Yard Drainage · Jasper

Yard Drainage and Grading in Jasper, AL

Jasper is a town of ridges and narrow valleys, and on a hill the water from everyone above you has to pass through your yard. Down South cuts swales and ditches, reshapes the ground and sets culverts so that water goes around the house instead of under it.

Open tract of red-brown dirt, cleared and rough graded, with track marks and a low dirt mound — Cleared And Rough Graded

Freshly graded red dirt with track marks and the end of a black culvert pipe showing — Cleared And Rough Graded

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Yard Drainage · Jasper

Yard Drainage in Jasper

Built on ridges and hollows

Walker County sits in the Cumberland Plateau, where broad flat tops break off into narrow valleys. Jasper is built across that kind of ground. Few lots in town are flat, and many older houses were set into a slope with the yard falling toward them on one side.

The county drains to the Mulberry and Sipsey Forks of the Black Warrior. Every yard on the way down is part of that path. When a heavy rain comes, the question is whether your yard moves the water along or stops it at your foundation.

Water coming down the hill

The usual Jasper call is runoff from above: a road, a neighbour's lot or a wooded slope sending sheets of water into the back of the house. A gutter cannot catch that. It needs a swale or ditch cut across the slope above the house to intercept it and turn it around the side.

Down South sizes that swale to the hill and the ground it drains. On a steep run, the ditch may need to be wider and flatter so it does not cut itself deeper with every storm.

Older houses, older grades

Plenty of Jasper's houses are decades old. Over that time yards fill in with leaves and topsoil, beds get raised and driveways get added. Each change shifts the water a little, until the crawl space is damp after every rain and nobody can say when it started.

Regrading puts the fall back. The ground next to the house is brought up and shaped so it drops away, and the water is given a route to somewhere lower. Where the old place is past saving, house demolition in Jasper handles the teardown and the lot is graded after.

Drives that wash out

Hills and gravel make for washed driveways. When water runs down the drive instead of beside it, it takes the rock along. A ditch along the drive and a pipe where water has to cross fix the cause rather than just the ruts. Rock carried off the drive ends up in the yard or the road ditch below, which starts a second problem. Fixing the water first means new rock stays where it is put.

See culvert installation in Jasper for the pipe side of it, and the guide on gravel driveways washing out for why it keeps happening.

Locates and the machines

Before Down South digs, Alabama 811 is contacted so buried utilities can be marked. State law requires it, and the request has to go in at least two business days ahead. Power you ran yourself to a shop or garage is a private line, and 811 does not mark it.

The heavy moves go to a Cat dozer, the shaping to a Cat compact track loader and the ditches and pipe to an excavator. All three run on tracks, which keeps them steadier on a slope. On a tight lot, the track loader and excavator may be all that is needed.

What a Jasper fix costs

There is no menu price for drainage. The figure depends on the slope, how far the water must be carried, how much fill comes in and how easily the machines can reach. The estimate is free, small jobs carry a minimum, and you hear the number before you decide. Seeing the slope in person beats a guess over the phone, because grade is hard to judge from a photo.

The service as a whole is covered on yard drainage and grading. Clearing and other ground work around town is on the Jasper land clearing page.

Big oak left standing on a cleaned-up slope under thinned trees

Main service page

Yard Drainage & Grading

Standing water moved off the yard and away from the house with regrading, swales, ditches and culverts.

See the service Talk to Down South

(205) 535-6376

Free on-site estimates in Jasper and the towns around it. Call and Down South will set a time to come look.

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What it includes

What that covers

Hillside runoff. Swales cut above the house to turn water aside.
Damp crawl spaces. Ground around the house raised and sloped away.
Washed drives. Ditches beside the drive and culverts where water crosses.
Low yards. Fill brought in and shaped so rain drains off.

Call (205) 535-6376 Free Estimate

Jasper and nearby

Everything in Jasper

Jasper, AL

The Walker County seat, an old coal town with hilly lots, hollows and wooded acreage around it.

Town page Also in Jasper

Yard Drainage & Grading

Standing water moved off the yard and away from the house with regrading, swales, ditches and culverts.

Main service page

Jasper and the towns nearby

South in Tuscaloosa County, yard drainage in Tuscaloosa runs from hilly lots to flat ground that holds water. West over the county line, yard drainage in Fayette is close to home base in Berry. Walker County borders Fayette County, so Jasper is not a long trip, and the full list of places worked is on the service area page. Call or text with a few photos and the address to get started.

How the work actually goes

Call, look, then a number

Call or text

Call or text (205) 535-6376, or send the form, and say where the property is and what needs doing.

A look at the property

The price comes off the property after a look, because cost depends on what is there, the terrain and access.

A figure before you commit

You get the figure before anything starts. Small jobs carry a minimum.

The machines do the work

Dozer, track loader or excavator, all tracked, and the ground is left graded.

On the ground

Photos of Down South's work.

These are photographs from actual jobs. See more recent work. Or read about the full yard drainage & grading service.

Mulched access lane running through young pine and brush under blue sky

Wide cleared and rough-graded tract of red-brown dirt with dozer track marks and a tree line behind

Yellow Cat compact track loader parked head-on on a gravel and dirt pad with woods behind

Questions about this work

Questions people ask

Not seeing yours? Call (205) 535-6376 and ask Down South, or read the guides.

Water comes off the hill behind my house. Can that be stopped?

It can be turned. A swale or ditch cut across the slope above the house catches the runoff and carries it around to one side. It has to be sized to the hill, or it will overflow or cut deeper. Down South lays it out after seeing the slope.

Do I need permission for drainage work in Jasper?

Call the City of Jasper before work starts if the change touches a street, a road ditch or a creek, since those belong to someone else. A culvert in a county or state road right-of-way needs that road owner's permit first. Work wholly inside your own yard is a simpler question.

Do you do gutters or basement waterproofing?

No. Down South does the dirt work: regrading, swales, ditches, culverts and fill. Gutters and basement walls are other trades. Good grading does take a lot of load off both, because less water reaches the house in the first place.

Can the work be done when the ground is wet?

Damp ground is fine, since tracked machines spread their weight. Saturated ground is another story: shaping it then leaves ruts, and fill will not pack. On a wet Jasper slope it is usually better to wait out a few dry days and do the job once.

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