What Is a Grading Plan?

The civil engineering plan that shapes your site — cut, fill, drainage, and everything the grading contractor needs.

Every Site Starts Flat on Paper

Before any concrete gets poured, before any framing goes up, someone has to figure out how to shape the dirt so water drains properly, the building sits at the right elevation, and the driveway actually connects to the street. That "someone" is a civil engineer, and the document they produce is called a grading plan.

A grading plan is the civil engineering drawing that shows how to reshape your site — where to cut, where to fill, how to slope for drainage, and how to tie everything into the existing conditions around you. It's what your grading contractor uses to move dirt, what your building department uses to issue permits, and what the city inspector checks when verifying the work was done correctly.

If you're building on a flat lot with good drainage, the plan might be simple. If you're on a slope, or if you're adding significant square footage, or if you're dealing with poor drainage or existing trees — the plan gets more complex. But regardless of complexity, you need one, and it needs to be engineered.

What's on a Grading Plan

A complete grading plan includes everything needed to build your site correctly:

Need Grading Plans? We serve all of Southern California.

Why You Can't Just "Wing It" with Grading

We've seen contractors try to grade by eye, assuming they can just "make it work" without a plan. What happens? Water pools against the foundation. The driveway slope is too steep. The building pad is 6 inches too low and now the first floor is below grade. The building department red-tags the job and everything stops.

A grading plan prevents these problems by coordinating elevations across every element of your site before anyone starts moving dirt. It ensures your building drains properly, your driveway meets code, your retaining walls tie in at the right heights, and the finished product actually matches what was approved in plan check.

And here's the critical part: grading is expensive to fix after the fact. Moving dirt twice costs twice as much. Tearing out an incorrectly poured driveway and redoing it costs 10x what a proper plan would have cost. Getting it right the first time isn't just about permits — it's about not hemorrhaging money on avoidable mistakes.

When You Need a Grading Plan?

Common project types and triggers:

Common Questions

What clients typically ask about a grading plan?:

Ready to Move Forward?

We handle a grading plan? for projects across Southern California.

Tell us about your project and we'll send a proposal with scope, deliverables, and fee.