Grading near you

Grading is a family of jobs and the word alone tells a contractor nothing. Name which one you need and quotes start to converge.

The code language quoted above is worth reading as three separate instructions, because contractors routinely satisfy one and ignore the others. The first is that the lot must be graded to drain surface water away from foundation walls, with the grade falling not fewer than 6 inches within the first 10 feet. That is a measurable target, and it is the one to check with a level and a tape after the crew has gone, not a matter of opinion about whether the ground looks right.

The second is the exception, which matters on tight urban lots more than anywhere else: where lot lines, walls, slopes or other physical barriers prohibit 6 inches of fall within 10 feet, drains or swales shall be constructed to ensure drainage away from the structure. In other words, the impossibility of the slope is not permission to leave the water there; it is a requirement to move it another way. A contractor who tells you the lot is too tight and proposes nothing further has answered only half the question.

The third is about hard surfaces: impervious surfaces within 10 feet of the building foundation shall be sloped not less than 2 percent away from the building. A patio, walkway or driveway slab abutting the house is part of the drainage system whether anyone designed it that way or not, and a flat or back-pitched one puts water directly against the wall. Where a paving job and a grading job are being done at once, this is the number that should appear in both scopes.

Grading permits are local and the thresholds vary enough that guessing is useless. Seattle requires a grading permit to excavate, move, or add soil if the combined volume of material is more than 500 cubic yards, to disturb land in an area that is 5,000 square feet or larger, or to add or replace 750 square feet or more of hard surfaces, and drops the trigger to 25 cubic yards of disturbance in riparian corridors, wetlands, steep slopes and other environmentally critical areas, where topographic surveys and geotechnical reports can also be required.

Nashville draws its line elsewhere: a permit is not required where the activity does not involve more than 100 cubic yards of material being removed from, deposited on, or disturbed, and it exempts grading performed as a maintenance measure or for landscaping on existing developed lots where disturbance stays under 10,000 square feet and grade changes do not exceed 18 inches. Even exempt work, Nashville states, must comply with all stormwater regulations including erosion and sediment control guidelines, with stabilization measures applied to denuded areas within 15 days of disturbance, and the city can revoke an exemption if an activity violates those provisions.

Large projects add a federal permit. EPA states that a Clean Water Act permit is required for stormwater discharges from any construction activity disturbing 1 acre or more of land, or less than 1 acre where it is part of a common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb 1 or more acres, and that operators must design, install, and maintain effective erosion and sediment controls and pollution prevention measures to minimize the discharge of pollutants, and stabilize disturbed areas immediately when construction has ceased and will not resume for more than 14 days.

A grading contractor worth hiring starts by watching water rather than by pricing dirt. That means looking at the property during or shortly after real rain if possible, or at minimum reading the evidence: staining on the foundation, mulch washed into paths, moss on the north side, silt fans at the low points, and where downspouts discharge. Elevations get shot with a level or laser so the existing fall is a number instead of an impression, and the outfall is identified: the place water is actually allowed to go, whether that is a street, a storm inlet, a swale, a dry well or a low area on your own land.

The work then runs in a predictable order: protect what stays, strip and set aside topsoil, cut and fill the subgrade to the designed elevations, compact fill in layers rather than dumping and shaping it, install any swales, drains or downspout leaders while the ground is open, replace topsoil, finish grade, and stabilize the disturbed surface promptly with seed, sod or mulch so the first storm does not wash the work into the street.

The check at the end is yours to make. Measure the fall from the foundation at several points around the house, look at where the downspouts now discharge and how far from the wall, and confirm the finished soil level sits well below siding, trim, weep screeds and any wood. A yard can be beautifully graded and still be wrong if the soil has been brought up against the building.

Regrading disturbs the top of exactly the zone where shallow utilities live: irrigation mains, low-voltage lighting, gas service, cable and sometimes a shallow water line. The call before you dig is not optional because the work is landscaping. California's law requires an excavator to delineate the area to be excavated before notifying the regional notification center, then to notify at least two working days and not more than 14 calendar days before beginning that excavation, and prohibits starting until the operators have met their marking obligations. Where the work is within 10 feet of a high-priority subsurface installation, the excavator must complete an onsite meeting with the operator first, and records of notifications must be kept for at least three years. State notice periods differ; the duty does not.

Machinery in a residential yard carries its own risks that have nothing to do with utilities. Skid steers and mini excavators on slopes, spoil piles stacked where they can slump, and soft ground after rain are the ordinary hazards, and a competent contractor plans access, storage and haul routes before the first bucket. Ask where equipment will travel, what protects the driveway and the existing lawn, where soil will be stockpiled and for how long, and what the plan is if it rains mid-job with the site stripped bare.

The fastest way to turn a grading project into a dispute is to solve your water problem by moving it across a property line. Codes address this directly. The Seattle Residential Code requires that adjoining public and private property be protected from damage during construction, that provisions be made to control water runoff and erosion during construction or demolition activities, and that where the existing grade of a site is altered by filling, excavating, dredging or moving of earth materials, the owner shall protect all adjoining property during construction from encroachment or collapse by sloping the sides of the temporary grading at a slope that is safe and not more than one horizontal to one vertical, with permanent grading sloped not steeper than two horizontal to one vertical, unless the building official approves a steeper design by an experienced geotechnical engineer.

Beyond the code there is a civil question that varies by state, and a practical one that does not: a discharge onto a neighbor's land tends to be discovered, and it tends to be remembered. If the only viable outfall runs toward another property, raise it with the neighbor before the work rather than after, and get the route and the receiving point named in the scope. Easements, drainage covenants and shared swales recorded on a plat can also dictate where water is permitted to go, and none of those show up when you look at the yard.

Earthwork prices follow volume, access and disposal far more than yard size. The drivers are how much soil has to be cut, filled or brought in, whether excess material can stay on site or must be hauled away, how equipment reaches the work and what it has to be protected from on the way, soil conditions such as rock, saturation or expansive clay, the length and depth of any drains or swales, whether downspout leaders are buried, whether a permit, an erosion control plan or a geotechnical report is required, and what stabilization is included at the end. Ask for the elevations, the drain lengths and the restoration to be listed separately.

LokalMatch is where the search starts, not where the dirt moves. You describe the problem once: where water stands, what the house is doing about it now, how close the property lines are, how machinery would get in and whether you already know of a permit requirement. Grading and drainage contractors serving your area receive the request, and the ones interested contact you. Pros pay for the requests they receive; homeowners pay nothing to use it. LokalMatch does not perform grading, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any contractor, so confirming insurance, permits, the locate ticket and the written scope is your side of the job.