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| My wife and I bought our first house in October. There was a slight grade in the rear yard TOWARDS the house, which lead to massive flooding in the crawlspace, and a lack of useable outdoor living space. We regraded at the back of the house, and built a retaining wall. This has pretty much alleviated the lack of useable outdoor space, and water intrusion. But the yard has taken some collateral damage in the process. We ended up with WAY more fill dirt than we thought we would from excavating for the wall, and had a large pile (~3 tandem truckloads) sitting on a sodded potion on the lawn for about a month. I offered the dirt for free, and gave away a couple pickup trucks worth, but it became clear it would take a year to give it away at that rate. Finally paid (more than I did for the excavation) to have it hauled out. The area where the dirt was sitting is now a disaster zone. It's rutted from the Bobcat hauling off the dirt, and consists of a couple inches of fill on top of (dead) bermuda sod. What's the best way to get this back into shape for seeding/sodding again? I've tried going at it with a rakes and shovels but that feels like an exercise in futility. I can rent a Toro Dingo with a Harley Rake which I think would make quick work of it, but worry I could do more harm than good, as I've got zero experience on the equipment. I could rent the Dingo trencher at the same time to make trenches for a lot of 4-6" PVC drain lines at the same time. I NEED to rent a trencher for a day, so getting the Dingo and Harley Rake is only about an extra $150. Hard to hire out a job of this size (under 1,000 square feet), as it's not worth it for most people to mobilize equipment or men for a couple hours. Any advice? Do I need to bring in some top soil to till/mix into the area before trying to grow anything? Additional links for the curious: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9U6ZTpP1uO0/UTzqKk9m92I/AAAAAAAAGL8 /RhU9a_pMQjk/s912/2013-03-10_13-49-09_351.jpg https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L1WsYKGN_S0/UTzqKMqbDBI/AAAAAAAAGL0 /90fbGMFakBc/s912/2013-03-10_13-48-24_429.jpg Retaining Wall: Before: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e4hJCXCzvgs/UKEE2ACL9qI/AAAAAAAAGFw /t60crKHhzxc/s912/upload_100000A69E31A8_2012.11.12%252C14%253A15%253A3 3%252C700_4220DAEB.jpg |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sat, Mar 16, 13 at 16:22
| Here are your pictures.
This looks like a DIY project gone horribly wrong. Had you hired a landscape contractor up front, he/she would have corrected your drainage, installed the retaining wall, hauled away the extra soil, flattened the surface, installed any additional drainage as necessary, and sodded the yard. At this point you still need to haul away more soil, reflatten the yard with a tractor and box blade, and lay the sod again. |
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| Have you called some one to get some estimates? We live east of Raleigh NC and have an area about the same size in our front yard. We had several estimates from about 2000 to 2500. They were to regrade the slope, fertilize and establish grass. While it is hard to tell from pictures, It looks like you need additional grading to move the water from behind the walled patio to a swale to carry the water from the back yard to the street area |
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