My yard in Brunswick floods after every big rain. Can grading fix it?

Usually, if you have a place for it to go. It's flat and low down in Brunswick so it's not usually an extreme grade you need to correct... it's more of a gradual consistent downward slope from your house to the street. Or a ditch or swale along the property line. We use the laser to shoot grades to see where the water can actually get out. Then we grade the yard to achieve that.

What if the whole neighborhood sits at the same level?

Then we construct a swale (a shallow grassed trench) to capture water and drain it to the nearest ditch or drain (sometimes a French drain if no swale can be made). We have this in areas of Windsor Park, Dock Junction, and the streets off Altama for example. It's the swale.

Will grading fix water under my house or against the slab?

The biggest thing grading does is keep water from contacting the foundation. We get a positive slope away from the house for a few feet to keep the rain moving off the foundation rather than contacting it, and make sure downspouts daylight and don't empty out next to the slab.

Can I just bring in fill and raise the low spot?

Sometimes, not always. A lot of Brunswick is mapped in a flood zone. So if you put fill in a flood zone, sometimes we need to look at it, because you're pushing water onto your neighbor. If you just fill your yard higher, it doesn't help unless there's a place for the water to go. We'll look at your lot on the flood map and see if it needs fill or a swale or both.

Do you build pads for sheds, slabs and driveways?

Yes. We have to put a pad in the sand ground in Brunswick. It must be in compacted lifts, with consideration to water table. We need to crown it to shed and bring it up high so the slab isn't in the wet. We do the driveway apron and culvert as well, if it's a county road.

Do I need a permit to grade my yard?

Shaping a home yard sometimes doesn't. If you're shaping a bigger area or adding a large amount of fill or near a ditch, creek or marsh then we need to consider the City of Brunswick or Glynn County land disturbance rules or state buffer rules. We'll let you know before we quote you.

Land grading in Brunswick, GA: getting water off a flat, low lot

Brunswick does not have slopes to work with. Grading here is the art of making a few inches of fall do the job of a hill.

It's pretty much flat and within a few feet of sea level on most of Brunswick. A few feet above a water table that you can see if there's a summer thunder storm. Which is why yards in Windsor Park, Dock Junction, Old Town and on subdivisions along Altama Avenue hold water for days. That's why crawl spaces are wet. That's why your fences and your sheds are leaning on the wet corners. Golden Isles Fencing and Excavation grades yards in Brunswick and hardly ever is it moving a lot of dirt. It's figuring out how water can get out. Then preparing your yard to make that happen.

We're a family-owned, Christian-based company in Brunswick. And since we also build fences and pads, we understand what happens to your fence post or slab when it's standing in water every June.

Finding the exit

Any grading work we do in Brunswick begins with a laser level. Where's the water going to? For some lots, it's the street, others it's a county ditch in the back of the property, others it's a storm drain around the corner. And some lots, to be honest, it just doesn't have a good way to go, and it's a matter of swale-ing it to the lowest common point and waiting it out. We always get the grades shot across the yard and adjacent ground before we start. Because if you start building up a yard that doesn't have a way to go, you're just moving the puddle to your neighbor and in a flat city like this, it starts fights.

Positive fall away from the house

The most important thing you get out of grading a Brunswick lot is protecting the foundation. We give you a uniform fall away from the house for the first few feet in all directions so that rain drains away from the slab or crawl space rather than pooling up against it. Also we run downspouts to daylight so roof water isn't running up against the foundation. This is frequently what separates a dry crawl space vs. a crawl space that never dries out on the old raised houses in Old Town.

Open utility trench with pipe laid in the bottom and a mini excavator parked at the head of the run — Trenching a service line across a wooded lot, spoil banked to one side so it can go straight back in.

Swales and French drains for lots with nowhere to go

If the entire street is of the same grade, we use a swale. It's a shallow grassy channel on your property line or down the low side of your yard that will gather the water and carry it to the nearest ditch or drain with a gentle grade. It will be mowed like the lawn and most people will forget that it's there. If you can't have a swale or there's a driveway in the way we use a French drain (gravel trench with perforated pipe) to take the water under ground to an outlet. These are used frequently in Brunswick. They work if you have the proper grades.

Fill and the flood map

Yes we get requests to come in with a couple of loads of fill and build up the low spot. Sometimes that's appropriate. But we have a lot of areas in Brunswick that are in mapped flood areas. When you put a lot of fill in a flood plain area, it could be a review process in certain situations, because you are pushing the water over to other people's lots. Also, unless there is somewhere for the water to go the fill won't do any good. It will just create a bigger puddle. We will look at the flood map for your parcel, and if we feel fill is part of the solution, we will compact it in lifts and shape it to be draining. Not dumping and spreading.

Mini excavator working a demolition site beside a roll-off dumpster and scattered brick — Machine and dumpster on the same site, so debris goes from pile to truck without double handling.

Pads for slabs, sheds and driveways

In Brunswick, we have sandy soil. When we do a building pad we construct it with compacted lifts of soil, it is crowned for drainage, and the pad elevation is such that the slab will be above the seasonal water table (not within it). We will remove top soil and organics first. A pad constructed on top of that will sink. For driveways, we build the base to allow for drainage. We deal with apron and culvert if we have a county road. A county right of way permit is required for the culvert under the apron. We get the county permit.

Permits and the wet edges

Residential yard re-grading can often be done without a permit. If you're talking a larger area or a lot of fill or you're around a ditch, creek or marsh, City of Brunswick or Glynn County land disturbance laws may apply. And Georgia has a creek & marsh buffer that limits disturbance around their edges. You need to watch out for these if you're around Terry Creek, Academy Creek or the marsh behind Blythe Island. We let you know what applies before we quote.

How a Brunswick grading job runs

Shoot the grades. Laser level across the lot and across your neighbors' lot for outlet location
Plan the flow. Grade away from the house, swale or drain to exit. Fill only if it is advantageous.
Utilities and permits. Call in the locate, verify permit if required.
Grade. Strip topsoil in pad area, fill in lifts, shape, compact surfaces.
Finish. Downspout extensions, swale seed or sod. Clean up the site.

So if you have a Brunswick yard that ponds up we want to see a photo after the next rain. And your street. We'll estimate for free. If you're going to fence we'll assess that also at that time.

Grading elsewhere in the Golden Isles

Island lots drain differently. Read about land grading on St. Simons Island, land grading on Jekyll Island, and everything we do as a fence and excavation company in Brunswick.

Related work in Brunswick

Grading usually sits between clearing and building, so see our land clearing in Brunswick, fence repairs in Brunswick for fences the wet ground has tipped, excavation and site prep, and land grading service overview.

Mini excavator loaded on a dump trailer at a job site

Questions and answers

Common questions about land grading in Brunswick

Standing water is the number one call we get from Brunswick. Here is how we think about it.

Usually, if you have a place for it to go. It's flat and low down in Brunswick so it's not usually an extreme grade you need to correct... it's more of a gradual consistent downward slope from your house to the street. Or a ditch or swale along the property line. We use the laser to shoot grades to see where the water can actually get out. Then we grade the yard to achieve that.
Then we construct a swale (a shallow grassed trench) to capture water and drain it to the nearest ditch or drain (sometimes a French drain if no swale can be made). We have this in areas of Windsor Park, Dock Junction, and the streets off Altama for example. It's the swale.
The biggest thing grading does is keep water from contacting the foundation. We get a positive slope away from the house for a few feet to keep the rain moving off the foundation rather than contacting it, and make sure downspouts daylight and don't empty out next to the slab.

Sometimes, not always. A lot of Brunswick is mapped in a flood zone. So if you put fill in a flood zone, sometimes we need to look at it, because you're pushing water onto your neighbor. If you just fill your yard higher, it doesn't help unless there's a place for the water to go. We'll look at your lot on the flood map and see if it needs fill or a swale or both.
Yes. We have to put a pad in the sand ground in Brunswick. It must be in compacted lifts, with consideration to water table. We need to crown it to shed and bring it up high so the slab isn't in the wet. We do the driveway apron and culvert as well, if it's a county road.
Shaping a home yard sometimes doesn't. If you're shaping a bigger area or adding a large amount of fill or near a ditch, creek or marsh then we need to consider the City of Brunswick or Glynn County land disturbance rules or state buffer rules. We'll let you know before we quote you.