Site prep, grading, and drainage around Wichita

Grading is shaping the ground so it supports what you're building and sends water where it should go. Around Wichita, with flat lots and clay soils, getting this right is a big part of keeping a foundation dry and stable. It is core work for any excavation contractor in Wichita, and the part of a build with the longest-lasting effect on the house.

Site prep for a new build

1. Strip topsoil. Organic topsoil isn't good to build on, so it's usually scraped off and stockpiled to spread back later.
2. Cut and fill to grade. High spots are cut down and low spots filled. Fill under a slab or pad should be placed in layers (lifts) and compacted — loose fill settles.
3. Build the pad. House, shop, barn, and driveway pads are brought to grade so the concrete or gravel sits on firm, even ground. Which dirt goes under a pad, and how it's hauled, is covered in dirt work and fill dirt.
4. Final grade. After construction, the ground is shaped to slope away from the building and topsoil goes back on for seed or sod.

Land and lot clearing before the dig

On an acreage or an overgrown lot, the first machine day is clearing: trees, brush, old hedge rows and stumps come out before any topsoil gets stripped. Lot clearing is quick work for a skid steer or an excavator with a grapple. The slow part around Wichita is usually deciding where all that wood goes.

• Burn it on site, with a permit. Sedgwick County Fire issues burn permits online or at any county fire station, with separate applications for the City of Wichita and for the county, and it doesn't charge for agricultural or open burns. Removing hedge-row brush for land clearing counts as an agricultural burn; brush and construction waste count as open burns only if they came from the permit location. The rules on the permit: someone of legal age attends it the whole time, no burning in wind over 15 mph, a non-field pile at least 100 feet from any structure and 10 feet from any property line, a hose on hand, burning only from an hour after sunrise to an hour before sunset, and nothing like tires, plastics or roofing on the pile. A business doing the clearing also has to file the county's burn approval form before it lights anything.
• Haul it. Both construction and demolition landfills the county lists, CDR and Brooks, accept vegetation from land clearing, along with soil, rock and concrete, so a clearing job that can't burn can truck the brush out with the rest of the spoil. Hauling is priced by the load; see what drives excavation cost.
• Stumps are digging. Pulling a stump with its root ball is an excavation, so the Kansas 811 locate applies before it, the same as any other dig (see permits and Kansas 811). Grinding leaves the roots in the ground, which matters if a slab or a pad is going over the spot.

Questions about a specific burn go to the county's Fire Prevention Division at 316-660-3473.

Fixing drainage on an existing yard

Common signs a lot needs regrading:

• Water stands against the foundation or in the yard for days after a rain.
• A wet basement or crawlspace after storms.
• Soil has settled next to the house so the ground now slopes toward it.
• Downspouts dump water right at the foundation.

Typical fixes include rebuilding the slope away from the house, cutting a shallow swale to carry water around the building, extending downspouts, and sometimes buried drain lines. When the grade is already right and a spot still stays wet, a French drain may be the better fix. On clay soil, keeping water away from the foundation matters because clay that swings between soaked and dry swells and shrinks with it.

Gravel driveways and driveway grading

A gravel driveway is a small grading job with a road on top. Most of the ones that rut, puddle and push gravel into the grass were built as a layer of rock spread on dirt, and on Sedgwick County clay that dirt turns soft every wet spring.

• Strip and shape the subgrade. Topsoil and sod come off, and the clay underneath is cut and compacted to the shape of the finished drive, crowned or sloped so water runs off the edges instead of down the middle.
• Base rock, then surface rock. A gravel drive is usually built in two layers: a thicker base of larger crushed rock that carries the weight, then a thinner surface layer of smaller crushed rock with fines that packs into a smooth top. Many installers put a geotextile fabric between the clay and the base so the rock doesn't sink into the mud. Rounded river gravel looks nice but rolls under tires and doesn't lock together.
• Ditches and drainage. On a long rural drive, the shoulders and side ditches matter as much as the rock. Water standing beside the drive soaks the subgrade and the ruts come back.
• Regrading an old drive. When a drive has gone to potholes and a hump down the middle, the fix is usually to cut it back, re-crown it and add surface rock, not just dump more gravel in the holes.

Where the driveway meets the road is the part that needs permission. In unincorporated Sedgwick County, county Public Works says a residential or agricultural entrance culvert in the public right-of-way needs prior approval: Public Works sizes and installs the culvert along county-maintained roads, the owner buys the pipe and arranges delivery, and the culvert permit comes through MABCD at (316) 660-1840. On township roads, the township has jurisdiction. Inside the City of Wichita, a drive approach in the street right-of-way needs a City of Wichita permit. A driveway pad itself is built like any other pad; see dirt work and fill dirt for what goes under it.

Where a lot has real grade change, like a walkout basement, a drive cut into a rise or a yard that steps down to a neighbor, grading alone may not hold the slope. That's retaining wall territory, and the dig, base and drainage behind the wall are covered in retaining wall excavation around Wichita.

Neighbors and rules

Changing grade can change where water goes — including onto a neighbor's lot or into a drainage easement. New-home lots in the City of Wichita generally have an approved lot grading plan, and work inside a drainage easement or in a mapped floodplain needs approval first. Filling, grading, or excavating in a floodplain requires a floodplain development permit through MABCD. The Wichita/Sedgwick County Stormwater Manual covers the drainage rules for larger projects. A good grading contractor will ask about this before they start. If you're still choosing one, see how to vet a Wichita excavation company.