"Joseph Meehan" wrote:

46erjoe wrote:
-snip-
97% of the time grading IS the one and only problem.


Should he use just ANY old dirt? Or is there a certain kind - maybe
clay - that will do a more effective job?

While I would lean towards clay, I would tend to think your question may
vary depending on the local conditions.

I wouldn't use clay within a couple feet of my walls. Actually a
couple years ago when I rebuilt 1/2 my foundation I had 40 tons of
backfill trucked in. It was a sandy mix with rocks in it. I
called it 'creek-bed' - my brother-in-law, who has worked on
construction sites more recently than I had another name for it.
[maybe rubble-- at any rate it was what we called something completely
different 30 yrs ago & 50 miles away]

Clay holds unbelievable amounts of water that you don't want near your
foundation. As the base for a pond it might be good-- but I
wouldn't introduce it to my landscape.

Jim