Leveling land

[future_vision]

I'm working on a new home build which is on a slope. It's going to have a walkout basement so part of the slope is taking care of but the rest I need to backfill. Trying to figure out what is the best approach to do this. Do I need to remove the organic material off the top before adding in fill or do I just add fill on top?

 

[CliffordK]

The problem with organic material is that it will shrink unevenly in the future.

Do you wish to minimize cracking of your foundation and sheetrock?

Fill will also need to be compacted.

 

[Thomas]

Can you post picture?

 

[scootr]

Organic matter is not allowed in engineered fill. Fill must be reasonably wet and compacted in short lifts to insure uniform density.

 

[Roadworthy]

Remove organic stuff down to native dirt. Water well to be sure it's settled. Use 5/8" minus as a fill then water and compact that.

 

[gstrom99]

+1 to what Roadworthy said. Additionally, topsoil is a precious thing and should always be scraped off first, to be used later.

 

[BackRoad]

Are you referring to filling under your footers and foundation (under the house) or outside the foundation after the walkout basement is complete to landscape the yard to the foundation?

 

[gstrom99]

Are you referring to filling under your footers and foundation (under the house) or outside the foundation after the walkout basement is complete to landscape the yard to the foundation?

Rock/gravel (compacted) under concrete. Clay/fill outside the foundation is okay. Topsoil goes back on top, last. IMHO

 

[future_vision]

Are you referring to filling under your footers and foundation (under the house) or outside the foundation after the walkout basement is complete to landscape the yard to the foundation?

Outside of the foundation. For example, in front of where the house will be we would like a flat front yard. At the moment it's slopes. I'd say between 15-30 degrees. Ill have to measure it to be sure. Should the organic material be scrapped off and then filled and compacted with clean backfill before putting the loam back on top?

 

[BackRoad]

You should be good to backfill directly over the biomass...assume it's likely grass or mixed weeds you are covering with dirt to then seed your lawn.