Permits and Site Planning
Explaining a Grading Plan to Neighbors Who Are Not Engineers
A regrading project I worked on two years ago went sideways not because of the earthwork itself, but because of a neighbor...
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
A regrading project I worked on two years ago went sideways not because of the earthwork itself, but because of a neighbor...
Grading Equipment
Three quotes came in on a job I was competing for last year: mine, one close to it, and one nearly 40 percent lower than both.
Permits and Site Planning
I have stamped enough site plans to know exactly what a client is doing when they ask if the geotechnical report is really...
Permits and Site Planning
A stop work order is one of the more expensive pieces of paper you can receive on a residential grading project, and I have...
Slope and Erosion Control
The first real storm after a regrade is the moment of truth for any slope work, and it usually arrives before the vegetation...
Drainage and Runoff
I get called out to look at failed French drains more than almost any other complaint, and the pattern is depressingly...