[Coolhandluke31]

I recently dug a trench from the corner of the front of the house to run flex pipe 30 feet away from the house to connect the down spout to the gutter into. That is done. Before this, the down spout whittled away at the dirt in front of the house as water was trapped and then ran off.

Now that the spout issue is resolved, I would like to raise the soil up about 8 inches to fill in the hole left by the runoff, not my digging. The 8 inches would match the rest of the soil against the house.

I am concerned about putting too much pressure against the foundation. Should I used 4 inches of gravel and then 4 inches of topsoil? Or does it really matter for an 8 inch strip, probably 8 feet long?

Thanks...

[twinkiedooter]

Your question needs me to ask one question. How saturated does your ground get with water? In a lot of places the water table is closer to the surface and this situation would warrant the 8' strip so it wicks more water away from the foundation. You can't really overdo it with the gravel as this will help wick the water away and relieve any cracking and stress from the foundation.

[Coolhandluke31]

Before the gutter downspout broke away from the horizontal gutter along the roof line, I don't think very wet at all. It had been left broken for quite some time (looks like many years to me, I haven't been in the house a year yet.) so the earth washed away in big storms. It's a spot where water by will run away from the house, but the 8 inches of hole that washed away was trapping water.

To me it seems gravel was good because it will allow water to perc down. My concern was that I didn't put weight against the foundation.

[hkstroud]

No, back fill with soil. You don't want water seeping down into the ground at this point.

Loose dirt or soil compacts, back fill to 8" above the surrounding area.

[Coolhandluke31]

One says no gravel, the other says you can't put enough. Which one is right?

[hkstroud]

Let logic prevail.

Gravel is more porous than soil. Water will run through the gravel and settle into bottom of the depression or hole you already have. It then has no alternative but to soak into the soil beside your basement wall.
Fill the hole or depression with dirt, the higher the clay content the better. Sure it will absorb some water but most will run off. Fill hole to 2 to 3" below top, lay some plastic then cover with about 4 to 6" of soil. The plastic will act like an apron to channel water away from the house. Just how much this loose soil will settle or compact depends on how deep the hole is.

The objective here is to channel water away from the house.

[freedhardwoods]

One says no gravel, the other says you can't put enough. Which one is right?

If you have drainage tile on the foundation at the base of the wall, you would want gravel against your wall to allow the water to quickly drain down to the tile. If there is no tile at the base, you want dirt to try to keep the water away as much as possible because there is nowhere for it to go.

As far as the pressure from back-filling is concerned; When back-filling around a new basement, it is very common for a dozer or other heavy equipment to fill halfway up the wall, wait a few days for it to settle, then push the rest in. That is many, many times more pressure than 8" would cause.