Ottawa sits on clay. When a lot’s grading slumps toward the house – and after 15-20 years, most do – water sits against the foundation, drowns the lawn, and floods the window wells every thaw. Grading is the least glamorous work we do and the most consequential: it protects the house itself.
Grades corrected to slope away from the foundation and shed water off the lawn.
Low spots filled, settled trenches levelled, soil brought to proper depth.
Gravel-and-pipe drains that intercept and carry subsurface water away.
Collection points for the spots where water has nowhere to go.
Extensions and buried lines that get roof water away from the foundation.
Nothing else we do protects your biggest asset like grading does. Water directed at a foundation finds its way in – as a damp basement, as frost pressure on the walls, as ice on the walk. Correcting the grade so every surface sheds water away from the house is the foundation – literally – of every healthy Ottawa yard, and it is where any serious landscape redesign begins.
Wet yards have different diseases with similar symptoms: settled grading, compacted clay that will not absorb, a high water table, roof water dumped at the foundation, or a neighbour's runoff arriving uninvited. Each has a different fix – regrading, aeration and soil work, a French drain, downspout burial, or a swale. Our free assessment walks the lot after rain if possible, finds the actual cause, and quotes the fix that matches it.
Drainage projects with us end with a yard, not a scar. Once the water moves the way it should, we restore the surface – topsoil, fresh sod, and beds – so the only evidence of the dig is that the basement finally stays dry.
Simple regrading and topsoil work often lands in the low thousands; French drains, catch basins, and full-yard corrections commonly run $5,000-$30,000 depending on scope. The free assessment tells you which tier your yard actually needs – often it is less than homeowners fear.
The signs: water pooling against the house after rain, a spongy lawn days after everyone else's dried, icy sheets on the walkway every winter, or a musty basement each spring. If any of those sound familiar, the grade is the first suspect.
If the water is subsurface, yes – a properly built French drain intercepts it and carries it away. If the problem is surface grading, a drain alone is a band-aid; the grade needs correcting. We diagnose before we prescribe.
Yes – that is the advantage of a landscaping company doing the drainage. Once the water problem is solved, the same project can restore the yard with fresh soil, sod, and beds, so you are not left with a construction site.