Back Yard Regrading, Drainage, and Sod
​Located in the Providence Plantation area of Charlotte

Problem:

This client's back yard was shaped like a bowl. The house is at the bottom of a hill, right before a large area creek, and has been plagued by years of drainage problems and frustrations with solutions that didn't work. A previous national contractor installed two drain boxes in the yard that weren't working, and the yard stayed swampy and shady. The customer had a lot of trouble keeping grass.

Solution:

We re-graded the yard, raising the soil by the porch and under the playground, and grading the land so that it drains properly. We trucked in a few tons of organic screened topsoil for this. We dug ditches that drained the property at the back corners, and turned them into beautiful features of the landscape with river slicks from Pennsylvania. The drainage creek on the right goes underground through a filter and white PVC pipe for the last 20 feet. A ton of large rip rap stone was added to the creek bed where each drainage creek empties into the large neighborhood creek. We also built a small platform bridge under the monkey bars and a small planter box in each creek. The half of the yard that was re-graded was then sodded with tall fescue.

Efficient drainage creeks can also be beautiful features in the landscape.

The two drainage creek beds that were dug and installed were carefully excavated to provide the proper grade. It's important that the water drain properly, and to do so with minimal erosion. Holes in the yard where the water was previously draining down and washing out land under the fence were filled, and the two creek beds we installed each cut through the back so that they now drain correctly. We brought in 4 tons of stone for this project! (Some of it is behind the fence, lining the creek bed. And much of it is out of sight, deep under the colorful Pennsylvania / Delaware stone that is visible. Have a look at some more pictures from this project below.

This colorful stone came from the Pennsylvania / Delaware region.

This drainage creek goes underground at this point, enters a PVC pipe through a filter, and runs the last 20 feet underground, exiting into the large creek in the back.

Here you can see one of the creek beds being excavated.

Here, one of the creeks exits the back yard and goes down a stone embankment.

We also built this small deck and secured the monkey bars and ladder to it.

Behind the fence, we've installed rip rap and gravel to combat erosion.