Grading Contractor — Hendersonville & Middle Tennessee
Grading is the least visible work on a property and the work that determines whether everything else holds up. Water goes where the ground tells it to go. If the ground around a house slopes the wrong way by an inch, water goes into the crawlspace — and no amount of gutter work, sump pumping, or sealing fixes a grading problem, because the water is being delivered to the foundation by the shape of the earth.
The same is true on the construction side. A pad that was not compacted in lifts settles under load. A driveway with no crown holds water in the wheel tracks until the base pumps out from under it. A lot that was rough graded and never finish graded shows every rut and windrow through the lawn for years. Grading is where the money either gets spent correctly once or gets spent repeatedly on symptoms.
Dunnebacke Constructors is a grading contractor based in Hendersonville, working across Sumner, Davidson, Robertson, Wilson, Montgomery, and Williamson counties — Hendersonville, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, White House, Springfield, Portland, and the surrounding area. We grade for drainage first, because drainage is what we do, and a grading contractor who does not think about water is just moving dirt around.
Our Grading Services
Yard Regrading for Drainage
Reshaping ground so water moves away from the house instead of toward it. This is the fix for wet crawlspaces, soggy low spots, and water standing against a foundation after every rain.
Building Pad Preparation
Cut, fill, and compacted pads for houses, additions, shops, barns, and outbuildings — built to elevation and compacted in lifts so what goes on top of it has something to sit on.
Driveway Grading & Base
Grading and base preparation for gravel and concrete driveways, with the crown and cross-slope that keeps water shedding off instead of pooling and undermining the edges.
Lot Leveling & Cut/Fill
Taking an uneven or sloped lot and reshaping it into usable ground — balancing cut and fill on site where possible so you are not paying to haul dirt in or out.
Swale & Slope Shaping
Defined drainage channels and stable slope angles that carry water at controlled velocity — fast enough to move, slow enough not to erode.
Finish Grading
The last pass before seed, sod, or concrete. Smooth, consistent, free of the ruts and windrows that a rough grade leaves behind and that show through a finished lawn forever.
When You Need a Grading Contractor
Water Is Standing Against the House
The single most common call we get. Water pooling along a foundation wall, a wet crawlspace after every rain, a persistent soggy strip down one side of the house. Nearly always this is negative grade — ground that slopes toward the structure rather than away from it, either because it was built that way or because settlement and years of mulch and landscaping fill built it up over time. The general standard is a fall of roughly six inches over the first ten feet out from the foundation. A surprising number of houses in this area do not have it.
You Are Building and Need a Pad
House, addition, shop, barn, pole building, detached garage. The pad has to be at the right elevation relative to the surrounding ground and the drive, it has to be built up in compacted lifts rather than dumped and rolled once, and it has to shed water away on all sides. Getting this right is cheap. Fixing a settled pad after a slab is on it is not.
The Driveway Holds Water
Gravel driveways need a crown and defined edges or the base migrates and you are adding stone every year. Concrete and asphalt drives need cross-slope and a place for the water to go at the low end. A driveway that holds water is a driveway that is slowly destroying its own base.
Before Sod, Seed, or Landscaping
Finish grading before establishing turf is the difference between a lawn that mows flat and one that has a permanent memory of every tire track from the construction phase. It is also the last practical chance to fix drainage before it is buried under something you paid for.
The Lot Is Not Usable As-Is
Sloped or uneven ground that needs to become a yard, a pasture, a building site, or a place to put a shop. Cut and fill, balanced on site where the volumes work out, so you are not paying haul-off on one end and import on the other.
Site Preparation & Preconstruction
Site prep is everything that happens between a raw or cleared lot and a site a builder can work on: establishing access, setting up erosion control, stripping and stockpiling topsoil, rough grading to design elevations, cutting and compacting the pad, and getting drainage and any required silt fence or construction entrance in place before the first load of material shows up.
On the preconstruction side, the most valuable thing we do is walk a property with you before anything is committed and tell you what the dirt work is actually going to involve. Where is the rock likely to be. Where is water currently moving and where will it move once this is built. Does the cut and fill balance or is somebody paying for import. Is there an access problem that is going to make every subsequent trade more expensive. That conversation is free, and on more than one occasion it has changed where a building ended up sitting — which is a much cheaper change to make on paper than after footings are in.
We are a dirt contractor, not a surveying firm — if your project needs a boundary survey, a topographic survey, or stamped engineering, that comes from a licensed surveyor or engineer, and we work from their drawings. What we provide is the practical read on what the site will cost to build on.
Our Process
Free On-Site Assessment
We walk the property and read the existing grade — where water is entering, where it is collecting, where it is leaving, and what the ground is actually doing versus what it looks like it is doing. Most drainage complaints have a grading cause that is visible in ten minutes on site.
Specific Plan and Written Estimate
You get a plain-language explanation of what we will cut, what we will fill, where the water will go when we are done, and what it costs. If the cut and fill do not balance and material has to move, that is in the number, not discovered later.
Cut, Fill, and Compact
We strip and stockpile topsoil where it is worth saving, move material to design grade, and compact fill in lifts rather than in one push. Pads and structural fill get compacted properly because that is the part nobody can inspect once it is buried.
Finish Grade, Seed, and Straw
Final pass for a smooth, consistent surface, then seed and straw on everything disturbed. We do not leave bare graded soil exposed through the next rain — that is how a finished grading job turns into an erosion job.
Owner on every job. Austyn Dunnebacke personally assesses and works every project. You are not dealing with a salesperson and a crew you have never met — the same person who looks at the work is the one who does it.
How Much Does Land Grading Cost?
Pricing on this kind of work is job dependent. Every property is different — the price comes down to how much material has to move, access, whether dirt has to come in or go out, and whether the cut runs into rock — so we don't publish price ranges that may not fit your job.
We're happy to give a free quote to anyone interested. Call (615) 887-1194 or request a free estimate — we'll come look at the property, tell you what's going on, and give you a specific price before any work begins. No obligation.
Grading, Permits, and Your Neighbors
Grading changes where water goes, and where water goes is a legal question as well as a practical one. Sending additional concentrated runoff onto an adjoining property is how a drainage fix becomes a dispute. We grade to solve your problem without creating one next door — which sometimes means the answer involves a swale, a pipe, or a detention area rather than simply pushing the water across the line.
Land disturbance permitting varies by jurisdiction and by how much ground is being disturbed. Sumner County, the City of Hendersonville, Gallatin, White House, Springfield, and Robertson County each have their own thresholds and requirements, and larger disturbances can trigger state stormwater requirements. Check with the codes department for your jurisdiction before a substantial grading project — we will tell you when we think a job is in the territory where that call needs to be made.
Areas We Serve
We work throughout Middle Tennessee, with quick response times across Sumner, Davidson, Robertson, Wilson, Montgomery, and Williamson counties.