How much does land grading cost in Louisiana?

One national cost guide puts land grading and land leveling at $0.40 to $2.00 per square foot. The same guide prices regrading the average backyard at $1,000 to $5,000. Another guide averages yard leveling at $2,177, with most jobs between $1,022 and $3,332. A third prices a full acre at $15,800 to $44,535.

Those are market numbers, not our price list. In northeast Louisiana, the ground moves the price. Flat clay and heavy rain decide how much dirt has to move. Land grading here is mostly about giving water a way off the lot.

What does land grading cost per square foot?

Grading comes in two passes, and they price differently. Rough grading cuts down slopes and shapes the yard to drain. The first guide puts it at $1 to $2 per square foot. Finish grading smooths the top 1 to 3 inches, at $0.40 to $1.00.

Take a 30 by 40 foot back corner, which is 1,200 square feet. Rough grading it runs $1,200 to $2,400 at those rates. A finish pass over the same ground runs $480 to $1,200.

The third guide’s range starts lower, at 8 cents a square foot. The second guide says contractors price by the elevation change. The more the ground has to change, the bigger the bill.

What does a yard grading job cost, line by line?

Every row is a published market range, not our price list. Where you land depends on your yard and how much dirt has to move.

What does grading cost per acre?

The third guide puts grading an acre at $15,800 to $44,535, with a national average of $30,000. The first guide lands close, at $17,400 to $43,600 per acre. That matches its finish grading rate carried across the 43,560 square feet in an acre.

For lot grading, the first guide prices a quarter acre home lot at $4,400 to $10,900. It says most home grading jobs are a quarter acre or less. A fourth guide says multi-acre jobs usually carry a smaller fee per acre.

On a wooded tract, clearing comes first and adds to the cost. Our post on land clearing cost per acre covers that part of the bill.

What do fill dirt and topsoil add?

Grading is mostly cut and fill: dirt cut from the high spots builds up the low ones. The second guide says the fill you buy depends on what the yard can spare. It prices fill dirt at $5 to $30 a cubic yard. Topsoil goes on top and costs more, $12 to $55, because it is full of nutrients.

Raise a 30 by 40 foot low spot 6 inches and it takes about 22 cubic yards. At those fill prices, that is roughly $110 to $670 for the dirt alone.

We haul fill dirt and topsoil by the load and spread it with the skid steer. Building the ground up high enough for a slab is a different job, called a house pad.

Why does northeast Louisiana ground change the price?

Perry clay is a low backswamp soil, and its reference site in the soil survey is in Morehouse Parish. It is poorly drained, and water moves through it very slowly. On Perry ground, the slope of the yard has to carry the rain off.

Hebert silt loam is common on the old natural levees in Morehouse Parish. Its water table sits 1.5 to 3 feet down from December through April. The first guide says to skip grading in the rainy season, when loose topsoil can wash away.

The pine hills of Union, Lincoln and Webster parishes are different ground. Darley soils there sit on ridgetops and side slopes of 1 to 30 percent. Under a gravelly top is red clay, with ironstone layers most often 20 to 40 inches down. The first guide prices rocky soil at the high end, and steep slopes take more digging and fill.

An LSU AgCenter publication puts rain in most of Louisiana at 45 to 60 inches a year. A yard without enough fall holds that water after every heavy rain.

What does the code say about the grade around a house?

Louisiana’s residential code is the 2021 International Residential Code, as the state adopted it. It says lots shall be graded to drain surface water away from foundation walls. The grade must fall at least 6 inches within the first 10 feet. That is a 5 percent slope, and it is what grading around a house is for.

For a mobile home, the federal manufactured home installation standard asks for at least 1/2 inch of fall per foot. That runs for the first ten feet out from the foundation, 5 inches in all.

Where a lot line or a wall leaves no room for that fall, the code calls for drains or swales. Drain work is a job for another contractor. The first guide prices regrading one side of a house at $500 to $1,000. All the way around runs $1,000 to $3,000.

When does a survey or a permit enter the bill?

A survey earns its cost when the work runs close to a property line. The second guide puts one at $375 to $750. It says that can be money well spent if it keeps you off land that is not yours. The first guide adds that a recent topographic survey may be required before grading.

LDEQ’s small construction general permit covers work that disturbs 1 acre or more, but less than 5 acres. An acre is 43,560 square feet, about 209 feet on a side. Single jobs under 1 acre are not regulated by LDEQ.

The small permit calls for a written stormwater plan and a notice posted near the main entrance. It carries no permit fee. Inside a city or a flood zone, ask the local permit office first.

What will land grading cost on your lot?

Dupree’s Dirt and Excavation is based in Bastrop, and we grade yards, lots and acreage across northeast Louisiana. We cut the high spots and fill the low ones, then set the fall away from the house.

We run our own excavator, skid steer and dump truck. You or another contractor put down the sod or seed after we finish. French drains, retaining walls and drainage systems are another contractor’s work too.

We look at the site before we price it, and the estimate is free. Call (318) 614-2073, or read how we grade and level a yard for the full job.