Regrade the bowl before you bury a pipe in it.

O’Fallon Quality Drainage treats finish grade as the first drainage tool. Pair this page with swale installation, French drain installation, and the permit field note.

Reading the existing surface as a watershed

A hose, a rain event, or a simple string line can show whether the lawn falls to the house

A hose, a rain event, or a simple string line can show whether the lawn falls to the house. Settled fill around new construction often creates a backyard saucer. Photographs from the street and from the rear lot line tell different stories. Collect both.

Mark fixed constraints before deciding where soil can move: steps, basement windows, patios, fence footings, mature roots, utilities, and the available outlet. Grade is not a decorative slope drawn in isolation. A change at the back fence can alter how water reaches a side gate or a neighboring low point.

Positive drainage away from the foundation

The soil next to the wall should fall away, then keep falling toward a legal low point

The soil next to the wall should fall away, then keep falling toward a legal low point. Piling decorative mulch against siding reverses that. So does a patio poured higher than the weep holes or door threshold.

Fill, cut, and settlement on new plats

Sod on a still-soft bowl

New sod on a dish looks finished until the first storm. Shape first, then restore.

Existing yards can include cut-and-fill and later settlement. A regrade should address the surface that is actually present, not assume a subdivision history. Ask whether the proposal is a thin dressing of topsoil or a shaped cut-and-fill with compaction appropriate to a yard, not a road.

The proposal should identify where spoils go, where imported material would be placed, and how new elevation meets existing hardscape. A vague promise to ‘add dirt’ can leave a high edge at a fence, bury a cleanout, or move the low spot to a patio. The desired flow path should be visible before sod or seed hides it.

Confirm City of O’Fallon grading review before importing fill

Review the current City of O’Fallon Engineering process before importing fill or changing a water path

Review the current City of O’Fallon Engineering process before importing fill or changing a water path. The applicable threshold and application path can depend on the parcel and scope, so they belong in the proposal rather than in a generic webpage rule.

Smaller earthwork can still raise questions about storm connections or floodplain work. Do not treat a rough quantity estimate as a free pass.

Swales that move water without a buried pipe

A shallow swale along a lot line can carry sheet flow if there is room and a place to release it

A shallow swale along a lot line can carry sheet flow if there is room and a place to release it. See swale installation. A swale that dead-ends at a fence is another pond.

Sod, seed, and irrigation after regrade

Restoration is part of grade

Restoration is part of grade. Irrigation heads reset to the new surface, or they geyser and erode the work. Seed on clay crusts; sod has a different establishment cost. Write the restoration method down.

Walk the restored yard after its first normal watering as well as after rain. A sprinkler aimed at a newly shaped swale can cut a rill that a storm would not. Record whether irrigation adjustment, topdressing, or a small restoration repair is part of the original scope, rather than treating turf loss as a separate surprise.

Coordinating grade with a French drain

Sometimes the honest scope is six inches of regrade plus a short collector, not 200 feet of pipe in the old bowl

Sometimes the honest scope is six inches of regrade plus a short collector, not 200 feet of pipe in the old bowl. Ask the proposal to show both options. Census density at O’Fallon QuickFacts explains why lots are tight, not which option wins.

Where a collector remains necessary, establish the intended finish grade first. Then place inlets, cleanouts, and the outlet relative to that finished surface. This avoids a common sequence failure where a drain is buried correctly for the old yard and becomes too high, too low, or inaccessible after the regrade.

Send a grading sketch with your contact request. A nearby Wentzville parcel still needs its own surface and outlet review. Include grades at the wall, the low point, hardscape edges, and the proposed release, plus a note identifying where existing irrigation, fences, and utilities constrain the work. Compare grading quotes by earthwork limits, spoils handling, finished elevations, restoration, irrigation adjustment, and a first-storm review. Exclude foundation repair, public connection approval, and any claim that a new lawn alone proves drainage performance. A useful field note identifies the reference surface used to judge each grade: a threshold, patio edge, walk, or fixed stake. It also distinguishes a deliberate low point from a settlement depression. That distinction matters when a quote proposes adding soil, because adding material at the wrong edge can block a side-yard escape route while making the center appear higher. Ask how the finished grade will tie into existing fence gates, window wells, steps, and paved edges. Those transitions often determine whether surface water can continue on the intended route. Before restoration, walk the shaped surface with a hose or after a modest rain and note where flow stalls, crosses a path, or heads toward the wall. A closeout record should state what was observed, which touch-up is included, and which future settlement or landscape changes are outside the grading scope. That gives the owner a way to compare a later wet spot with the completed surface instead of assuming every future water issue is a buried-drain defect.