Drainage & Excavation · Nashville, TN
Grading & Regrading in Nashville
Reshaping the ground so water leaves the house instead of collecting against it — usually the real fix.
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Show us where the water goes
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Grading & Regrading in Nashville, Tennessee
Reshaping the ground so water leaves the house instead of collecting against it — usually the real fix.
Nashville's Drainage and Excavation does grading & regrading for homeowners across Middle Tennessee — licensed, insured, with the price in writing before the work starts. Drainage contractors who watch where the water goes before they dig, and give it somewhere to go.
Why homeowners call
Where the water usually gives itself away
- Standing water days after rain
- Water running toward the house
- Soggy patch that never dries out
- Crawl space or basement taking water
- Soil washing off a slope
- Downspouts dumping at the foundation
What is included
Pipe, stone and grade: what grading & regrading involves
- Existing fall surveyed before any soil is moved
- Positive slope away from the foundation established
- Swales cut where water needs directing
- Soil compacted rather than left loose
- Topsoil replaced and seeded or sodded
- Downspout discharge accounted for in the plan
- Neighboring properties considered, not just yours
- Final fall checked with a level
Grading & Regrading on the ground, from locates to backfill
Grading is the most durable drainage fix there is, because it needs no maintenance and has nothing to clog. Where the ground can be reshaped to send water away, it beats any pipe.
The target is a fall away from the house of roughly six inches over the first ten feet. A great many Nashville houses sit slightly lower than the ground around them, which is why water arrives at the foundation.
Loose fill settles. Soil that is placed and not compacted will sink over the first winter and undo the slope, which is why the finished level is set after compaction rather than before.
We think about where the water ends up. Solving your drainage by directing it onto a neighbor is not solving it, and in Tennessee it can create a genuine liability.
Also available
More drainage and excavation work
French Drains
Perforated pipe in washed stone, wrapped and sloped properly, which is what separates a drain from a buried pipe.
Learn moreCatch Basins & Surface Drains
Collecting water where it pools and taking it somewhere it can actually go.
Learn moreDownspout & Gutter Drainage
Piping roof water well clear of the foundation, which is the single cheapest drainage improvement most houses can make.
Learn moreExcavation & Site Work
Footings, utility trenches, pads and site prep, with locates called before anything breaks ground.
Learn moreRetaining Walls & Erosion Control
Holding a slope and draining behind it, because a retaining wall without drainage is a wall waiting to fail.
Learn moreService area
Yards drained and graded across Middle Tennessee
We dig in Nashville and 64 more towns across 12 counties, and our equipment goes anywhere in Middle Tennessee that sits about an hour or closer to Nashville.
FAQ
Common questions about grading & regrading
Is regrading really a fix for water problems, or just a band-aid?
It is usually the fix. Most water problems in a Middle Tennessee yard are water that has nowhere to go, and giving it a direction — away from the house, toward a swale or a drain — solves them without any pipe. The first six to ten feet from the foundation should fall about six inches; a yard that slopes toward the house sends every rain into the crawl space. Grading is done before drains are considered, not after.
How do you regrade a yard without ruining the lawn?
Carefully, and in the right season. Soil is cut from the high side and filled on the low, compacted so it does not settle, and the surface is seeded or sodded — in autumn for fescue, so it takes before summer. A regrade that is done and left bare is a mud problem until the grass is in.
Free estimate
Plan your grading & regrading with us
Show Nashville's Drainage and Excavation where the water collects after rain; our written estimate traces it to a discharge point and prices the fix.