Water running toward the house instead of away?
If rain runs back toward the slab, pools along the foundation or sits in a flat side yard, the ground is sloped the wrong way. Regrading reshapes the soil so water runs away from the house and on toward the street.
Clay Plano Drainage Company regrades yards for drainage across Plano and nearby cities. Our typical range is $1,000 to $4,000 per project, and $1.25 to $3.50 per square foot for larger areas. The site visit and written estimate set yours.
What a regrade price covers
A drainage regrade is not landscaping. It moves soil to a measured slope, so the work is priced by how much ground changes shape and how far the water needs to travel.
Our range includes:
- Measuring the grade. We shoot the existing levels from the slab to the street side and mark where the new slope needs to run.
- Locates. Texas811 marks buried lines before any machine works the yard.
- Shaping the soil. Cutting high spots and filling low ones, using the soil on site plus modest select fill.
- The slab edge. Soil sloped away from the foundation, kept below the siding and the weep screed at the base of the wall.
- Swales. A shallow channel shaped where water has to travel along a side or back yard.
- Compaction. Fill firmed in place so the new slope holds through the next storms.
New sod or seed over the reshaped area is priced separately, and so is a drain where grading alone can’t carry the water.
What a regrade has to achieve
The slope is the whole point, so it helps to know what local rules call for. Plano’s Stormwater Design Manual sets a minimum 1% slope along side and back yards.
It also sets side swales at least 0.25 feet deep across 3 feet on each side of the property line, and two nearby cities spell out the grade at the house:
| City | At the house | Swales and yards |
|---|---|---|
| Plano | Lots drain to the street; natural flow may not be diverted onto adjacent property | Side and back yards at least 1%; side swale at least 0.25 feet deep |
| McKinney | Finished grade falls at least 6 inches in the first 10 feet from the building | Earthen swales at least 2%; side and back yards at least 1% |
| Garland | 6 inches of fall within 10 feet of the structure | Unpaved swales at least 1%; side slopes no steeper than 3 to 1 |
On a flat Plano lot, most map units sit at 0 to 3% slope, so there is little natural fall to work with. That is why we measure before we move any soil.
What pushes a regrade up or down our range
Two regrades of the same area can price very differently. These are the things the visit settles.
| What we look at | Why it matters | Pushes the price up when |
|---|---|---|
| How much soil moves | Cutting and filling is most of the labor | The yard slopes the wrong way over a long distance |
| Imported fill | Select fill has to be bought, hauled in and compacted | The site has too little soil to build the slope from |
| Equipment access | A small loader is faster than wheelbarrows | A narrow side yard or no gate means moving soil by hand |
| Sprinkler heads | Heads and lines get lifted and reset to the new grade | A full irrigation zone sits in the area |
| Clearance at the wall | Soil has to stay below the siding and weep screed | The ground is already high against the house, so soil comes out first |
| Sod or seed | Bare soil needs cover before the next storm | A large area needs new sod rather than seed |
When grading alone won’t do it
Regrading moves surface water. If water stays in the soil after the surface dries, or the lot has no fall to the street at all, a slope won’t fix it on its own.
- A low spot with nowhere to go can take a catch basin at the bottom of the new slope.
- Soil that stays soggy points to a French drain.
- A strip between houses is often a side-yard drainage job, with the swale and a line together.
We price the combination on one estimate, so you can see what each part adds.
What’s inside a Plano regrading price
A regrade is mostly machine time, hand work and soil. Some parts trace to public figures from a government agency; the rest are priced from your yard.
| Part of the price | What sets it | Local figure, or how it is priced |
|---|---|---|
| Loader or skid steer work | Area to reshape and access for the machine | Operating engineers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area earn a mean $26.51 an hour, against $31.87 nationally (BLS, May 2025) |
| Hand grading and raking | Edges by the slab, beds and tight side yards | Construction laborers earn a mean $21.05 an hour locally, against $25.02 nationally (BLS, May 2025) |
| Select fill | How much soil has to be brought in to build the slope | Included for modest amounts; a large import is scope to check on your estimate |
| Sod, seed and sprinkler heads | Cover for the reshaped area and heads reset to the new grade | Scope to check on your estimate. Landscaping workers earn a mean $19.09 an hour locally, against $20.33 nationally (BLS, May 2025) |
| Grading permit | Set by each city; Plano calls for grading plans where land is disturbed | Confirmed for your address; any fee appears as its own line |
| Locates | Texas811 marks buried utilities before work starts | Part of every job |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts each of these local wages below the national mean, operating engineers by about 17 percent. Local labor doesn’t explain a high regrade price; the soil does.
A wage is not a billing rate. What a company bills also pays for insurance, the machine and trailer, fuel, permits, supervision and time spent on visits.
Grading permits around Plano
Each city sets its own rule for moving dirt on a residential lot. Here is what several nearby cities require.
| City | What the rule says |
|---|---|
| Rowlett | A grading permit is required for adding, removing or moving dirt on a lot |
| Sachse | All flatwork and grading in residential districts needs a permit with a plot plan |
| Heath | A residential re-grading permit needs existing and proposed contours, with flow arrows to an approved collection point |
| The Colony | Grading-only projects need a grading permit |
| Mesquite | Existing single-family lots with a house, under one acre, are exempt from the grading permit, deposit and fee |
For any other city, we confirm the rule for your address before work starts.
Illustrative budgets
These examples are illustrative. They apply our typical ranges to simple layouts and are not quotes or past jobs.
| Example layout | How it adds up | Illustrative budget |
|---|---|---|
| Re-sloping a 40-foot stretch along the back of the house so water runs toward the side yard | 1 project at $1,000 to $4,000 | $1,000 to $4,000 |
| Reshaping a 2,000-square-foot back yard toward a swale that reaches the street side | 2,000 square feet at $1.25 to $3.50 | $2,500 to $7,000 |
| Reshaping a 3,000-square-foot back yard on a flat lot | 3,000 square feet at $1.25 to $3.50 | $3,750 to $10,500 |
| A regrade along the house, plus a catch basin at the new low point | 1 project at $1,000 to $4,000, plus 1 basin at $500 to $1,500 | $1,500 to $5,500 |
New sod or seed adds its own line to each of these. The catch basin cost guide explains how the basin part is priced.
Your neighbor’s yard and your slope
A regrade can’t send water onto the lot next door. Texas Water Code section 11.086 bars diverting or impounding the natural flow of surface water in a way that damages another’s property, and Plano’s manual says the same for lot grading.
So we shape the slope toward the street side or an approved swale, never toward the fence line. If water arrives from a higher neighbor, the guide to neighbor water runoff in Texas covers your options.
From the estimator to a measured price
The drainage cost estimator gives a planning range from the kind of problem and the lengths you enter. A regrade depends on levels a form can’t see, so treat its figure as a starting point.
The written estimate after the visit sets your price, once we have shot the levels and checked the soil. For other jobs, see drainage cost in Plano. To talk through your yard, call (469) 551-8518 or send photos through the form below.