Landscape grading and drainage protect your foundation and home

The same eternal force that carved the Grand Canyon and separated the continents can make short work of your house.

Nothing wrecks a house faster than water can.  That doesn’t mean water damage will wreck your home tomorrow, next week, or even next year.  It can happen very slowly, even a drop at a time.  The slow damage is the kind we don’t tend to think much about, or do anything about.  In some ways can be even more of a risk than the giant puddles.

If you’ve got a wet basement you’ve already seen some of the damage even a little water can cause, and that’s just the damage you can see: Even a little dampness on or near the foundation can create or worsen cracks and other damage that takes Herculean work and many thousands of dollars to fix.  A good 95% of the time poor grading or poor drainage on your property is responsible for too much water around your foundation, and for the expensive repairs.  A sump pump or a weep tile system is just a partial solution that doesn’t deal with the underlying problem: water flowing the wrong way.

We can’t fight gravity for long, so we need to get gravity on our side.  We need to make the water want to flow this way rather than that way.  That’s what landscape grading is for.

Proper grading and drainage are critical to the rest of your property, too

Effective drainage is the foundation of a landscape that doesn’t endanger your home, that’s practical to maintain, and that is a pleasure to behold and to spend time in.  The benefits go well beyond your foundation.

Poor landscape grading can also flood or slowly damage your garage, outbuildings, deck footers, patios, walkways, driveway, and just about anywhere else.  The risks and damages multiply if the water stays put into the fall or winter and freezes, causing the surface to crack and water to enter the cracks.

Bad grading and drainage also foul up your yard and the rest of your property.  With poor grading you get puddles that drown your grass and other plants, patches that are always muddy and that get ripped up by even the lightest foot traffic, a driveway that’s like the log flume at the amusement park, and extremely dangerous icy patches in the winter.

We can fix just about any kind of drainage issue, and have a wide range of ways to do it.  Most of the time, simple grading improvements help more than anything else can.  Whether that involves flattening a bump, digging a trench near your gutter downspouts, or adding soil next to the foundation and grading it away from the house, just moving around a little land can accomplish wonders.  Our excavator, skid-steers, and skilled and experienced landscapers will make it look easy.  Beyond that, we can help with French drains, culverts, and other systems that drain and discharge water.

Of course, once you’ve got the drainage down pat, you can make other improvements to your landscape, or deck it out in any number of ways.  Once you’re no longer fighting both water and gravity, you’ll have the run of the place, and can make your property what you’ve always wanted.  With the drainage under control, you’re only limited by your imagination.  (By the way, check out our other services to see some of the possibilities.)

“Joe and the guys at Palumbo Landscaping did a great job installing a drainage system, grading, and landscaping an area of our yard! The communication they provided was excellent and they were very professional in everything they did! We couldn’t have been more satisfied.” – Holly & Brad Boehne (see review on Google Maps)

“We had an excellent experience with Palumbo Landscaping. Joe worked with me to plan what started as a basic re-grading, and eventually became a bigger re-imagining of our backyard. Joe’s team pulled up a problem stone walkway and re-built it, re-graded half the yard to fix drainage problems caused by a garage remodel, re-did our entire backyard lighting system, and constructed a custom-designed cedar raised-bed garden in what was previously an under-utilized section of our yard. Throughout the process, Joe’s communication was extremely responsive, thorough, and detailed. He made sure to cover every possible question that might come up. He accommodated changes we wanted to make during planning, including the addition of the garden, and a request for a special blend of topsoil. Joe and his crew were top-notch professionals while on site, worked very hard to complete the work quickly, and the final result was beyond what we could have anticipated. We were scheduled to go on vacation the day after Joe started, but we felt confident leaving it in Joe’s hands. When we received the photos of the final work on the third day of our trip, they exceeded all of our expectations. Joe even arranged to come back after the new walkway had hardened, to set up our watering timer to ensure the new sod was adequately irrigated during our time away. We would definitely work with Joe and his team again!” – Chris Mitra (see review on Google Maps)

Whether you only want the drainage improved or it’s the first change of many you’d like to make, you’re in a good position.  Just the fact that you’re even thinking about the water on your property and reading this now is a good sign: you’re proactive.  That’s what will keep your home dry and safe.  You know at least roughly what you need, and you definitely know why you need it.  Landscape Guys are here to get it done for you. Any landscaper can handle land.  You can size up a great landscaping company by how they handle water.

Contact Landscape Guys to check “good yard drainage” and “dry basement” off your list.  We serve the entire Twin Cities area.

“From my first contact with Joe from The Landscape Guys (owner), I had a feeling my landscaping project was going to be a success. He was VERY responsive! I was impressed with the communication with him. He always responded quickly, even before hiring them. My landscaping project was quite large, removing old existing deteriorated landscaping including large boulders, rock gardens, lawn, trees, etc. Next came re-grading the land, and installation of new landscaping. This included new garden areas, boulders, rock, mulch, several new beautiful trees, resurfacing a patio, relocating irrigation heads, fill, topsoil, sod, and thinning a wooded area behind the house. Next came the plantings. We worked with their designer and she came up with an excellent plan. There were many plantings including shrubs and dozens of different types of gorgeous flowering plants. The crew installed the plantings and the end result is absolutely beautiful! There were so many trucks coming and going to haul away the old landscaping and bringing in the new… It was an orchestrated and well-timed project! I was truly impressed with how all that was organized and blown away with the end result! Hats-off to Joe’s crew! Ron, Gary, Mike and all the other guys, they did an outstanding job. They made sure throughout the process that we were totally satisfied, and asked that if ANYTHING wasn’t perfect, to let them know right away and they’d make it right. They were very respectful of my property and my neighbors’ as well. There were many vehicles parked here, and many coming and going. Never ONCE did one of them put a tire even one inch on any of my neighbors’ or my boulevard. One neighbor told me he was so impressed about that! They cleaned up every evening before ending their work for the day. And I mean CLEAN! Sweeping, washing, organizing their equipment. They were extraordinarily professional and respectful. The end result was astonishing. The transformation was amazing! Joe has a great team of people and it was a pleasure to work with them. They made sure we were completely satisfied and happy. My wife and I couldn’t be happier. We highly recommend them.” – Steve Breimhurst (see review on Google Maps)