Fixing Standing Water in a Houston Clay Yard

The soil across most of Harris, Brazoria and Fort Bend county is heavy clay. Water does not move through it quickly, so anywhere the ground is flat or dished, rain sits until it evaporates.

Add a builder-graded lot that settled a few inches near the foundation and you get water pooling against the slab — the expensive version of the problem.

The goal is a fall of about one inch per foot for the first ten feet away from the house, then a gentler continuous slope toward the street, a swale, or a low corner of the lot.

Fill dirt does the heavy lifting here because it compacts and holds the new grade. Set stakes with string lines so you can see the fall as you work, and place material in lifts rather than one dump.

Only after grading do drains make sense. A French drain in a dished yard just fills up. A French drain at the low end of a properly sloped yard actually carries water away.

Once the grade is right, top with three to four inches of sandy loam rather than straight topsoil. Loam drains faster than clay, gives sod roots a friendlier medium, and does not turn to concrete in August.

Water the finished grade before laying sod. Sod placed on dry loam wicks moisture out of the roots and stresses the grass in its first week.

Do not push soil up against your siding or above the slab weep holes. Keep four to six inches of foundation exposed.

Do not regrade water onto a neighbor's lot. Route it to the street, a ditch, or your own low corner.

Do not try to fix a two-foot elevation problem with topsoil. That is a fill dirt job with a loam finish.