Grading around the house

Hi,

For grading around a building according to BOCA 1996 according to my reading the slope needs to be 1 inch per foot for a minimum of 8 feet. This sounds pretty aggressive. I was wondering whether more recent codes have modified this requirement for a house with a basement. I am researching this question a house in NJ.

Regards.. G

Reply to
guruocont
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I don't have my code books here. I've not ever had residential codes. BOCA would be unusual for residential. CABO sounds more familiar. Our current code book is IBC, and I thought most areas had adopted it.

My memory banks for commercial work remember 1/2 per foot for the first 10 unless paved.

For any basement situation I would expect it (1/2 per foot)as an absolute minimum, and pavement at 1/4 per foot. No planting beds, sod only, no trees for at least 10 feet.

Reply to
DanG

International Residential Code, Chapter 4 Foundations, says in part: Lots shall be graded so as o drain surface water away from foundaton walls. Grade away from foundation walls shall fall a minimum of 6 inches within the first 10 feet. Exception: where lot lines, walls, slopes or other physical barriers prohibit 6 inches of fall within 10 feet, drains or swales shall be provided to ensure drainage away from the structure. T

Reply to
AAllc.architects

If it were up to me and if it were a new build it should be, I would want that for at least 10 feet and 12 would be better for a home with a basement.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Why sod only? I was thinking planting bushes might suck up more water?

Reply to
DaveR

I fight these issues every day. People want to beautify. They dig along the foundation, put in pretty bushes and/or flower beds. Add a decorative border of landscape timber, garden wall block, or custom cast curb and fill up the area with wood chips. Add a soaker hose or sprinkler head or, worst of all, heavily water the wonderful new planting areas. It is often easier to do a raised bed with the timbers that will raise the new surface above the weep holes in the brick work.

Gee, I wonder why my basement leaks????

If your home is slab on grade you can get away with this as long as the finish surface is below the weep holes in the brick work or at least 6 inches below any siding or finish.

If your home is crawl space, you can try it but be very cautious and monitor the situation. If you are flooding or raising the humidity in the crawl, I would do away with the plantings.

If you have a full basement, I would avoid foundation plantings like the plague. Modify the thought if basement has been water PROOFED (not damp proofed) with drainage plane material and appropriate subsurface drainage. If you have all this, you may be hard pressed to give the bushes enough water as the water will go subsurface rapidly.

Reply to
DanG

A house without any foundation landscaping isn't going to look very attractive. And as long as you grade the area where there are plantings properly, there is no reason why you can't have some bushes, shrubs, flowers near the house. You just have to use common sense and not create a negative grade, block the flow of water, etc. Very easy to do right. Every house I've lived in has had foundation plantings, with no basement water issues.

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Reply to
trader4

It really is not the foundation plantings that are the problem, it is the grading that people do that is the problem. Good grading with appropriate foundation plantings should cause no problems. Of course if the owner plants something that needs (or they feel it needs) swamp like conditions, that would be a problem.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

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