Sloping the grade isn’t as simple as tossing down some dirt and smoothing it out with the back of the shovel. Make sure that the top of the slope leaves a minimum of 4 inches between the slope and the bottom of the siding. Bagged topsoil and mulch, often the choice for perimeter strips around the home, isn’t the best type of grading soil because it is permeable and may wash away. Instead, locate within your property (or find elsewhere) a harder, more clay-like soil that packs tightly and helps you better sculpt that slope. Clay-type soil is less permeable, so water will wash down it, not through it. Construction Photography/Avalon / Contributor / Getty Images
