Slope for house pad

[bdog]

We dozed out and roughly leveled a 200 square pad on the side of a hill that we are going to put a house/cabin on. We cut a drainage ditch along the cut into the hill so water from above will not get on the pad.

I have a laser grader and can get the pad perfect. My question is what should I aim for on the pad? Perfect level or sloped? If sloped how much? If sloped should it be sloped back towards the drainage ditch or off the front?

 

[Billy Bee]

I would say, level, there is no reason to slope a pad with a building on top. The reason to slope a pad is for water to run off, I hope you don't plan on water inside your building. If it was a driveway or patio etc., you would want to slope away from buildings. My 2 cents.
Bill

 

[Egon]

Build the pad higher than the surrounding area. Slope the surrounding area for drainage.

 

[Citydude]

I cut my building pad out of the side of a hill as well. The cut side is lower than the building so water does run away between the cut and building. The pad does slope away from the building a couple of degrees and sheds water very well. It was supposed to be level, but my eyeball wasn't that day

Anyway, with the rainwater off the roof, I'm glad it runs off the pad and doesn't pool up around the parking area.

 

[Billy Bee]

Maybe I misunderstood, I read it as a 200 sq. ft. pad ( concrete ) with a building on it. If you meant a 200' by 200' dirt pad, then slope it away from building in all directions.
The building area should be the highest spot, as noted by Egon.
Bill

 

[WranglerX]

Build the pad higher than the surrounding area. Slope the surrounding area for drainage.

Best solution, you want a slope away from foundation on all four sides....

Dale

 

[bdog]

Sorry for the confusion in my post. The pad is roughly 200’ x 200’. I plan on raising the actual base for the foundation for the house / cabin a few inches above the grade of the pad and sloping away from it in all directions. My question was referring more to the 200x200 area though.

 

[dodge man]

I always say the biggest mistake is putting a finished floor to low. You don’t want three steps to get in the door but you don’t want to worry about water getting in. To answer your question I would slope the area around the pad away in all directions, it doesn’t need a lot if the drainage is good otherwise.

 

[EddieWalker]

Make the pad as level as you can. Anything off will have to be made up with more concrete when you pour the pad. While working on building the house, you will want that flat area around the sides of the house. When the house is done, and you have cleaned up everything, then worry about landscaping and slope you want for your lawn.

 

[Citydude]

Make the pad as level as you can. Anything off will have to be made up with more concrete when you pour the pad. While working on building the house, you will want that flat area around the sides of the house. When the house is done, and you have cleaned up everything, then worry about landscaping and slope you want for your lawn.

Not to disagree but while building my pad, I rented a John Deere 160 excavator. I wasn't going to go back and move more dirt after I had the machine there. The mild slope around my shop didn't affect the contractor at all.

 

[KennyG]

General consensus seems to be keep the building footprint level and slightly slope away. I don't know if you are building on a slab or a foundation, but I would also suggest getting the slab more than a few inches above grade. Grade tends to get a little higher over time. I would also install drainage tile in stone completely around the base of the building and route to a low spot well away from the building.

 

[jenkinsph]

bulldog,
The 200x200 area should have a gentle slope away from your foundation and from my experience with laser leveling one degree is plenty of slope. Too much slope will lead to erosion problems.

The foundation for the building should be dead level and raised about a foot as this will allow for changes in the future. Such as adding landscape rock or topsoil concrete walks and curbs.