Rough Grade in a Backyard Project

There are times when a large backyard project will leave you with a mess to clean up or more work than you had anticipated. I have had such a project this year and now I am trying to refinish an area and make it workable.

Yes, I could have had the project done for me but sometimes you have to cut costs in one area to spend in another.

So, I have an area of my yard that has had fill added and been roughly graded by a bulldozer. I need to clean this area up and make it “useable.”

When contracting for a job there is a term called rough grading. Most building contracts or landscaping jobs call for the rough grading to be complete, but this may be pretty rough. When a bulldozer is used, the surface is usually packed hard. Depending on the fill used or location the area may have bricks, rock, wire and boards pressed into it. Even a better grade of fill will have rocks and possible branches.

If your area is very rough leave it alone until the mud dries out quite well. Working it too soon could ruin the texture of the soil and depending on how wet it is you may leave ruts or sink in soupy soil.

As soon as you can walk on it without getting stuck, pick up and get rid of any rubbish and larger rocks. You may find that a few knolls need to be shoveled into low spots. I use a rake to smooth the final layer.

This rough grade should be 3 to 4 inches below where you want the finished grade. You are leaving room for rich topsoil for planting and your lawn. You will also want to excavate shrub beds and others to 9 to 12 inches below the finished grade.

Usually poor earth, either sandy or clay fill, is used to make the rough grade. My fill was heavy in clay. The good topsoil is either buried or scraped off and sold as topsoil to someone else. So be prepared to spend some time or extra money for finishing off the projects and adding topsoil for your yard and plants.

I am just finishing up my rough grading and will be adding soil to finish off the project this next week, if the weather holds. My topsoil is good soil that was moved and stored to the side and compost I made to enrich the final soil layer