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Most Lima homeowners don’t call about excavation because they want to move dirt. They call because water is pooling near the foundation after every heavy rain, a retaining wall is starting to lean, or they’re finally ready to build that patio and the slope in the backyard makes it impossible to start. The excavation is just the step that makes everything else possible.
Lima’s terrain isn’t forgiving. The lots here are large, wooded, and hilly and Delaware County’s clay-heavy soil doesn’t drain the way people expect. When a slope isn’t graded correctly, water doesn’t just sit in the yard. It moves toward the lowest point it can find, which is often your foundation. Getting the grade right from the start means you stop having that conversation every March.
What changes after the work is done is straightforward. The yard drains the way it should. The retaining wall holds. The patio has a level base. And if you’re building something on top of the prepared site an outdoor kitchen, a stone patio, a new driveway it sits on ground that was actually prepared for it, not just cleared and crossed.
We’re based in Aston within Middletown Township, the same municipality that governs Lima. That matters more than it sounds. When your project needs a grading permit under Middletown Township’s Chapter 186 ordinance, or stormwater documentation under Chapter 198, this isn’t a process we’re figuring out for the first time on your job. We already work under these requirements regularly.
Renato Spennato runs the business and stays personally involved in the work which is something you’ll see reflected in the reviews. BuildZoom ranks Spennato Landscaping in the top 11% of more than 125,000 licensed Pennsylvania contractors, based on license status, project history, and verified reviews. That score is public and searchable, not a claim we made up.
Beyond excavation and grading, we handle retaining walls, patios, driveways, and outdoor living construction. For Lima homeowners whose properties often need multiple phases of work clearing, grading, hardscaping that means one team sees the project through from the first dig to the finished surface.
Before any excavation starts, Pennsylvania law requires an 811 call that’s the PA One Call system, which marks underground utilities on your property before digging begins. It’s not optional, and any contractor who skips it is putting your project and your property at risk. We make that call before anything else.
From there, the scope of your project determines what permit work is required. In Middletown Township, any excavation or grading that disturbs more than 1,000 square feet, changes existing drainage patterns, or involves retaining walls requires a formal grading permit under Chapter 186. That application needs engineer-stamped plans three copies along with a Professional Services Agreement and stormwater documentation. It’s more paperwork than most homeowners expect, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that stalls a project when a contractor leaves it to you to figure out. We walk through what’s required upfront so there are no surprises mid-project.
Once permits are in order, the actual excavation and grading work begins. For Lima’s sloped, wooded lots, that typically means a combination of clearing, rough grading for drainage, and fine grading to prepare the site for whatever comes next whether that’s a retaining wall, a patio base, a new driveway, or a full outdoor living build. The drainage plan isn’t an afterthought. On Lima’s terrain, it’s the whole point.
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Lima properties aren’t typical suburban lots. You’re working with an acre or close to it, mature trees with root systems that go deep, slopes that run in multiple directions, and clay soil underneath that doesn’t cooperate the way loam or sandy fill would. The excavation work here has to account for all of that not just move material from one spot to another.
We provide the full range of residential excavation and site preparation services in Lima: land clearing, rough and finish grading, foundation excavation, retaining wall base preparation, drainage correction, and full site prep for outdoor living construction. Lima’s older housing stock including Colonial Revival homes and farmhouses that have been on their lots for a century or more often needs drainage remediation before any new outdoor construction can be done properly. That requires understanding how the existing grade was established and where the problems actually start, not just where the water ends up.
For homeowners on any of Lima’s winding residential streets where lots back up to wooded slopes, the excavation phase is what determines whether the finished project holds up five years from now. We treat that phase accordingly with equipment sized for residential work, drainage built into the plan from day one, and a process that doesn’t skip steps because the permit requirements feel inconvenient.
Yes and the threshold is lower than most homeowners expect. Middletown Township’s Chapter 186 Grading and Excavating Ordinance requires a formal permit for any project that disturbs more than 1,000 square feet, alters existing drainage patterns, or involves construction of retaining walls, culverts, or other structures that affect stormwater flow. That covers the majority of meaningful outdoor projects on a Lima property.
The permit application itself isn’t just a form. It requires three copies of plans prepared by a licensed Professional Engineer, Land Surveyor, or Registered Landscape Architect in Pennsylvania along with a Professional Services Agreement and any required escrow deposit. A Final As-Built Plan is also required after the work is complete. If your contractor isn’t familiar with this process, you’ll find out the hard way when the township flags the project. We already operate under these requirements regularly in Lima and Middletown Township, so this process is understood before your project starts.
For most residential excavation projects in the Philadelphia metro area which includes Delaware County the range runs roughly $1,658 to $6,709 for standard residential work. Foundation excavation tends to run higher, typically $5,000 to $12,000 depending on depth and site conditions. Grading and leveling projects generally fall between $400 and $6,500, with most backyard grading projects landing in the $1,000 to $5,000 range.
The Philadelphia region carries a cost multiplier that runs 15 to 25% higher than rural Pennsylvania, so if you’re comparing quotes to national averages you find online, expect the local numbers to be higher. Lima’s specific conditions large lots, wooded terrain, clay soil, and sloped grades also tend to add scope compared to flat suburban properties. The most accurate way to understand your project cost is to have someone walk the property and see what the grade and soil conditions actually look like before any numbers are put on paper.
Excavation is the process of removing material from the ground digging out a foundation, clearing a slope, removing soil to get below grade for a structure or drainage system. Grading is about shaping the surface of the land to direct water flow, create a level base, or establish the correct elevation for a finished surface like a patio or driveway. Most projects involve both.
On Lima’s hilly lots, grading is often the more critical of the two. Even if you don’t need deep excavation, the slope of your yard almost certainly needs to be addressed before any outdoor construction can be done correctly. Improperly graded terrain on a sloped lot especially with Delaware County’s clay-heavy soil underneath creates drainage problems that don’t go away on their own. Water follows the grade, and if the grade runs toward your house instead of away from it, that’s a foundation problem waiting to develop. Getting both the excavation and the grading right from the start is what separates a project that holds up from one that needs to be redone.
Drainage is the whole reason grading matters on a property like yours. Lima’s residential lots are hilly, and the soil throughout Delaware County is predominantly clay-based which means it doesn’t absorb water quickly. When it rains hard, the water has to go somewhere, and it follows whatever path the grade creates. If that path leads toward your foundation, you end up with water in your basement or against your footings. If it leads toward a neighbor’s property, you end up with a different problem.
Proper drainage planning during excavation means establishing a grade that moves surface water away from structures and toward appropriate outlets whether that’s a swale, a catch basin, or a designed drainage path that works with the natural topography of your lot. On Lima’s older properties especially, the original grading may have been done decades ago and may not account for changes to the lot over time added impervious surfaces, mature tree removal, or settling. Addressing drainage as part of the excavation scope, rather than as an afterthought, is what makes the difference on this kind of terrain.
Spring and fall are generally the best windows for excavation and grading work in Lima. Spring roughly March through May is peak season because homeowners have just watched their yards handle winter runoff and are motivated to address drainage issues before summer. The ground is workable, and the timing lines up well with outdoor living projects that homeowners want completed before warm weather. The tradeoff is that spring is also when contractor schedules fill up fastest, so earlier planning gives you more options.
Fall is often underutilized and is actually an excellent time for grading and retaining wall work. The ground is still workable, conditions are dry, and completing grading before the winter freeze prevents frost heave issues which are a real concern on Lima’s hilly lots, especially for older retaining walls that may not have been installed with proper drainage behind them. Winter excavation is possible but more expensive and more difficult, particularly in Delaware County’s clay soil, which becomes very hard when frozen. If you’re planning a spring project, reaching out in late winter gives you the best shot at getting on the schedule before the rush.
For Lima properties, this is actually one of the more important questions to ask before you hire anyone. The typical project on a large, sloped Lima lot doesn’t end at the excavation phase it continues through retaining wall installation, patio construction, driveway work, or outdoor living builds. If your excavation contractor and your hardscape contractor are two separate companies, you’re managing two schedules, two sets of expectations, and two different interpretations of how the grade should be established. When something doesn’t line up between phases, each contractor points at the other.
We handle excavation, grading, retaining walls, patios, driveways, and outdoor living construction with the same crew. That means the team doing your site preparation is the same team building on top of it so the grade is established with the finished project already in mind, not handed off to someone who wasn’t there when the decisions were made. For Lima homeowners who are investing in a significant outdoor improvement on a complex lot, that continuity matters more than it might on a simpler, flatter property.
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