Concrete – Grading over asphalt and concrete walkway

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My house is in a small city lot, it's a 1924 Craftsman with a concrete block foundation. On the north side of our house, between the wall and a fence line, the previous owner had asphalt over the entire space (about 100 square feet) making a walkway. On the other side of the fence, the next house's lot is about 3 feet above mine so their yard ends with a steep slope into the fence… not a good start for grading.

We don't need the walkway so I put mulch over it, but there's some remaining water intrusion on the foundation blocks, behind a bathroom wall. (I can tell it's happening because of the musty smell). I was planning on sledgehammering up the asphalt walkway, removing it, then grading away from the house. I started that today, only to discover that there's a concrete walkway below the asphalt…. so this may be a much longer job than I expected.

I'm not comfortable using a jackhammer for the first time in such a constrained space, but it seems like this could take a very long time to do by hand. Is it worthless to try to grade over the asphalt? Or do I need to just suck it up and do the work, or pay for it?

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Best Answer

Any grading you do may not help. You already have a concrete/asphalt barrier, then mulch, which I assume you've given a grade.

If the concrete/asphalt is much narrower than the space between your house and the fence, I would grade the mulch, put down plastic sheeting from the fence to your foundation and a little up the foundation. Then cover that with a layer of mulch with a good grade.

The problem could be that you are getting your neighbor's runoff. It might help to trench along the fence, line the trench with plastic, and create a French drain. That would at least divert surface runoff.

The fence isn't very far from your house. Grading will move water falling on your own property away from the foundation. But that plus your neighbor's water will seep into the ground at the fence line and migrate to you foundation under the grading. The real solution will be to capture all of that water and move it somewhere else.