Grading · drainage · erosion control · Wrenfield & the Amber Valley · field book no. 34
Move the water first. The dirt is easy.
Thornapple Grading & Drainage has spent thirty-five years learning where the Amber Valley wants its water to go, and cuts every grade so it goes there on purpose — swales at a minimum fall, basins where the township wants them, and soil that stays on the site through the first storm and every one after.
Pads from $0.14 / sq ft · swales cut to a 1.5% minimum fall · silt fence up before the first bucket · (555) 033-5518 · field@thornapplegrade.example
From the field book — the rates on this page are the spring 2026 page, changed twice since 2019 and both times because diesel made us. A rate that moves without a reason is not a rate; it is a mood.
The rate page · spring 2026
Rough & final grade$0.14 / sq ft
Cut, fill and fine grade to ±0.5 in, rover-verified at the corners
Swales & surface drainage$3.20 / lin ft
Cut to a 1.5% minimum fall, outlets armored with riprap
Sediment basinfrom $2,400
Cut to the permit drawing, trash rack and riser set, outlet stabilized
Silt fence & erosion blanket$2.10 / lin ft
Installed before the first cut, inspected after every storm
Topsoil spread & finish$0.09 / sq ft
Your stockpiled loam screened, spread and dragged
Foundation & trench backfill$7.40 / lin ft
Bedded on stone, placed in lifts, compacted to 95% Proctor
Rates
Printed, pinned to the office door
The same page every estimate is written from — the page the last customer read and the next one will. If your site wants something the page does not name, the walk prices it in writing before the work: the page constrains us exactly as much as it informs you.
Walk 1
Shoot the water
We walk the parcel in dry weather and read where the valley sends water now, then plan where it will send it after. Every grade on the site answers to that plan.
Day 1
Perimeter first
Silt fence, stabilized entrance, inlet protection — the controls go in and get photographed before any iron moves. The township inspects the edges before the middle.
The cut
Grade & drain
Swales to a 1.5 percent minimum fall, basins to the permit drawing, pads to ±0.5 in. Spoils either walk across the site or ride out once, priced on the page.
Ongoing
Inspect & maintain
After every half-inch of rain and weekly regardless: fence patched, basins dredged, logs written. Erosion control is a maintenance job wearing a construction hat.
Close
Green it & sign off
Topsoil back, blanket down, seed in, and the stabilization the permit requires verified before the last truck leaves. The record closes the job, not the weather.
The sequence
How the valley grades
Water decides the order of operations on every Thornapple site. The perimeter goes in before the first cut and the last thing we leave is ground green enough to keep itself — everything in between is just dirt, and dirt is the easy part.
2025 — 2026
From the field book, photographed
Back of the book
The valley, measured
Figures from the bound field books, 1991 through last season. Every number is countable, and the books sit on the office counter if you would rather count them yourself.
Thornapple is the only outfit in the valley whose erosion-control logs I have never had to chase. Fence up before the first cut, basins dredged before I ask, and the stabilization photo arrives with the invoice. My file on them is the thinnest one I keep — which is exactly what a file should be.
Erosion control
The first storm is the real inspection
A grade is a hypothesis until it rains. Perimeter controls go in before the first cut, basins get dredged after every event, and a log is written whether the inspector visits or not — because the week nobody looks is the week the valley does.
The permit stays clean, or we clean it
If a notice of violation names our controls, the repair, the fine and the re-inspection are ours, not yours. Eleven years of permits in the valley and the clause has never been used — which is why we can keep offering it.
Q&A
Readers of the field book ask
Do I need a permit to regrade my property?
In the Amber Valley, yes — the moment you disturb more than an acre, or anything the district calls a watercourse. We draw the application, the plan set and the inspection schedule as part of the work, and the permit fee is on the page, not in the fine print.
When does the silt fence actually go in?
Before the machine, on every job. The fence, the stabilized entrance and the inlet protection are photographed the day they go in — the district asks for the photographs, and so does our own field book.
What is a sediment basin doing that a pond is not?
Slowing water long enough to drop its soil. A basin is temporary plumbing with a trash rack and a riser, dredged and removed at closeout; a pond is landscape with a core and a spillway. We dig both, but only one of them on purpose gets stocked with fish.
Can you grade through the rainy stretch?
Trench and finish work, yes; long open slopes, no. A freshly cut slope in a two-inch rain is a regrade with a deadline, so we phase cuts to keep exposed soil ready to blanket inside a day. The calendar bends; the water does not.
Field book no. 35 opens in April · spring grades book four weeks out · (555) 033-5518
Letters answered in a day
Write to the field office
Parcel, plan if one exists, and what the water does now that you wish it did not. Answers come from the office in a day and from the field book in three. field@thornapplegrade.example