Commercial Site Grading Across Texas and Oklahoma
Grading a commercial site to the elevations, slopes and tolerances the plans and specifications actually name, and handing it over with the survey and the test results that prove it. IRONWILL Earthworks grades commercial, industrial, multifamily and civil sites across Dallas-Fort Worth.
Short mobilization across the metroplex
Specified earthwork scopes only
Certificates on request
Grade held to the plan surface
Commercial grading for North Texas construction projects
A finished commercial grade is not a level surface, it is a set of numbers. Some of them are minimums the building code will not let you go under, some are maximums the accessibility standards will not let you go over, and a few of them apply to the same ten feet of ground outside a front door. Everything above it, the slab, the base, the paving, the storm system, is built off those numbers.
We build to the civil plans, the project specification and the geotechnical report, in that order of authority, and we sequence around the general contractor's schedule so the trade behind us starts on a surface it can work from. Our crews grade for GCs, developers, construction managers and owners with GPS machine control, and grade is checked in the field against the design surface with GPS and laser equipment.
Below: which slopes a commercial site has to hit and which way each one binds, who owns which part of the grade, what the finished surface is accepted against, and how the work sequences. If you have a plan set, send the grading sheets and the geotechnical report and we will walk the scope with you.
What the grading scope covers
Bulk earthwork to the design surface
Cutting the high ground and filling the low ground until the site matches the model, worked from the plan quantities and the conditions we actually find. The volume side of this work, including balance and haul, is set out in full on our mass grading page.
Building pad subgrade
Pads proof rolled, moisture conditioned and compacted in lifts to the density band the specification sets for that soil's plasticity, then graded to the pad elevation and tolerance on the plans3.
Paving subgrade and heavy-duty areas
Subgrade under parking fields, drives, fire lanes, truck courts and loading areas, prepared so the base course goes down on a surface that holds under a loaded axle rather than under a pickup.
Cut, fill and the surface in between
Material moved across the site to reach planned elevations instead of being trucked in or out. Plan quantities are the starting point; shrink and swell, unsuitable material and over-excavation move the real figure, and we flag that early rather than at the end.
Moisture conditioning and compaction
Wetting, drying, mixing and reworking soil into the moisture window, then compacting in lifts. On soil with a plasticity index above 15 the specification also tells us to hold the moisture within 4 percent of optimum after it passes, which is why finished subgrade gets protected rather than left open3.
Drainage, which is the grade
The scopes either side of grading
Clearing and stripping, topsoil stockpiling, excavation and erosion control, sequenced with the grade so the site moves through as one scope rather than four mobilizations.
Who designs the grade, who builds it, who certifies it
Four parties touch a commercial grade and only one of them is us. Knowing where each one's authority starts is what keeps a field disagreement from becoming a change order.
The plans and the geotechnical report set the requirements. The laboratory and the surveyor establish whether they were met. We are the party that makes the ground match.
Draws the design surface: proposed contours, spot and pad elevations, slopes, flow lines, drainage structures and the quantities. Also the party who resolves the conflict when a code minimum and an accessibility maximum land in the same ten feet.
Investigates the soil and sets the fill criteria: which materials can be reused, which have to leave, the density band and moisture window each one is built at, and whether the ground under paving has to be treated before anything goes on it.
We do not stamp grading plans and we do not certify our own grade. What we do is build to the design surface, keep the moisture and the protection on it after it passes, and raise a conflict before it is buried: unsuitable material, a flow line that will not drain, quantities that do not match the ground, a stall that cannot hold 1:48 at the elevation shown.
Where the grade binds, and which way
The apron outside a commercial entrance is the clearest case. The code says the ground has to fall away from the wall at 5 percent for the first ten feet2. The accessibility standards say an accessible parking space, its access aisle and the walking surface serving them may not exceed 1:48 in any direction1. Both apply to the same ground. The design resolves it, and the earthwork has to deliver a 5 percent fall and a 2 percent maximum within a few paces of each other.
| Where | The limit | Which way it binds | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground next to a foundation, first 10 feet | Not less than 1 vertical in 20 horizontal, a 5 percent slope away from the wall | A minimum. Flatter than this is a code failure | Building code, Section 1804.42 |
| A swale doing that job within 10 feet of the foundation | Not less than 2 percent | A minimum | Building code, Section 1804.42 |
| Paving within 10 feet of the foundation | Not less than 2 percent away from the building | A minimum | Building code, Section 1804.42 |
| An accessible parking space and its access aisle | Not steeper than 1:48, about 2.1 percent, in any direction, and the aisle level with the space it serves | A maximum. Steeper is a failure, and the tolerance exists to let it drain at all | ADA Standards, Section 502.41 |
| Cross slope of any walking surface on an accessible route | Not steeper than 1:48 | A maximum | ADA Standards, Section 403.31 |
| Running slope of a walking surface on an accessible route | Not steeper than 1:20 | A maximum. Past it the element is a ramp by definition1 | ADA Standards, Section 403.31 |
| A ramp run, once you are in ramp territory | Not steeper than 1:12 | A maximum, and it brings landings, handrails and edge protection with it | ADA Standards, Section 405.21 |
| Fill inside a mapped floodway | Not approved at all unless analyses by a registered design professional show no rise in flood levels in the design flood | A prohibition until it is engineered | Building code, Section 1804.529 |
Building pads
Compacted subgrade at the specified elevation is what the structural scope was scheduled against.
Paving
Parking fields, fire lanes and truck courts perform to the standard of the subgrade below the base, not the surface above it.
Utilities
Wet and dry utilities are set to depths measured down from finished grade, so the grade has to be right before they go in the ground.
Drainage
Flow lines and basin bottoms built to the plan are how the storm system performs at the volumes the drainage study assumed7.
Accessibility
Accessible routes and stalls are inspected against a maximum slope, so a pad built high by an inch can fail an element that was designed correctly1.
Sequencing
Grading releases utilities, paving and vertical construction. A grade that does not pass moves every date behind it.
Compaction
Fill placed inside its density band settles less. On fat clay the specification caps the density as well as setting a floor3.
Long-term performance
Stable subgrade and drainage that works are what the pavement and the site are still standing on in year ten.
How we grade a commercial site
The order shifts with the plan set, the phasing and the weather. What does not shift is that nothing gets covered until it has passed.
Read the plans against the specification
Grading sheets, quantities, pad elevations, the specification and the geotechnical report read together, with the accessible routes and stalls identified early, because those are the tightest tolerances on the site1.
Clear, strip and get controls in
Vegetation, debris and topsoil off to the specified depth, topsoil stockpiled where the plan reuses it, and erosion control installed ahead of the disturbance rather than behind it.
Move the bulk
Earthmoving to the design surface, balancing on site where the quantities allow and hauling only what the plan and the ground require.
Condition the moisture
Water in or material dried and reworked until the soil sits in the window the specification allows for its plasticity, which on the region's clay usually means at or above optimum rather than below it3.
Compact in lifts, inside the band
Lifts placed and rolled to the density range for that material's plasticity index, with the laboratory testing as the work proceeds and no more than one of the five most recent tests permitted outside the limits3.
Rough grade
The site brought inside rough tolerance of the design subgrade, with pads, paving areas, basins and drainage features taking their shape.
Fine grade to the stated tolerance
Pads, pavement subgrade, swales and flow lines tightened to the tolerance the job actually carries. In the state specification that is 1.25 inches for staged work and half an inch for turnkey work, measured both across the section and in 16 feet along it3.
What this region's clay does to a tolerance
Much of the metroplex is Blackland Prairie, and its signature soil is Houston Black clay: 40 to 60 percent clay, very slow permeability, high shrink-swell potential, opening cracks half an inch to four inches wide and a foot or more deep as it dries6. A surface built to half an inch of tolerance sits on material that moves with moisture, which is why the specification treats high-plasticity soil differently rather than applying one density to everything.
In the field it means placing clay at or above optimum moisture, keeping it there, protecting finished subgrade from rain and from traffic, and reworking rather than re-rolling material that has dried out past the 4 percent the specification allows3. Our article on North Texas clay soils goes through the geology behind that.
The grade changes with what is going on it
Commercial development
Retail, office and mixed-use, where accessible routes and stalls set the tightest slopes on the site1.
Warehouse and distribution, where truck courts and heavy pavement put the density band and the uniformity front and center.
Multiple pads and tight phasing, with drives that have to stay passable and drained through construction.
Public work graded, tested and documented to the owner's specification and its inspection regime.
Planning a North Texas development?
Send the civil plans, the geotechnical report, or just the address and the acreage. We will walk the earthwork scope with you and tell you what the tolerances on your plan set will take to build.
What commercial site grading is
Commercial site grading is the earthwork that brings a site to the elevations and slopes on the approved civil plans and prepares the subgrade under buildings and paving to the compaction the project specifies. It runs from clearing and stripping through cut and fill, moisture conditioning, compaction, rough grade and fine grade.
What makes a commercial grade different
Scale and load. Acres rather than parcels, carrying structures, loaded trucks and large paved areas.
Engineered drainage. Storm systems, inlets, swales and detention sized against regional criteria7.
Regulated slopes. Accessible routes and stalls carry maximum slopes that are inspected1.
Coordination. Plan review, inspections and sequencing against a live schedule with other trades on it.
Rough grading against fine grading
Rough grading
Moves the bulk of the material and brings the site within a coarse tolerance of the design subgrade. Most of the machine hours on an earthwork scope are here, which is why the quantity takeoff matters more than the finish at this stage.
Fine grading
Tightens the surface to the tolerance the specification names, and it is the surface the next trade builds on. Tolerances differ by job and by surface: the state specification alone distinguishes staged work at 1.25 inches from turnkey work at half an inch, measured across the section and in 16 feet along it3. Read the plan set rather than a rule of thumb.
| Check | The requirement | Measured by |
|---|---|---|
| Grade tolerance, staged construction | Within 1.25 inches in the cross-section and 1.25 inches in 16 feet measured longitudinally | Survey against the design surface |
| Grade tolerance, turnkey construction | Within 0.5 inch in the cross-section and 0.5 inch in 16 feet measured longitudinally | Survey against the design surface |
| Density, soil with a plasticity index of 15 or less | At least 98 percent of maximum dry density, with no moisture requirement stated | The laboratory, by in-place test5 against the curve from Tex-114-E4 |
| Density, plasticity index over 15 and up to 35 | At least 98 percent and not more than 102 percent, at or above optimum moisture | The laboratory45 |
| Density, plasticity index over 35, which is most fat North Texas clay6 | At least 95 percent and not more than 100 percent, at or above optimum moisture. The ceiling matters as much as the floor | The laboratory45 |
| Holding it once it passes | Moisture kept no lower than 4 percent below optimum where the plasticity index is over 15, and material reworked if stability, density, moisture or finish is lost | Us, continuously, until handover |
| Outliers | No more than one of the five most recent density tests outside the limits, and none outside by more than 3 pounds per cubic foot | The laboratory's running record |
Cut, fill and balance, in one paragraph
Cut is material taken off the high ground, fill is material placed on the low ground, and balance is reusing one as the other so that as little as possible arrives or leaves by truck. It is the largest single lever on an earthwork scope, and because it belongs to the volume side of the work rather than the finished surface, our mass grading page takes it apart properly.
What matters here is that the plan quantity is an estimate of the ground. Shrink and swell, unsuitable material, over-excavation and weather all move it, and the number that gets built is the one the survey measures afterward10.
Reading the grading sheets
The grading sheets in a commercial plan set generally carry these, and we read all of them before mobilizing:
Existing and proposed contours, spot elevations and pad elevations
Slopes, flow arrows, flow lines and drainage structures
The cut and fill map and the earthwork quantities
Erosion control and the stormwater plan details
Accessible routes, stalls and aisles, which carry the site's tightest slopes1
Geotechnical notes, subgrade treatment and compaction requirements
Phasing, where the site is released in stages
Commercial site grading, from Dallas-Fort Worth across Texas and Oklahoma
We grade commercial, industrial, multifamily and civil projects across Texas and Oklahoma, from infill parcels inside the loop to greenfield development on the edge of the metroplex and beyond it. Our crews and equipment are based in Dallas, so the team that reads your plan set is the one that shows up.
Regular work in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Garland, Frisco, McKinney, Denton, Prosper and Celina, and the communities around them.
Civil plans, including the grading sheets
Geotechnical report, if it has been issued
Site address and acreage
Target schedule and phasing
Access limits and any known site constraints
Commercial site grading FAQ
What is commercial site grading?
The earthwork that brings a site to the elevations and slopes on the approved civil plans and prepares the subgrade under buildings and paving to the specified compaction. What separates it from moving dirt is that every part of it is accepted against a stated number.
Which slopes are actually mandatory?
Two kinds, pulling opposite ways. The building code sets a minimum of 5 percent away from a foundation for the first ten feet2. The accessibility standards set maximums: 1:48 across a walking surface and in any direction on an accessible space or aisle, and 1:20 along a walking surface before it becomes a ramp1.
What is the difference between rough and fine grading?
Rough grading gets the site close on volume; fine grading brings the surface inside the tolerance the specification names. In the state specification that is 1.25 inches on staged work and half an inch on turnkey work3.
How does North Texas clay affect the grade?
It changes what compaction means. The region's Houston Black clay is 40 to 60 percent clay with high shrink-swell potential6, so the specification bands soil above 35 plasticity index between 95 and 100 percent of maximum dry density and asks for moisture at or above optimum, capping compaction rather than only setting a floor3.
Who verifies that the grade passed?
When does grading happen in the sequence?
After clearing, stripping and erosion control, and before utilities, paving and vertical construction. On a phased site it returns between phases as areas are released.
What do you need to scope a grading project?
Civil plans with the grading sheets, the geotechnical report if it is issued, the address and acreage, the target schedule and phasing, and any access constraints.
Can grading fill inside a floodplain?
Only where it has been engineered. In a mapped flood hazard area fill has to be placed, compacted and sloped to resist shifting, slumping and erosion as flood water rises and falls2. Inside an adopted regulatory floodway the federal criteria go further and require the community to prohibit fill outright unless hydrologic and hydraulic analyses to standard engineering practice demonstrate that it would not raise flood levels during the base flood9.
Sources
Every number and every rule on this page is cited here. Reviewed September 17, 2026.
- 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, Chapters 4 and 5United States Access Board, 2010Section 403.3 capping a walking surface at 1:20 running and 1:48 cross slope, Section 405.2 capping a ramp run at 1:12, Section 502.4 requiring an accessible space and its access aisle to be level in all directions with slopes no steeper than 1:48 permitted for drainage, and the definition that makes a walking surface steeper than 1:20 a ramp.
- International Building Code, Section 1804, Excavation, Grading and FillInternational Code Council, as adopted in Texas and published by UpCodes, 2021Section 1804.4 requiring 5 percent fall away from a foundation for 10 feet, 2 percent in swales and on paving within that 10 feet, and Section 1804.5 on grading and fill in flood hazard areas and floodways.
- 2024 Standard Specifications for Construction and Maintenance of Highways, Streets, and Bridges, Item 132 EmbankmentTexas Department of Transportation, 2024The grade tolerances of 1.25 inches for staged and 0.5 inch for turnkey construction, the field density table banded by plasticity index, the requirement to hold moisture within 4 percent of optimum above 15 plasticity index, and the rule that no more than one of five recent density tests may fall outside the limits and none by more than 3 pounds per cubic foot.
- Tex-114-E, Laboratory Compaction Characteristics and Moisture-Density Relationship of Subgrade, Embankment Soils, and Backfill MaterialTexas Department of TransportationThe laboratory moisture-density curve that maximum dry density and optimum moisture are read from, and which field results are compared against.
- Tex-115-E, Measuring In-Place Density and Moisture Content of Soils and Base MaterialsTexas Department of TransportationThe in-place density and moisture measurement the laboratory uses to accept or reject a lift.
- Official Series Description: Houston BlackUSDA Natural Resources Conservation ServiceClay content of 40 to 60 percent, very slow permeability, high shrink-swell potential, and cracks half an inch to four inches wide opening to a foot or more deep.
- Integrated Stormwater Management (iSWM)North Central Texas Council of GovernmentsThe regional stormwater criteria adopted by more than 60 North Texas governments, which the drainage design on a commercial grading plan is drawn against.
- Standard Test Methods for Laboratory Compaction Characteristics of Soil Using Standard Effort (ASTM D698)ASTM InternationalThe standard-effort laboratory compaction test behind the moisture-density relationship a private specification usually names.
- 44 CFR 60.3, Flood plain management criteria for flood-prone areasCode of Federal Regulations, U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2023The requirement that a community prohibit encroachments including fill within an adopted regulatory floodway unless hydrologic and hydraulic analyses performed to standard engineering practice demonstrate no increase in flood levels during the base flood discharge.
- Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1071, Land Surveying PracticeTexas Constitution and StatutesThat measuring or locating elevations and determining areas and volumes is professional surveying, performed by a registered professional land surveyor under the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.