or topsoil delivery, reaching out to a qualified Virginia fill dirt contractor can greatly improve your project quality.

Changing Soil Composition

If heavy weather conditions have you experiencing backyard flooding, there are a few simple steps you can take to improve your soil drainage. Utilize a sandy soil combined with an organic matter (like compost or ground pine back) and mix it in with the existing dirt, up to around a depth of 12 inches. By changing the composition of your current dirt, you’ll allow water to drain more easily and avoid creating unwanted puddles in your yard. Growing plants in these areas with the newly placed topsoil can also help to prevent erosion. This tactic is one of the more forgotten uses for topsoil, but it can greatly reduce or prevent expensive home repairs.

Growing Plants

Targeting areas of your yard with bare spots can help to improve the overall vanity of your yard. The exposed soil makes it easier to shift and overall has an undesirable effect. Most choose to grow grass or plants. An added benefit is that these plants will grow roots deep into the ground, helping to prevent the dirt from moving anywhere, even in heavy rain.

Land Grading

If you’re experiencing more than just a little backyard flooding, land grading with fill dirt is another avenue you can take to prevent water from collecting or pooling. Land grading is a construction process in which land is leveled or sloped to form a base, and is typically used when a foundation is needed for a building. Land grading is also a helpful tactic for correcting drainage problems, preventing flooding, and leveling backyard space to create a more useful area.

Steps Involved in Land Grading

Before beginning land grading, make sure to pay special attention to your yard and how it handles rainwater damage. Take notes, and mark where the water is collecting to try and figure out which way the water is draining.
If the water is draining towards your house, you will have to grade your land to redirect water flow away. Water heading towards the foundation of your home can cause serious and costly damage. Thankfully, using fill dirt to change the grade of your land can easily fix this problem.

Start off by finding the highest and lowest points of the drainage problem. If your yard is relatively flat, it may be difficult for you to determine these right away. Wait for a rainstorm that creates water flow in your yard. When the storm is over, walk around your yard and take note of the water pooling. This can be done by sticking a stake or other marker into the ground. Wait about an hour or so, and then check the points you have marked. If the standing water is still there, this is a low point in your yard and an area where water drainage is occurring.

Recognizing Slope Levels

When identifying slopes, the high point is where the water is flowing in the wrong direction. For example, if the land slopes down in the direction of your house, the high point is going to be at the very top of the slope. The low point is where the water is pooling and will be at the very bottom of the slope. In order to fix this problem, you will need to place enough fill dirt on top of the low point to make it level with the high point. The fill dirt will change the level of the slope, preventing water from pooling where you don’t want water.

Building A Rain Garden

A rain garden, also known as a stormwater garden, is designed as depression storage or planted hole that collects rainwater runoff. Basically, it’s a plant pond; a garden bed that you plant with deep-rooted species. Rain gardens are commonly used in urban areas to collect runoff from roofs, driveways, walkways, parking lots, and compacted lawn areas. These gardens absorb and prevent runoff from getting into nearby bodies of water. By catching this runoff, the rainwater turns into groundwater and helps the plants grow, rather than being sent through stormwater drains and ending up in the ocean. Rain gardens also help cut down on erosion, flooding, diminished groundwater, and reduce the amount of pollution reaching creeks and streams by up to 30%!

Steps To Building A Rain Garden

When building your rain garden, you can choose a location where a noticeable amount of water was collecting. The alternative will be to land grade or build a swale in order to direct the water to the desired location of the rain garden. The location of any rain garden should be at least 10 feet away from your house to prevent any of the water from reaching the foundation.

Start by digging a hole in your yard where you want your rain garden. Make sure to use fill dirt to have a subtle slope to the edges of the hole. This will allow water to flow into the rain garden. The next step is to place topsoil inside the hole, and plant things such as safe, sedges, asters, lavender, coneflowers, or other plants that have an “average to moist” water requirement. These plants will thrive in your rain garden and soak up the rainwater, while also allowing excess water to soak into the soil to become groundwater.

Use A Virginia Fill Dirt Contractor

There are numerous solutions when it comes to backyard flooding. Projects including land grading, building a rain garden, and improving soil drainage can all prove to be very useful, and the experts at Dirt Connection are more than happy to offer our professional services. The completion of these projects can improve your yard’s appearance and prevent backyard flooding in the future. Working with a qualified fill dirt contractor can be greatly beneficial during this process. If you’d like assistance in determining the quantities of fill dirt or topsoil needed, contact the fill dirt experts at Dirt Connections.