How much does yard grading cost?

Grading is priced by how much dirt has to move and how hard it is to move it — not by square footage.

On its own

Job	Typical
Regrade a problem area (a corner, a strip)	$800–$2,000
Regrade a full residential back yard	$1,500–$4,000
Regrade + import/export significant soil	$3,000–$6,000
Regrade + French drain	$4,000–$10,000

The cost drivers

Volume of soil

Cutting a high spot and filling a low one is cheap if it balances. Bringing in 20 yards of topsoil, or hauling out 20 yards of clay, is trucks and tipping fees.

Haul distance and access

If the Bobcat drives straight from the street to the back yard, spoil and soil move fast. If everything goes through a narrow gate by hand, labour doubles.

Whether it's standalone

Grading on its own means a mobilization — getting the machine and crew there for a small job. Done as part of a sod install or lawn replacement (see that cost breakdown), the machine's already there, so the grading is close to at-cost.

Restoration

After grading, the disturbed ground needs sod or seed. That cost rides along.

Why we own the machine

Most landscapers sub out grading, which adds a subcontractor's margin. We run our own Bobcat MT100 and trailers, so grading is our own crew on our own schedule — and we can price it honestly.

The City's standard, and why it matters for cost

Calgary's lot-grading standard calls for about 2% fall — roughly 2 cm per metre — away from the house for the first few metres. Grading to that standard, once, with a laser level to confirm it, is the cheap way to solve a drainage problem. Grading to “looks flat enough” and hoping it drains is the expensive way, because it's the same crew and machine coming back in two years when it doesn't.

Why a DIY regrade usually costs more in the end

A rented mini skid-steer for a weekend looks like the cheap option. The hard part isn't moving the dirt — it's knowing exactly where the water needs to go and hitting a real, consistent fall the whole way there without a laser level to check it. We get called to redo a fair number of do-it-yourself regrades that looked right by eye and still pooled the first time it rained hard, which means paying for the dirt work twice.

A worked example

A typical back yard with one soggy corner and an otherwise reasonable grade: cut and re-slope that section, correct the low spot with a bit of screened topsoil, restore with sod. That's the top row of the table above — $800–$2,000. A whole yard that runs the wrong way, needs real fill brought in, and gets re-sodded end to end lands in the $1,500–$4,000 row. Add a French drain because part of the lot genuinely has nowhere to drain, and the number moves into the $4,000–$10,000 row — grading and drainage priced as two real jobs, not one padded one.

Timing and cost

Grading runs later into the year than sod — we do dirt work until the ground freezes hard, well past the sod season's early-October cutoff. That gives a grading-only job more scheduling flexibility than one tied to a sod install, but it doesn't usually change the price; the cost comes from soil volume and access, not the calendar.

FAQ

Is grading a permit issue in Calgary?

Grading within your own lot to correct drainage generally isn't. Changing the lot's overall drainage pattern, or affecting a neighbour, can be. We build to the City's lot-grading standard.

Can I just add topsoil to the low spots?

Topdressing a shallow dip, maybe. But piling soil on a lawn that slopes the wrong way just moves the problem — the grade has to be re-cut.

Does grading in fall cost less than spring?

Not usually — the cost comes from soil volume and access, not the season. Fall can be easier to book since it's outside the spring sod rush.

Can grading fix a wet basement?

It helps by keeping surface water away from the foundation, but a wet basement itself is a foundation or weeping-tile issue — that's a different specialist's job. We do the yard side.