Final Grading and Critical Drainage Design

[Music] so just like with caps with grading there's lots of different ways that you can do it and still be right but there is some ways you can do it and be wrong so instead of telling you all the ways you can do it that's right let's just concentrate on the main thing that you can do wrong when it comes to grading if your cap is here and your grade is here and your face your wall is over here don't put your grade down here creating a dam so that the water flows down and gets stuck behind your retaining wall it's okay to get that dirt to be flush so that when the water comes down it hits flows over and goes down over the face i suppose they should put this is the retaining wall that probably makes more sense so that this is your grade the water comes down and flows over the face of the retaining wall don't put it down here creating a dam now you can actually create a channel yes my arm does bend that way pretty good you can actually create a channel directing the water into the drainage zone behind the retaining wall but but i don't recommend trying to get that water to intentionally flow behind the retaining wall what you want to do is if you're going to create this channel you want to have an outlet away from the retaining wall do not pump any more water than the wall is designed to handle behind your retaining wall what i mean is do not ever ever ever let your customer stick a downspout behind your retaining wall i guarantee it will wreck it don't put a sump pump behind your retaining wall and it will wreck it don't put your neighbor's gutters behind jewelry to anything anything that directly shoves water behind your retaining wall is a giant no-no and a disaster eventually waiting to happen it will hold up fine for a few years depending on the amount of water but eventually it will catch up to you and bite you in the butt so when you're grading you can put your grade flush with your retaining wall so it falls down over the face or you can create a channel to direct the water and then direct it away from the retaining wall behind it just don't create a dam forcing the water to hit the backside of