Our grading job has been going very slowly due to a rainy spring and summer. When it rains, it takes at least a couple of days for the red clay to dry enough to be able to work with it. If we get a soaking rain, it can take a week for the clay to dry. It has been about 3 months since the grading contractor started the job.
Today the "rough" grading has been finished. We are pleased at how the grading is shaping up. Tomorrow I will cut the second check for the job. Payments are being made in thirds so tomorrow we will have paid for 2/3 of the job.
The next thing for the contractor to do is to bring a skid steer and do the fine grading, finish the grading around the new culvert, have topsoil delivered and spread. We will sow the grass seed ourselves.
I have attached some earlier pictures that show the mountains of dirt that had to be dealt with. The excavation of our 2100 SF walk-out basement resulted in a lot of dirt.
This picture shows the area behind the garage before the main floor back porch was built.
This picture shows how the same area looks today. You can see the retaining wall before and after it was bricked.
Tonight when I walked over the lot, I noticed that the
outlet of one of our roof gutter drain pipes got covered with dirt. I'm glad I noticed it. The gutter drain that got covered is for the gutter that would most likely flood our basement upon a hard rain. I spent 10 minutes tonight with a maddock and shovel uncovering the drain.
If the weather is good this weekend, I'll probably put the box blade on the tractor and do some fine-tuning of the grade myself. The grading contractor has really tried hard to do things the way we would like but there are some tweaks we would like to make to get it just the way we want it.
The side spray jets feel like needle torture. jet pumps aren't working. But, the phone in the shower is pretty cool....:thumbsup:
