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+1 (239) 359-8463Southwest Florida · Licensed and insured
Land Grading · Fort Myers, Lee County, FL
▸ Shape it once, properly
Land grading in Fort Myers: pads, driveway grade, drainage correction and finish grade, on new lots and on ground that was never shaped right the first time.
What grading actually is
Every graded site is the same three moves. What changes is how much ground has to move, where it comes from, and how tight the finished surface has to be.
Two stages, two prices
Most quotes that go wrong go wrong here. Ask which one you are buying — a site brought roughly to shape and a site finished to tolerance are different amounts of work and different amounts of money.
The ground is moved to within striking distance of the target: high spots cut down, low spots filled, the shape of the site established. This is where the cut and fill balance gets decided and where most of the machine hours go.
The last few inches, held to tolerance. Finish grade is what a slab, a driveway or a sod line actually sits on, and it is where the difference between a good site and a callback lives.
How the work gets judged
A site can look level and still be wrong. These are the checks that decide whether the grade holds up once there is a building, a driveway and a rainy season on it.
A grade that does not move water is not a grade, it is a shape. Fall away from the structure, swales that carry it off, and no low point where there should not be one.
The finished level has to be the one on the plan, and it has to still be there in a year. That is a compaction question as much as a shaping one.
A pad under a slab and a driveway under a concrete truck are different specs. The grade is built for what goes on top of it, not to a single default.
Grades meet roads, neighbours, existing structures and setbacks. Where they meet is where drainage problems and disputes start if the transition is wrong.
Bare graded ground erodes in one storm. Silt control and stabilisation are part of the job, not an extra line after the fact.
The ground here
Fort Myers is not one market. There is new construction on the edges where the job is a bare lot brought to elevation, and there are decades of established neighbourhoods where the job is correcting ground that was shaped before anybody thought hard about where the water would go.
The second kind is more common than people expect, and it is different work. You are grading around an existing house, mature trees, a driveway you are not allowed to disturb and a neighbour whose lot drains onto yours. The target is not a plan elevation; it is a route for the water that does not create a new problem forty feet away.
Everything here drains toward the Caloosahatchee basin eventually, through swales and canals that were built to a design. Ground that dumps more water into that system than its share is ground that floods somebody, which is why the tie-in matters as much as the pad.
What we grade in Fort Myers
Reshaping ground that ponds, sheds toward the house or never had a swale. The most requested grading work in the established parts of Fort Myers.
The pad shaped and compacted to the elevation the plan calls for, and checked before anyone pours on it.
Fall across the drive so water sheds instead of standing, and a base that holds up under delivery trucks rather than rutting on the first wet week.
The contours that carry water off the lot and away from the structure, tied into wherever the water is supposed to go.
The last pass, held to tolerance so sod lays flat, irrigation sits right and the yard drains instead of ponding.
Bare lots brought to plan elevation and compacted, ready for the builder to mobilise onto without fixing anything first.
Coverage
Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, San Carlos Park, Estero and Lehigh Acres, from our Naples base — the same crew and the same scope discipline on every job.
Owner-operated crew · Licensed and insured · +1 (239) 359-8463
Before you call
Usually, and it is the most common grading call in Fort Myers. Standing water is nearly always a shape problem — no fall away from the structure, a swale that was filled in or never cut, or settled fill that created a low point. What matters is where the water goes once it moves, so we walk the whole route before quoting.
Yes, and it is a large part of the work here. Fixed points narrow how the grade can be shaped and change which machine can work, so it takes longer than a bare lot. It also means the scope has to be walked, not estimated from a drawing.
Rough grading moves the bulk and establishes the shape. Finish grading is the last few inches held to tolerance — what a slab, driveway or sod line actually sits on. They are separate stages and separate money, so it is worth asking any quote which one it covers.
Not if it is done properly, and that is exactly why the tie-in matters. Water has to reach a swale, inlet or route that is designed to take it. A grade that solves your yard by moving the problem next door is not a solution, it is a dispute.
For anything permitted or built to an engineered plan, yes — grading to a plan is only as accurate as what it is set out from. For drainage correction on an existing yard we can usually work from the site and what the water is actually doing.
It varies with area, how much material has to move, access, and whether anything has to be worked around. That range is why we walk it rather than quoting by the square foot. What you get is a written scope with the assumptions in it, so you can compare it against anyone else.
Shaping — swales, contours, fall — is grading and it is what we do. Pipe, inlets and structures are separate scope and belong on their own line so you can see what each part costs.
Often, with adjustments. Freshly graded ground is vulnerable to a summer storm, so some jobs are sequenced differently or stabilised sooner. We tell you when waiting would give a better result for less money.
Hector TractorNaples, FL · +1 (239) 359-8463
Tell us the address and what needs to happen. You get a clear scope, a real schedule and one crew that owns the work.
