Regrading my back yard

[Beardog]

Greetings, Mustachians.

I am going to hire an landscaping company to do some grading of about 800 ft2 in my back yard to increase drainage away from my foundation.  Unfortunately, this is not a task that I am physically able to do myself.

What kinds of things should I make sure the contract includes?  The first estimate includes putting down some screened fill, then screened loam, then treated grass seed.  Once the average temperature goes below something like 48F, the salesperson said that grass germination goes down by a third.  I live in Massachusetts, and I'm thinking that if the job is done before the end of October, enough grass should germinate that it shouldn't be a problem.  They said they will come back and do a second seeding if the temps get low.

Thank you for sharing any knowledge or experience you have with this kind of work.

[sonofsven]

I'm not familiar with your climate, but I'm in a northern climate on the mild West coast and I'm getting grass seed in the ground in the next two weeks before the torrential rains come after Halloween.

[Beardog]

Thank you, @sonofsven.  Good luck with your grass planting!

I finally found a chart of average daily temperatures in my area.  It looks like the average for October is roughly 50F, so I think I should be alright in that respect.  This job will be very expensive so I want to make sure it is done correctly.

[JungYo]

Not sure how bad your existing grading and drainage are, but we had our smallish backyard regraded several years ago. We had them add in-ground/underground drainage and pipes out to the street which made the outcome superb (we have a huge berm about 20 ft from the back of the house, so w/ NC rain we always had a nice pond; our spouting is tied into this too). And we went with sod instead of seed, I personally was not comfortable with so much bare dirt + the effect of precipitation on this expensive work.

[Fishindude]

Make sure they "Call Before They Dig" so no buried utilities get damaged.

[Anon-E-Mouze]

Instead of planting grass seed, consider a lawn alternative that attracts pollinators and requires less water. We're in the process of replacing the grass in our front and backyards with a combination of micro-clover, "bee turf", and alternative lawn wildflower mix.

https://www.westcoastseeds.com/collections/lawn-solutions



 

[Beardog]

Very interesting, @JungYo.  And thank you for the thoughts about seed vs sod.  It's so true that the seed could easily be washed away by a heavy rain.

@Fishindude - Great point on "Call Before They Dig"!  I have an underground electrical connection from the house to the garage that I wasn't thinking about.

@Anon-E-Mouze - I've been thinking about converting some/all of my lawn to a lawn alternative.  This could be an excellent time to implement that.  I'll have to research this because it is a shady area.  Most of my 'lawn' on that area is currently taken over by a weed called 'creeping charlie', a vine that has small leaves, purple flowers, and takes over the lawn.  I happen to like it, but it's not a favorite of most home owners.

Thank you all for your thoughts and help.