Full Erosion Repair and Yard Regrading in New Kent

When this customer bought their home, they inherited a long list of erosion problems. The gutters had been washing out the front yard for years with no pipe system to redirect the water. The driveway had lost most of its material. There was a large hole in the rear bank where a pool used to be. And a swale out front had washed out badly enough that random rocks and bricks had been tossed in just to slow things down. That kind of patchwork fix doesn't hold. It just buys time.

We started by piping the gutters to get the water off the surface and direct it properly underground. That was the source of the front yard damage, so we dealt with it first. From there, we imported VDOT #56 stone to top the driveway and get it back to a usable surface. The garage side of the house had lost its grade entirely, so we regraded using existing on-site material to rebuild that slope and stabilize the front yard.

Out back, where the pool had been removed, there was a significant hole in the bank. We regraded the whole area and redistributed the dirt to fill it in and restore a clean, functional grade. Once that was done, we seeded everything and applied VDOT EC-2 erosion control matting to hold it in place while the grass establishes.

The front swale needed more than just reshaping. We brought in 5 tons of VDOT Class A1 rip rap to properly line it - that's the right material for a situation like this. Rip rap dissipates the energy of moving water so it can't cut a new channel. After placing the stone, we seeded the surrounding area and laid EC-2 to protect it. Every disturbed area on the property was remediated before we left.

This is the kind of job that looks like a lot of moving parts, because it is. But each piece connects to the others. Fix the gutters, fix the driveway, fix the bank, fix the swale - do it right and do it all at once, and the property stops fighting itself every time it rains. That's what a new homeowner needs walking in the door.