Land Clearing and Dirt Work in Conroe and Tomball, TX

Equipment and operator run $50 to $200 per hour depending on the machine, with most residential work at $75 to $150. By project: simple yard leveling is $500 to $1,500, drainage regrading $1,000 to $4,000, and full site preparation for construction $2,500 to $10,000 and up. Fill dirt is $25 to $50 per cubic yard delivered and spread, topsoil $35 to $65. We provide free on-site estimates.

Leveling smooths an uneven surface — filling dips, ruts and settled trenches so the ground is flat and mows properly. Grading establishes a deliberate slope, normally one to two percent away from the house, so water runs where you want it. Most people ask for leveling when what their yard actually needs is grading. A perfectly level yard on clay holds water everywhere instead of in one place.

Water standing against the foundation after rain, puddles that last for days, a lawn that is thin in the same places every year, or trenches and low spots that keep reappearing. The clearest test is to watch where water goes during a heavy storm. If it moves towards the house, or sits without moving at all, the grade is the problem and no amount of drainage hardware substitutes for fixing it.

Most residential projects are one to three days. Simple leveling is often a single day; a full regrade with imported fill and compaction takes two to three. Site preparation for construction runs longer and depends on how much material has to move. Wet ground stops everything — saturated Beaumont clay cannot be compacted properly, and working it wet damages the structure of the soil.

It depends on the job. Clean structural fill for building up low areas, pads and anything carrying load — it has little organic content by design, which is what makes it stable. Screened topsoil for anything that has to grow: lawns, beds and planting areas. Where a build or a geotechnical report specifies select fill, we source to that specification. Using fill where topsoil belongs is a false economy that shows up the first season.

Minor residential leveling and lawn preparation generally does not require permitting. Significant grading that changes drainage patterns, work in a floodplain, and site preparation for construction usually do — Montgomery County and the municipalities within it have their own thresholds. Covenanted communities including The Woodlands may require review for visible changes. We check before starting, because grading that has to be reversed is the most expensive kind.

Grading disturbs the surface by definition, and the area worked will need resodding or seeding afterwards — that should be in the quote rather than a surprise. Irrigation is the real risk: lines run at exactly the depth a grader works, so we locate and mark the system before starting and cap or relocate what is in the way. Discovering the lines with a blade is expensive and entirely avoidable.

Usually one of three things: the builder graded to a rough finish rather than a surveyed fall and it was never corrected, settlement over several years pulled the soil near the foundation down faster than the rest of the lot, or a later addition — a patio, a bed, a driveway extension — was built without checking what it did to the existing fall. We start with a laser survey rather than guessing which of the three it is, because the fix is different depending on the cause: a full regrade, a targeted fill-and-shape at the problem section, or correcting whatever was added last.

More than most people estimate, because volume grows quickly with area. As a rough guide, covering 1,000 square feet to a depth of three inches takes about nine cubic yards. We measure the area and the depth required during the site visit and quote the actual volume rather than a guess — and we allow for compaction, since loose material loses noticeable volume once it is properly compacted in lifts.

Yes, and the two usually belong together. Clearing brush, scrub and stumps opens the lot; grading afterwards is what makes it usable. Clearing without regrading leaves you with an open area that still holds water and still cannot be built on or planted. We price them as one job where both are needed, which is also cheaper than mobilizing equipment twice.

Two percent away from the structure is the working minimum, which is about a quarter-inch drop per foot. Less than that and Beaumont clay holds water against the slab long enough to matter. More than five percent starts to scour in heavy rain and needs stabilizing. Getting that band right is most of what grading is for, and it is set before anything is built on top.

Sometimes, and it is worth checking before paying for both. A lot with room to shed water at the surface often needs only a correct grade — drains are hardware for the cases where grading alone cannot reach a discharge point, such as a landlocked low corner or a slab surrounded on every side by higher ground. We survey first and recommend a drain only where the levels genuinely require one, not as an automatic add-on to every regrade.