Have you tried Hartwell's in Lewisville, Mel. I am not certain of the extent their landscaping goes .... ie, whether it includes grading or not. Guess it would be worth a call though.

Thanks Carrie.

I'm on my way out the door to go see them now. They were on my list to start with. :)

I stopped in at Lantana Gardens just now, and the lady there gave me a name of a guy to call.
Hubby has one other company recommended to him who we'll call on Monday.

That should give us at least 4 to chose from.

I have used Hartwell's and would recommend.

Thanks pkvir,
The guy they recommended is supposed to come today.

Do you live in a subdivision? If so, there was a grading plan for your lot as part of the subdivision plans. You can go to the city and get a copy of it and give it to the contractor as a go by.

A word of warning: landscapers are not grading contractors. Getting your property to drain adequately requires a slope of no less than 1%. The contractor should hire a surveyor to shoot elevations on your whole property, including the house foundation, then have a licensed engineer do a grading plan (if you don't have an existing grading plan on file at the city). You will have to get a grading permit from the city also - be sure that's included in the cost.

Good luck.

I forgot to mention that erosion control measures will be needed too. You don't want to get in trouble with the city or your neighbors. Make sure that the grading plan shows the ground sloping AWAY from your house on ALL SIDES. The swale that collects the flow of water should be at least 10 feet away from your house - but the further the better.

One last thing, if you have a subdivision grading plan but don't like the way it works in your yard (landscaping can change the original design concept) be sure that you are not altering where the water exits your property or you could cause flooding downstream where it wasn't a problem before. Neighbors can sue over these kind of issues.

Dallasblooms,
Yes, we're in a 10 year old subdivision. Thanks for your insight. I called the city engineers out last week. I wanted to be sure we were doing things by the book or better. I didn't want any surprises so I insisted they send someone out to look at what was going on and advise us.

The guy brought the grading plan for our subdivision which he left it with us. He looked it over and said all we need to do is re create the original swale. He told us we don't need a permit but might need some kind of permit to allow equipment to cross the sidewalk unless they use the driveway to access. He is checking on that and will let us know.
He mentioned the silt fence, hubby already knew about this part. He didn't use the term re grading, which tipped me off on how to write the proposal to the HOA. :) /WINK.

What we can't figure out is if previous owners filled in the original swale or if Mother Nature did it slowly over time..doesn't matter we have to fix it either way, and do it better than what was originally done.

Landscapers are not going to be doing this work. We started with them to get an over all plan and connect with the proper contractors to do the earth moving part. The landscapers will lay out and prep the new beds since I am no longer physically able to do that kind of work.

The project is moving a lot more slowly than I had hoped but we're getting there. :)
My goal is for the work to be completed and new sod in place before the spring rains arrive. So, for now we're on schedule.
Once the plan is written down, I will submit to the HOA and the city if need be. Since part of the plan involves new fencing we'll at least need a permit for that.

This week, the gutters are being re placed with larger ones and more down spouts, to dump the water along the sides and towards the front of the house instead of out into the back yard. Everyone who has taken a look tells us that will make a tremendous difference with the amount of water needing to be directed out of the back yard towards the street, and be a good place to start.
The neighbor's along both sides are aware and very agreeable to the plans to improve drainage, which will help with their drainage issues as well.

I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
I can start my winter sowing, since I'll have all the beds I want finished in time to plant this spring! :)

Thank you for bringing up the original drainage plan,
if I hadn't called the city engineer's office I wouldn't have known one existed or that I could have a copy of it.

Hubby and the city engineer guy didn't think we needed any surveying done. They both seemed to think it was pretty cut and dried where and how much swale is needed as did the dirt mover guys who came out to give us estimates.

I still can't picture what this is going to look like.

I know this is going to be so great for you, Mel, when it is all completed and you can get started on filling in your beds with plants. Good luck on getting it completed in a timely fashion....... you have done a great job.

Thanks Carrie,
You know I've been dreaming about a bigger yard and more flower beds IN THE SUN for a very long time. Thankfully I still have more than enough shade beds as well.

You still need to come visit me. Maybe this down time of the year will be a good time for you to come have lunch?

Melvalena,
Glad to help. Also glad that you don't have to get a grading permit. Seems reasonable since all you are doing is putting the grade back where it was - if it worked before it should work again! Also very glad your neighbors are happy. So many posts on this forum have been about neighbor issues it's nice to hear about happy ones :)