Yard Grading & Drainage in Winnipeg
Correcting the grade and the drainage so water leaves the property instead of sitting against the house.
Grading is the least visible work we do and the most consequential. It decides where water goes, and on a Winnipeg property water is the thing that eventually breaks everything else.
Why This Matters More Here
Red River Valley clay does not drain. It holds water at the surface, swells as it takes moisture on, shrinks as it dries, and heaves when it freezes. Water that would soak harmlessly into sandy soil elsewhere sits on the surface here and goes wherever the grade sends it.
Send it toward the house and you get a wet basement, and eventually a foundation problem. Send it to a low spot with no outlet and you get a patch of yard that is unusable for six weeks every spring. Send it at the neighbour and you get a different kind of problem.
The Most Common Thing We Find
Negative grade against the foundation, on houses roughly ten to twenty-five years old.
When a house is built, the trench around the foundation is backfilled and the ground is sloped away. That backfill then compacts for years afterward. The slope flattens, then reverses, and water that used to run away now runs back toward the wall. Nobody notices because it happens a few millimetres a year.
It is one of the more worthwhile things to correct on a Winnipeg property and it is rarely expensive on its own.
What We Do
- Re-establish positive grade away from the foundation
- Eliminate low spots and standing water
- Cut swales to give water a defined route off the property
- Correct drainage before a patio, deck or sod goes in
- Site preparation and rough grading on new-build lots
- Trenching for downspout extensions and yard drains
On a New-Build Lot
New subdivisions hand over graded to a plan the developer and the City already approved, and that plan is how water moves across the entire block, not just your lot. Anything built afterwards has to keep it working.
That is not a constraint we fight. It is a starting point, and it means the grade is known rather than guessed at. We work from the plan.
Do This Before the Patio
If you are planning a patio, a deck or new sod, grading and drainage get sorted before any of it. Building over a drainage problem does not solve the problem, it just puts something expensive on top of it and makes the eventual fix harder.
We look at the whole property before quoting anything that sits on top of the ground.
What's Included
- Negative grade against the house corrected
- Low spots and standing water resolved
- Works with your lot's approved drainage plan
- Done before anything is built on top
Other Services We Offer in Winnipeg
Grading & Drainage Questions
Water pools in my yard every spring. Is that a grading problem?
Usually, and occasionally it is a soil problem instead. On Red River Valley clay, water does not soak away quickly, so it goes wherever the surface sends it. If the surface sends it to a low spot with no outlet, it sits there until it evaporates. Correcting the fall is what fixes that.
Why is water running toward my foundation?
Because the grade has settled. Most homes are built with the ground sloping away from the foundation, but backfill around a new house compacts over the first several years and that slope quietly reverses. It is extremely common and it is worth correcting before it becomes a basement problem.
Can I just add topsoil to fill the low spot?
Sometimes, for a shallow dip. But if the low spot has no route out, filling it moves the puddle rather than removing it. The question is always where the water is supposed to go, and that has to be answered before anything is added.
Do I need permission to change my drainage?
On a newer lot, effectively yes. Subdivisions are graded to a drainage plan the developer and the City approved, and your lot is part of how water moves across the whole block. Changes that send water onto a neighbour are a real problem. We work with the approved plan rather than across it.
Get a Free Grading & Drainage Quote
Tell us what you are thinking and we will come and look at the property. You get a written estimate and a defined scope before anything is committed.