Permits and Site Planning
When You Need a Retaining Wall Permit and an Engineer
You want to cut a level spot into a sloped yard and hold the bank with a block wall, and the contractor says it can start...
Civil engineer and drainage writer
Marisela spent eleven years stamping site plans for a municipal engineering firm before she got tired of watching good drainage designs get value-engineered out of the final build. She writes about the gap between a stamped plan and what actually gets graded.
Permits and Site Planning
You want to cut a level spot into a sloped yard and hold the bank with a block wall, and the contractor says it can start...
Permits and Site Planning
You want to level a pad, raise a low yard or build a driveway, and then the county map shows a blue shaded area across half the...
Drainage and Runoff
Every heavy rain, water sheets off your neighbor's lot, crosses your side yard and pools against the back of your house or in...
Site Grading
A grading bid can swing by thousands of dollars depending on one number: how many cubic yards of dirt have to move.
Permits and Site Planning
You want to level the back of the lot right up to the fence line, and the contractor says you cannot cut within a few feet of...
Drainage and Runoff
There is a spot in the lawn that stays wet for three days after every storm, the grass has turned to moss, and the mower leaves...