Zone 11 · Grade · Water
Grading that sends water away from the house and keeps the slope in place
Pureleaf's grading and erosion work keeps your landscape secure and prevents water damage, from a low spot along the foundation to a slope that keeps washing out.
Chapter 01
Signs the grade is working against you
Water tells you where the ground is wrong. Puddles that sit a day after a rain, a damp strip along the foundation, mulch washed out of the beds and onto the walk, a bare stripe running down a slope where grass will not take. Each one is the yard showing you where the water goes.
Soil settles around a new foundation, and a yard that drained fine in the first season can end up funneling water toward the house. Across Springdale, Fayetteville, Rogers and Bella Vista, where storms come hard and lots often slope, that shows up faster than most people expect.
Left alone, it compounds. Sod drowns in the wet low spot, soil moves off the slope with every storm, and the bare ground that is left gets washed further. The longer the water keeps its route, the more of the yard it takes with it.
Freshly graded sand and soil base in front of a house with a large deck
How the crew regrades a yard
It starts with where the water goes. Before any soil moves, the crew looks at the lie of the land: where the roof sheds, where the lawn drains, where the lowest point sits. The goal is fall away from the house, a gentle slope that carries water off toward open ground.
Then the earthwork. Soil is added in the low spots, taken off the high ones, spread to the new line and compacted so it does not settle back. Graded soil that has not been compacted slumps over the next few storms, and the original problem comes straight back.
A regraded yard is only finished once something is holding it. Sod, seed or mulch goes down while the soil is fresh, because bare ground is exactly what rain moves. Pureleaf lays sod as its own service, so the same crew that sets the grade can cover it.
Chapter 03
Holding a slope once it is graded
Grade gets the water moving the right way, and plants, rock and walls keep the ground where it is. A slope that is too steep for grass to hold gets a different answer than a gentle swale, and the right choice depends on how much water runs across it.
Deep-rooted plantings bind soil on a bank. A river-rock bed lines the path where water runs hardest and keeps it from cutting a trench. Where the slope is steep enough that nothing will hold it, a stacked-block retaining wall steps the ground into level terraces. Pureleaf builds walls and walkways as part of its hardscaping work, so the two jobs fit together.
After the first heavy rains, walk the yard and see what the water did. A small washout caught early is a quick fix. To talk about a problem spot, call or text (479) 601-2057: send a text, chat on the phone, and receive a quote.
“We had them landscape our circle drive, including building a retaining wall, and it turned out amazing!” Bob Sacamano, from Pureleaf's reviews page.