Combien coûte le nivellement d’un jardin ?

Regrading a yard reshapes the yard at ground level for aesthetic purposes, to promote water drainage, or to prepare the yard for projects like fences, retaining walls, or pools. Regrading a yard costs from $900 to $4,350, with an average regrading cost of about $2,600. Leveling a yard starts at $700 and ranges up to $4,100, for an average of about $2,400.

Cost Factors

Labor

Regrading a yard is a labor-intensive project. A professional landscaper will often use mechanical equipment that they already own or that they rent, such as aerators, compactors, hydroseeders, tractors, tillers, and trenchers. This will reduce labor costs, though equipment rental costs may be added to the cost estimate. 

Expect to pay from $50 to $100 per hour for labor to regrade a yard, with an average cost of about $75 per hour.

Land Clearing

The land must be cleared of all obstructions before the yard can be regraded. Trees, boulders, and structures need to be removed. On average, it will cost from $825 to $3,225 to clear the land before regrading. Removing trees costs about $650 per tree.

Surveying

The type of regrading project and its size may trigger the need for a land survey. The average cost of a land survey prior to regrading is about $500.

Fill and Topsoil

Fill dirt and topsoil replace graded areas of the yard and bring the yard up to its required height. Fill dirt costs an average of $10 per cubic yard and top soil—rich with organic matter, minerals, and nutrients—costs about $34 per cubic yard.

Sod

Sod, or turf, lets you roll out instant lawn on a regraded yard, without waiting seasons for seed to establish itself. Expect to pay an average of $1,800 to $1,900 to install new sod or turf in your regraded yard.

Hydroseeding

Hydroseeding accelerates lawn growth on recently regraded ground by applying a liquid mixture of seeds, binders, fertilizer, amendments, and water with hydroseeding machines. Hydroseeding costs about $0.14 per square foot, with a cost range of $0.07 to $0.20 per square foot.

Permits

Depending on local code and on the requirements of your community, you may need to obtain a permit to regrade or level the yard. Specific projects attached to the regrading may need to be permitted, as well. 

On the whole, building permits cost an average of about $1,300. As a nationwide average of all building permits, this cost includes higher priced permits for home-building. Permit costs for a smaller project like building a fence are around $55. 

Landscaping

Landscaping is usually necessary after regrading a yard since all features of the yard are stripped away before and during the regrading. 

Landscaping is the overall process of designing and beautifying a yard, including design, lawn seeding, turf installation, mulching, and grass aeration. It also includes peripheral projects like installing a gravel pathway, adding a garden pond, or building a retaining wall.

The cost of landscaping begins at $2,600 for a simple garden refresh, with a high cost of $13,700 for a complete overhaul. The average cost of landscaping is about $8,150. When the yard is completely regraded, expect to pay average-to-high costs for landscaping.

Retaining Walls

Building a retaining wall is often a necessary component of regrading a yard since the dirt that has been moved may mound up in other areas. An average retaining wall cost is $6,000, with a low cost of $3,000 and a high cost of $9,000.

French Drains

A French drain is often included in a yard regrading and landscaping project to relieve the yard of excess water. Prior to the final leveling, the trenches are dug and perforated drainage pipe is added to the trenches. The pipe is wrapped in fabric to prevent dirt from clogging the holes in the pipe. Then, gravel is added around and on top of the pipe.

The average cost to install a French drain is $5,000. On a linear foot basis, you will pay about $10 to $50 to install a French drain.

Cost by Project

Regrade Around Your House

Cracks, bowed foundation walls, and water intrusion in a home are often the result of improperly graded soil around the home. Regrading a strip of about 10 feet wide (or as wide as needed) to slope the soil away from the soil will help carry unwanted water away from the foundation. 

The cost to regrade the ground around the home’s foundation costs from $850 to $3,000, with an average cost of about $1,900.

Cost to Remove a Slope in a Yard

Slopes and hills in a yard can be inconvenient, making it difficult to relax, entertain, or to let kids or pets play. Even more important, slopes in a yard make it impossible to build structures like workshops or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), secondary living units located on the same property lot. 

Slope removal is one of the more complicated yard grading projects since it requires mechanical equipment and a great deal of soil is typically moved. Expect to pay from $1,000 to $5,000 to remove a slope in a yard.

Above-Ground Pool Leveling

It is vital to begin with a level, flat, and compacted space for installing an above-ground swimming pool. Expect to pay from $200 to $900 to prepare the ground for an in-ground pool.

Driveway Leveling

Before installing a gravel, asphalt, or concrete driveway, the ground will need to be graded and leveled to the builder’s specifications. The cost to level the ground for a driveway ranges from $500 to $3,600, with an average cost of about $2,000.

Leveling for Fences

The cost to level the ground for a fence is about $1.50 per foot or a total of close to $2,000 for most fences. Fences can often be installed on irregular ground, particularly fences with vertically aligned fence boards. So, it’s important to discuss this with the fence builder to see if this project is necessary.

DIY Cost

Regrading your own yard is possible for smaller areas or in service of other projects like building a fence or retaining wall. 

Hand tools like shovels, wheelbarrows, tampers, stakes, and strings are all that are necessary for fences or walls, or for sloping the soil away from the foundation or for leveling an area for a deck. These tools, if not already on hand, cost less than $200.

Tool rental services can supply larger equipment like plate compactors, stump grinders, wood chippers, and small hydraulic excavators.