Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » December 21st, 2021, 3:30 pm

I thought this idea from Instructables was brilliant. Basically the guy gridded his back yard, placed a laser level on a stack of bricks, and measured the elevation drop from the level to the soil in each grid block. Armed with this kind of information you can make some better informed decisions about how to level or renovate your yard. Here's a picture...hopefully worth 1,000 words.

Image

You might have to join the Instructables website to see the entire project and images. It's free. I've been a member for 12 years or so - they won't spam you. Don't forget to come back here to comment.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by MorpheusPA » December 21st, 2021, 8:47 pm

I've been on Instructables for ages, I can second that it's a great site. Assuming you don't have the drawings for your property, that's genius. I can see he's got some water puddling problems off that small...patio, I'm guessing.

Another idea, off the top of my head, is to use the pressure gauge in your cell phone (most have them) to measure relative height differences with an app. Checking, there are several, but accuracy seems to vary depending on the model of your cell phone.

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Re: Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by northeastlawn » December 28th, 2021, 5:45 pm

As a former engineer, I can tell you, they are basically doing an elevation survey without drawing contour lines. Laying out the grid allows you to do it without a transit, but looking at that graph kind of makes my brain hurt, I guess thats why they invented contour lines.

I will agree that shooting grades is the best way to go and that knowing how to make a topo plan is probably more than someone would be willing to do for basic lawn leveling.

You would be better off buying a bunch of grade stakes and put them out on a grid. Then shoot and mark the top elevation of each stake on the stake. Then simply measure down from the top and mark the finished grade on each stake and rake out the fill until the fill is up to where you want the final grades to be.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by MorpheusPA » December 28th, 2021, 10:59 pm

If you're invaded by vampires, would the grade stakes come in handy there as well?

bolson32
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Re: Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by bolson32 » December 29th, 2021, 4:22 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
December 28th, 2021, 10:59 pm
If you're invaded by vampires, would the grade stakes come in handy there as well?
Yes. That's why I always make it a point to keep some grade stakes on hand, even when I'm not planning on doing any grading.


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MorpheusPA
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Re: Elevation Survey Prior to Leveling/Renovating

Post by MorpheusPA » December 30th, 2021, 12:40 am

I stockpile 1 watt 400nm LEDs for those events, too. They can be used to harden UV epoxy and fight off master vampires.

Seriously, most undead are far less of a threat in the modern age. Zombies? Morton's makes salt by the metric ton. Mummies seriously dislike ruby lasers; they set fire to the bandages. $20 off any good site. Ghouls remain a minor problem, however, as swords aren't street-legal.

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