Rough Grading to Spec in Austin & the Texas Hill Country

Graded to your plan, not just leveled.

Clear Ground cuts and fills residential lots to your engineered drainage plan in Austin and the Texas Hill Country. Rough grading runs $2,500–$8,000 per lot, with rock adding to the total. Most lots take one to three days on site. Finish grade is checked against your plan before we hand the site to the next trade.

Request a Quote Land Clearing Overview

What "graded to spec" means

Cut and fillTo the elevations on your plan

To Plan

DrainagePositive fall away from the structure

Per Plan

HandoffPhoto record to the next trade

Photos

Standard gradingEyeballed, hand-checked

By eye

$2,500–$8,000

Per lot

1–3 Days

Typical duration

48hr

Written quote after the walk

Plan

Your engineer's design governs

Service Overview

What is rough grading?
The grade your engineer
specified, checked.

Rough grading cuts and fills a cleared site to the engineered drainage plan. It sets the major contours and the subgrade before the foundation, pool shell or hardscape goes in. Finish grading is the fine work after construction: final topsoil, lawn prep and landscape grade. We do rough grading. A landscape contractor usually does finish grading. For the finish-grade, swale and corrective-regrade version of the work, see grading and drainage prep.

A level-looking lot and a lot that matches the plan are different things. We work from your plan's spot elevations, check the finished surface against them, and fix high and low spots before the next trade arrives.

The most efficient way to buy grading is bundled with lot clearing in one mobilization. Bigger pad-prep jobs with engineered fill go to site prep and pad prep.

What we check 01

Elevation to plan

Finished grade compared with the design elevations at the points your plan shows. High and low spots are found and corrected.

What we check 02

Drainage direction

Fall away from the structure, swale locations and retention areas checked against your plan. The residential code minimum is a fall of 6 inches in the first 10 feet (5 percent) on soil, per IRC R401.3. Your plan governs where it differs.

What we check 03

Cut and fill balance

Whether the lot has more cut than fill or the reverse decides if material must leave or come in. We work out the balance before we quote.

The Difference

Graded vs.
graded and checked.

Standard grading

Checked with a hand level and operator judgment

Drainage assumed, not measured

Nothing handed to the engineer

Next trade inherits the grade blind

Clear Ground rough grading

Graded to the spot elevations on your plan

Drainage direction checked against the plan

Photo record at handoff, optional drone topo scan

Written price from the site walk

Our drone scans measure surfaces, quantities and grades. They are not a boundary survey or a sealed survey by a licensed surveyor, and a drone cannot see below the ground surface.

How it works

HOW DOES A ROUGH GRADING JOB RUN?

1/4

BEFORE GRADING

STEP 1

WE READ THE PLAN AND WALK THE LOT.

We start from your engineered drainage plan: design elevations, flow directions, swales and retention features. We walk the lot, note existing grades and compare them with the plan to work out where cut and fill go. On larger lots an optional drone topo scan gives a surface model to run the numbers against. The volumes are estimated before we mobilize.

DRAINAGE PLAN · SITE WALK · CUT AND FILL ESTIMATE · OPTIONAL DRONE TOPO

Elevation model of a cleared lot with cut and fill areas shaded (illustration) — Illustration

2/4

GRADING

STEP 2

COMPACT RADIUS. GRADE TO PLAN.

The CAT 305.5E2 compact-radius mini excavator is the grading machine for residential and infill lots, since its compact radius lets it work close to structures, property lines and flagged root zones. The CAT 299D3 XE compact track loader spreads material. Swales, drainage slopes and retention areas are shaped to your plan.

CAT 305.5E2 · CAT 299D3 XE · SWALES · DRAINAGE SHAPING

Compact-radius mini excavator shaping a swale on a residential lot (illustration) — Illustration

3/4

CHECKING

STEP 3

CHECKED AGAINST THE PLAN.

On multi-day jobs we check elevations against the plan partway through, so a section running high or low is corrected in the current pass and not after the concrete truck is scheduled. Final checks use a laser level or rod at the plan's spot elevations. Tolerances come from your engineer's plan.

MID-JOB CHECK · FINAL SPOT ELEVATIONS · CORRECTIONS IN THE SAME PASS

Grade stakes and a laser level checking spot elevations on a graded lot (illustration) — Illustration

4/4

HANDOFF

STEP 4

THE SURFACE YOUR NEXT TRADE USES.

You get a walk-through and a before-and-after photo record. If you added a drone topo scan, you also get a surface model and cut/fill quantities, typically 2–3 business days after the flight. Your engineer still signs off on drainage compliance, and a sealed as-built comes from a licensed surveyor.

WALK-THROUGH · PHOTO RECORD · OPTIONAL SCAN · ENGINEER SIGN-OFF

Finished graded residential lot with a smooth pad and shaped swale (illustration) — Illustration

Pricing

How much does rough grading cost?
$2,500–$8,000 per lot.

Rough Grading to Spec

Rough Grading
to Spec

Cut and fill to your engineered drainage plan, with finish grade checked against the plan. For pool builds, infill construction and residential site prep. Most efficient bundled with lot clearing in one mobilization.

$2,500–$8,000 per lot

Residential lot · to $12,000+ with rock · Austin metro and Hill Country

Duration: typically 1–3 days · Size: under 1 acre residential lot
Equipment: CAT 305.5E2 mini excavator · CAT 299D3 XE compact track loader
Includes: site walk · cut/fill estimate · before-and-after photos

What Moves the Price

Grade change

A flat lot is a half-day job. A sloped Hill Country lot with four or more feet of fall means more material moved, more passes and more time.

Drainage plan complexity

A simple slope away from the structure is straightforward. Several flow paths, swales or retention areas take more machine time to shape and check.

Rock encountered

If grading hits limestone, the scope shifts to rock milling or hammer excavation. Rock can take the total to $12,000 or more. Deeper rock is flagged as a risk in the proposal.

Import or export

If the lot needs more fill than cut, material has to come in. If it has more cut than fill, material has to leave. Both add cost, and both are estimated before we mobilize.

Prices reviewed: September 2026. Ranges for Austin and Central Texas; your site walk sets the final number. See all pricing or the land clearing calculator.

Included in Every Job

Site walk and written quote

Cut and fill estimate from your plan

Grade check at handoff

Before-and-after photos

Operator and fuel

Typical Project Flow

Grading is usually phase three.

Site Walk

Existing conditions walked before any work

Lot Clearing

Vegetation removed, stumps grubbed

Rough Grading

Cut and fill to plan · You are here

Excavation

Pool shell, pad prep or foundation dig

Handoff

Photo record to the next trade

Equipment

The iron behind
the grade.

Grading & precision earthwork

CAT 305.5E2

Compact radius · Cut and fill · Swale formation

Compact-radius mini excavator with a hydraulic hammer, suited to tight residential and infill grading. Its compact radius lets it work close to structures, root zones and property lines. It is the main cut, fill and swale-shaping machine.

Material handling

CAT 299D3 XE

Compact track loader

Spreads and moves material, and clears vegetation with the mulching head when clearing and grading share a mobilization.

Optional topo scan

DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise

Surface model · Cut/fill quantities

Models processed in Pix4D; cut/fill checked in InSite Elevation Pro. RTK-corrected drone photogrammetry, checked against ground points on site. Our drone scans measure surfaces, quantities and grades. They are not a boundary survey or a sealed survey by a licensed surveyor, and a drone cannot see below the ground surface.

Who This Service Is For

Who needs rough grading
done to a plan?

Pool Builders

Your dig starts on a grade that has been checked.

The lot was cleared by someone else and the grade was eyeballed. We grade to the plan and check it before your crew mobilizes, so drainage is right before your concrete schedule is locked.

Typical pathway: Lot clearing → Rough grading → Pool shell excavation

How we work with pool builders →

Infill Developers

Keep the drainage review on schedule.

A failed drainage review adds weeks and carrying cost. We grade to your engineer's plan and give your engineer photos and, if you add a scan, a surface model to check compliance before submission.

Typical pathway: Clearing and grading bundled → Engineer review → Permit submission

How we work with developers →

General Contractors

Inherit a known grade, not a guess.

When you take a site over from a clearing contractor, the grade is usually undocumented. Our handoff records where the grade landed so your foundation, framing or landscape crew starts from something written down.

What you get: Grade check at handoff · Photo record
Optional cut/fill quantities from a drone scan

Frequently Asked

Rough Grading Questions

Rough grading sets the major drainage contours, cut and fill elevations and subgrade before the foundation, pool shell or hardscape. Finish grading is the fine work after construction: topsoil, lawn prep and landscape grade. We do rough grading. Landscape contractors usually do finish grading.

$2,500–$8,000 per residential lot, and rock can take it to $12,000 or more. Grade change, drainage complexity and import or export of material set the number. See pricing.

To grade to spec, yes. The plan is the spec, and we need the design elevations, flow directions and swale locations. Without a plan we can grade to general positive drainage away from the structure. That is not spec grading and it will not satisfy a drainage review. If your plan is still in progress, we can walk the lot now and have the quote ready when it is stamped.

Yes, and it is the most efficient setup. The loader clears while the excavator grades, with one mobilization and one walk-through. Bundling costs less than two separate visits.

We work out the balance before we quote. If the lot needs more fill than cut, material comes in. If it has more cut than fill and the excess cannot be spread on site, it goes out. Both are in the written quote before we mobilize. Clean dirt and rock are haul cost only, with no tipping fee.

The residential code (IRC R401.3) calls for a fall of 6 inches within the first 10 feet from the foundation on soil, which is 5 percent, and 2 percent on impervious surfaces. Your engineer's plan governs. We grade to what the plan says.

No. We check grade against your plan and give you photos, and an optional drone scan gives surface models and quantities. A sealed survey or as-built comes from a licensed surveyor.

The grade your engineer
specified, checked.

We read your plan, walk the lot and send a written quote. Written quote within 48 hours of the site walk. Call (512) 880-8888.