Anatomy of a grading plan
Before the first truck shows up, a drawing has already decided what gets cut, what gets filled, and where the water will go. Here is a precise grading plan, dissected sheet by sheet.
Who answers for what
A grading plan opens with accountability in writing: the owner's certificate, the statement of the engineer of work, and the soils engineer's certificate. Each block puts a named party on record for one piece of the work before any soil moves.
Engineer of work: the licensed civil engineer responsible for the design shown on the plans.
When something changes in the field, and something always changes, these blocks decide whose call it is and whose license is behind the answer.
Your contractor's rulebook
Columns of numbered notes set the conditions: when the city inspector must be called, what the rainy season requires, how dust and runoff must be controlled. They read like fine print, but they carry the force of your permit.
General notes: the standard conditions a city attaches to every grading permit.
Your contractor is bound to every line, including the 48 hour inspection notice. Many grading disputes trace back to a note nobody read.
Reading the squiggly lines
Every curving line connects points at the same elevation. Dashed lines are the ground as it exists today; solid lines are the ground we intend to build. Where dashed and solid pull apart is exactly where the earthwork happens.
Contour: a line of equal elevation; the closer together contours are, the steeper the ground.
Compare dashed to solid and you can read your future yard: what gets lowered, what gets raised, and how steep the result will be.
FF, TW, FG: the plan's vocabulary
Labeled numbers are sprinkled across the drawing: FF for finished floor, TW and BW for the top and bottom of a wall, FG for finished ground. Each one is an instruction, the exact height that surface must reach.
Spot elevation: a labeled point giving the exact finished height required at that location.
These numbers set how your project sits on the land: the slab height, the wall heights, the first step of the stairs. The grading contractor builds to them.
Cut, fill, and the trucks in between
The plan tallies every cubic yard: soil cut from the high side, soil placed as fill on the low side, and the difference that has to leave the site. Here that difference is 125 cubic yards of export.
Cut and fill: soil removed below today's grade (cut) and soil placed to raise it (fill).
Export and import are priced by the truckload. Where site conditions allow it, balancing cut and fill on site is one of the quieter ways good civil design holds down cost.
Where the water goes
Small arrows mark the direction every finished surface drains, and the percentages set minimum slopes. Roof water gets its own detail: downspouts discharge onto splash blocks and disperse away from the building.
Swale: a shallow graded channel that collects runoff and carries it where the plan directs.
Water moving toward a foundation is behind many of the problems we get called about later. The minimum gradients exist to keep it moving away instead.
A slice through your hillside
Where grade changes faster than a slope can stand on its own, a retaining wall takes over. The section cuts through the site to show it: the wall, the drain behind it, and how new grade ties back into old at a stable slope.
Cross-section: a side-view slice showing how the finished grade is actually constructed.
Walls are often the most expensive line on a grading project, and their design rides on the soils report from field guide No. 01.
The square footage you can't pave
New roofs and driveways shed rain that soil used to absorb, so the city requires an offset: a calculated share of the lot stays pervious and positioned to receive runoff. This plan dedicates 155 square feet, sized by formula.
Impervious area: any surface, like roofing or concrete, that sheds rainwater instead of absorbing it.
That dedicated area is recorded with your permit. Pave it over later and the city can require you to undo it. Plan your landscaping around it.
Empty boxes, then a permit
The bottom of every sheet carries a row of boxes waiting for signatures: planning, public works, the fire department, the water district. Beside them, the engineer's stamp puts a license behind every line of the drawing.
Plan check: the city's formal review cycle that ends with each department signing the plans.
An unsigned grading plan moves no dirt. The approval row is the finish line of design and the starting line of construction.
FOR: PROPOSED ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT
HILLSIDE LOT · RAMONA, CALIFORNIA · APN: SAMPLE
| SHEET INDEX | |
|---|---|
| C0.0 | COVER SHEET |
| C1.0 | GRADING PLAN |
| C2.0 | EROSION CONTROL PLAN |
| EARTHWORK DATA | |
|---|---|
| CUT / FILL | 146 CY / 21 CY |
| NET EXPORT | 125 CY |
TW TOP OF WALL
BW BOTTOM OF WALL
FG FINISHED GROUND
→ DRAINAGE FLOW
─ ─ EXISTING CONTOUR
── PROPOSED CONTOUR
| EARTHWORK CALCULATIONS | |
|---|---|
| TOTAL CUT | 146.1 CU. YD |
| TOTAL FILL | 21.1 CU. YD |
| NET EXPORT | 125.0 CU. YD |
QUANTITIES SHOWN ARE FOR PERMIT AND BONDING PURPOSES ONLY. CONTRACTOR SHALL VERIFY AND MAKE OWN DETERMINATION OF EARTHWORK VOLUMES.
ALL FILL TO BE COMPACTED TO A MINIMUM OF 90% RELATIVE COMPACTION PER THE PROJECT SOILS REPORT.
| CONSTRUCTION NOTES | UNIT | QTY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PROPOSED ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT | SF | 1,200 |
| 2 | RETAINING WALL (SEE SECTION A-A) | LF | 56 |
| 3 | 4" THICK PCC HARDSCAPE | SF | 740 |
| 4 | EARTHEN SWALE, 1% MIN | LF | 62 |
| 5 | DEDICATED PERVIOUS AREA (SD-B) | SF | 155 |
NO CONCENTRATED FLOW ONTO ADJACENT PROPERTY. ALL ROOF DRAINS DISCHARGE TO LANDSCAPE PRIOR TO LEAVING SITE.
DEDICATED PERVIOUS AREA (SD-B)
NEW IMPERVIOUS: 3,303 SF × 0.04 = 132 SF REQ'D
PROVIDED: 155 SF ✓
• ALL ROOF DRAINS AND NEW HARDSCAPE SHALL DRAIN TO THE DEDICATED PERVIOUS AREA PRIOR TO DISCHARGE FROM THE SITE.
• THE DEDICATED PERVIOUS AREA SHALL NOT BE PAVED, COVERED, OR MODIFIED WITHOUT A PERMIT FROM THE CITY.
• IMPERVIOUS AREA REPLACED: 638 SF (EXISTING ASPHALT, REMOVE AND REPLACE IN KIND).
| APPROVALS | |
|---|---|
| PLANNING | SIGN ____ DATE ____ |
| PUBLIC WORKS | SIGN ____ DATE ____ |
| FIRE DEPT. | SIGN ____ DATE ____ |
| WATER DISTRICT | SIGN ____ DATE ____ |
That's the grading plan: three sheets that choreograph every cubic yard.
A grading plan turns the soils report's recommendations into buildable instructions for one specific site: yours. Moment Engineering prepares both as one coordinated submittal.
New to the series? Start with Anatomy of a Soils Report.
Talk to Moment about your project