How To Find Grade | Drainage And Landscaping

hey what's up you guys it's scott with everyday home repairs and today i want to quickly and inexpensively show you how to find the elevation change in your yard or just give you a line for what is level for like a landscaping project or maybe a foundation that you're like there's a ton of technology out there with lasers and gps total stations which is kind of in the professional range in the surveying range that is very expensive even rent it and also has quite the learning curve but for small projects around the house like the one i have where i'm gonna lay some corrugated drainage line and get my downspout and my sump pump pumping away from the house you really don't need much so i'm gonna walk you through an example where i'm trying to find the elevation change to make sure the corrugated drainage line will have the slope needed so the water can flow away from the house so the supplies or tools are minimal on this project we'll start off you just need some type of stakes now you can make these yourselves with just some 1 by 2 or 2x2 just remember to cut the point in the end there to make it easier to drive into the ground need something going to help you drive those within the ground so i just have a small sledge obviously a tape measure just so we can get our measurements and see what we're working with and then just some string which you can get any home improvement store and a line bubble level super handy so if you need more direction you can always look down in the description and get links to exactly what's used here so let's jump in i'll walk you through that complete example in my yard which hopefully will help you with your project around the house so first thing is we'll set some stakes one you want to sink them deep enough so that you can pull in the string and they don't pull out but also you need to understand how much elevation change you have because if you have too much your stakes will not be tall enough so i set the one near the house that's the start of where i'll dig the trench for the drainage line and then just eyeballing that to a straight line 36 foot away which will be the complete run so now we'll go back to the stake near the house and we'll do our first knot this knot is called the cow hitch all you have to do is double up your line like this and then fold it back on itself creating a loop now which side that loop is coming off is critical because that's going to help it tighten up and hold on the stake but then we'll pass that over the stake to our desired location now since this stake is higher than the other one i'm going lower to start off and then i'll just double it back and then pull on that single line in a hole now let's take a closer look just so you're clear on how to do this so we'll tighten it up and i'll put that intersection towards the back double back and then hold that line and the knot will hold now if you have string that's brand new it's probably slick so one way pretty simple rub some dirt in it kind of rough up that string and get that glossy slick coating off of it and then that will help knots like the cow hitch hold and you won't have as much trouble keeping touching on the line we'll walk out to our second stake and then secure the line level between the two now i learned this knot from another youtube channel called the essential craftsman now he has an awesome channel a wealth of knowledge and he's a great teacher so you can see that link in the description but he had called this a binding knot and really all it is is wrapping the line around the stake one and a half times and then overlapping the tight side to the loose string that you're pulling with this technique really just the tension on the line will hold that string in place and then you'll be able to take your measurements in reference so taking a closer look i'll get one rotation here and then double back for another half rotation but making sure the side that's coming in is overlapping then you can start making your adjustments getting the line tight so it's level and also at the right position and i'll go back and forth with that and depending on what type of stake you have i have a nice 90 degree angle there and that's where i want the intersection to be which will help it hold then i'll just dangle the loose end over the line and we should be good and now you can see i have a nice level line as indicated by the bubble level now you do want to look down your line and make sure it's taut enough and you should see no sagging and you can bring the line level in the center of the line and you should get the same reading now for my example remember i'm trying to see what the elevation change is so i'll take this reading which is a little over 15 inches to the ground between the ground and the line and i'll also take a reading at the other end which is just shy of 28 so that's going to give me at least 12 inches of elevation change between those two stakes which is plenty for the slope that i need to carry in the drainage pipe well my fun is just starting i gotta go get the corrugated pipe start digging and start laying that out but at least now i know i have 12 inches of elevation change in the 36 foot run that i'm gonna use to get the sump pump and also my downspout routed away from the house if you guys have any questions if you have a little different setup having some trouble just let me know down in the comments i'd be happy to help out where i can like mentioned earlier don't forget the essential craftsman is a fantastic youtube channel he does a really good job teaching and he goes over some of these basic fundamental skills that are handy across a wide variety of projects now before you take off don't forget to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already as we have multiple videos coming out per week to help you with repairs and improvements around the house and we'll catch you on the next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 46,690

Rating: 4.9381609 out of 5

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Id: viD9Xdlg7wI

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 27 2021