Duncan is building fast — 400-plus new homes coming, one exit from BMW.
Drainage grading has a measurable standard: ground should fall away from your foundation about a quarter inch per foot — a 2% slope — for the first six to ten feet. We grade to that number and verify it by instrument, because “looks flat” is how yards end up holding water. Upstate red clay raises the stakes: our Cecil-series subsoil is nearly impermeable once compacted, so the surface has to move the water — the ground won’t absorb it.
The other half of quality grading is what’s underneath. Fill dumped in one thick layer settles as it wets and dries — cracking the slab or patio above it a year or three later. We place fill in thin lifts and compact every one with dedicated equipment. And we won’t work red clay wet: pushing mud to hit a schedule smears the clay into a crust that causes drainage problems for good.
Laser on site, existing falls measured — we find where the water actually goes before we move dirt.
Organics stripped, fill placed in thin lifts, each lift compacted — no loose fill, no future settling.
Falls away from the foundation at the 2% standard; swales carry water to a proper outlet.
Grades re-checked by instrument; bare clay stabilized so it doesn’t wash before grass takes hold.
Usually, yes. Most residential drainage problems are slope problems — water with nowhere to go. Regrading, swales, and crowning solve what French drains often just hide.
We set a rotary laser level on the site and check grades against it as we work, instead of eyeballing the slope. It’s how building pads come out flat and drainage swales actually carry water where they should.
Because builder mass grading compacts the Cecil clay under these subdivisions until water can barely soak in — compacted clay here infiltrates only a few hundredths of an inch per hour. Standing water and failed swales are common follow-up work one storm after closing. The fix is regrading for positive drainage and rebuilding the swales so water moves where it's supposed to go instead of sitting against the house.
Free written estimate. See the price before any work begins.
