If you own a home or are in the market for a new home then this article is for you.  Grading is the dirt around a home and should be pitched away from the homes foundation.  When it is pitched towards the foundation or other structures of  a home like a deck it will eventually cause problems that will eventually cost you real dollars in a repair or replacement costs.  This article was written from questions that I received from my client at a home inspection in Carol Stream, Illinois.  When I explained how the grading around the homes foundation would need to be increased to prevent possible structural issues with the foundation he was concerned.

The Carol Stream home inspection had insufficient amount of pitch away from the home and deck and in some parts was severely back pitched.  The deck stair case was shifting toward the home and was at a point that I believe repairs could still be performed without totally removing the stairs and starting over. 

The issues at hand was not only the grading.  The primary issues at the area of the Carol Stream home inspection was the fact that the downspouts were not installed correctly to the underground leaders that took the water from the roof and deposited throughout the properties yard.  The other primary issues was that the sump pump lines were also not connected properly to the underground leader and when the sump pump turned on and pump water out of the pit it deposited it on the ground instead of the underground leader. 

All of this water that happened to drain onto the area around the deck stairs had eventually eroded the dirt away from under the stair base and caused the stair case to shift.

I explained to my client from the Carol Stream home inspection that when making repairs on issues that were documented on his home inspection report he should understand which items should be repaired first because some issues will effect other components of a home.  The marginal repair issues found at the Carol Stream home inspection were the following:

• Install the downspout from the roof and the waste piping from the sump pump into the underground leader so that the erosion will cease.
• Increase grading around the home so that you have at least 1″ of pitch per foot around the entire home if possible.  Homes that are in urban areas will not be able to achieve this amount of pitch.  In the case of urban areas increase your grade as high as possible without having dirt go over the top of your foundation.  If this is done water can enter from this area into your basement.
• Repair any structures that may have been damaged from erosion. This always has to be the final repair.

As you can see, there are all kinds of issues that can develop from minimal mainatance issues that do not get attention in a timely fashion.  Grading is known to cause all type of issues in a home.

If you have other questions about grading in your home please contact me at ~ The Thermal Home Inspector or 312-961-4228.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe.

Jim Kolke