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When your yard sits on nearly flat coastal plain at around 98 feet above sea level like most of Lower Chichester water doesn’t just run away on its own. It sits. It pools near your foundation. It creeps into basements that were never designed to handle what decades of settling and compacted impervious surface have done to the drainage around them. Getting the grade right isn’t a cosmetic upgrade. It’s the difference between a dry basement and a wet one every time it rains.
Lower Chichester’s housing stock tells the same story on almost every block. Homes built in the 1910s and 1920s weren’t put up with engineered drainage in mind. The grading that existed when those houses were new has shifted, settled, and degraded and now water moves toward foundations instead of away from them. The township itself is actively investing in stormwater infrastructure, with the Maise Drive storm sewer project underway as of early 2025. That kind of municipal investment reflects what homeowners here already know from experience: drainage in this area is a real and ongoing challenge, not a one-time fix.
When excavation and grading are done correctly, the results are immediate and lasting. Water moves away from your home the way it’s supposed to. Your yard becomes usable instead of soggy. And if a patio, retaining wall, or outdoor space is part of the plan, the properly prepared ground beneath it means that investment holds up through the freeze-thaw cycles this area is known for not just through the first season.
We’re based in Aston right next door to Lower Chichester and have been working across Delaware County long enough to know what’s under the ground in Lower Chichester before the first bucket moves. We hold an active Pennsylvania contractor license and carry a BuildZoom score of 102, placing us in the top 11% of more than 125,000 licensed PA contractors. That’s not a self-declared ranking it’s a third-party score any homeowner can look up independently.
What separates us from the excavation-only operators in this area is scope. Most contractors will dig and leave. We handle the excavation, the grading, the drainage planning, the retaining wall, and the finished hardscape all under one contract, with one crew accountable for the entire outcome. In a neighborhood of compact lots and century-old homes where every phase of the job affects the next, that continuity matters. There’s no gap between trades, no finger-pointing, and no drainage calculation that falls through the cracks between one contractor and another.
It starts with a site visit. Before any equipment is scheduled or pricing is discussed, our crew walks your property to understand what’s actually happening with your grade, your drainage, and what’s adjacent to the dig area. In Lower Chichester, that assessment includes a close look at how water currently moves or doesn’t across your lot, what the foundation situation looks like, and whether any neighboring structures, shared driveways, or aging utility lines need to factor into the plan. Pennsylvania law requires calling 811 before any digging begins, and that’s handled before work starts, not as an afterthought.
Once the scope is clear, you get a straightforward estimate what’s included, what the timeline looks like, and what the finished grade will accomplish. For projects that require a permit, we navigate that process so you don’t have to figure out what Lower Chichester Township needs to see before work begins. If you’re unsure whether your project requires a permit, the township can be reached directly at 610-485-1472, and our crew can help you understand what typically applies to your project type.
Work begins with precision, especially on the compact residential lots common throughout Lower Chichester. Equipment is sized to the space, the dig is executed to the planned grade, and compaction is done properly because in an area with the freeze-thaw cycles Lower Chichester experiences every winter, a base that wasn’t compacted correctly will shift and re-slope before spring is over. When excavation leads into a finished scope a patio, retaining wall, or drainage correction the same crew carries the project through to completion.
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Excavation in Lower Chichester covers more ground than just digging a hole. Depending on what your property needs, the scope can include site grading and slope correction, foundation excavation, drainage planning and installation, retaining wall excavation and construction, land clearing, and full site preparation for patios, additions, or outdoor living spaces. Every project starts with an honest assessment of what the ground is doing and what it needs to do when the work is finished.
Because the homes throughout Lower Chichester were built between the early 1900s and 1930s, excavation work here regularly involves navigating tight lot lines, working around older foundations, and accounting for the kind of soil conditions that come with a century of settling in a low-lying coastal plain environment. Our crew understands that digging near a neighbor’s property line or an aging shared driveway in this neighborhood is a different job than breaking ground on a new suburban lot and the approach reflects that.
For homeowners who need both the excavation and the finished outdoor space, our full-service model means the project doesn’t stop at the dig. Grading, retaining walls, paver patios, and drainage systems are all within scope so the yard that floods today becomes a functional, finished outdoor space without requiring a second contractor, a second contract, or a second round of scheduling. That’s the practical advantage of working with a contractor whose home base is in Aston and whose crews have been working in Delaware County long enough to know this area well.
It depends on the scope of the project. Lower Chichester Township operates under its own zoning ordinance and enforces local property and stormwater standards, so permit requirements vary based on what’s being done and how it affects drainage on and around your property. Smaller grading corrections around a foundation may not require a formal permit, while larger excavation projects especially those that alter drainage patterns or involve structural elements like retaining walls are more likely to trigger a review.
The most reliable way to get a clear answer is to contact Lower Chichester Township directly at 610-485-1472 before work begins. We handle permit navigation as part of the project process, so if your job requires one, you won’t be left figuring out the paperwork on your own. Pennsylvania also requires that 811 be called before any digging starts that’s a legal requirement statewide, and it’s handled before the crew touches the ground.
Residential excavation in the Philadelphia metro area typically runs between $1,658 and $6,709, with most projects landing somewhere around $3,975 depending on scope, depth, and site conditions. Grading projects particularly yard regrading for drainage correction generally fall in the $400 to $6,500 range for a standard backyard. Labor in the Philadelphia region runs roughly 15 to 25 percent higher than rural Pennsylvania, so those national averages should be adjusted upward when budgeting for work in Delaware County.
In Lower Chichester specifically, a few factors can affect where your project lands in that range. The flat coastal plain terrain means drainage corrections often require more precise grading work than a sloped lot would. Homes built in the early 1900s sometimes present unexpected conditions underground old footings, patched utility lines, or fill material that wasn’t documented that can affect the scope once digging begins. A site visit before any pricing is finalized is the best way to get a number that actually reflects your property, not a generic estimate that changes mid-project.
Lower Chichester sits on nearly flat coastal plain terrain near the Delaware River, averaging around 98 feet above sea level. On that kind of flat ground, water doesn’t have a natural path away from your home it needs to be directed through proper grading, and in a neighborhood of homes built in the 1910s and 1920s, that original grading has often shifted, settled, or degraded to the point where it now slopes toward the foundation instead of away from it.
Compounding the issue is the density of impervious surfaces throughout Lower Chichester packed streets, concrete driveways, and homes built close together prevent water from absorbing into the ground the way it would on a larger, more permeable lot. The township’s active investment in stormwater infrastructure, including the Maise Drive storm sewer project started in early 2025, reflects just how widespread this challenge is at the community level. At the property level, the fix is almost always a grading correction sometimes combined with a French drain or drainage channel that gives water a clear, engineered path away from your home.
Excavation is the process of moving earth digging out material to a specified depth or area for a foundation, drainage system, retaining wall, or site preparation. Grading is about shaping the surface of the ground to control how water flows across it. The two often go together, but they serve different purposes, and whether you need one or both depends on what your property actually requires.
In Lower Chichester, most residential projects involve some combination of both. If you’re correcting a drainage problem, grading is the core of the fix but excavation may be needed to install a drainage system beneath the surface. If you’re preparing a site for a patio or retaining wall, excavation establishes the depth and the base, while grading ensures the surrounding area drains correctly once the structure is in place. A site assessment is the fastest way to determine what your specific situation calls for, and it prevents the common mistake of grading the surface while leaving an underlying drainage problem untouched.
The Delaware Valley freeze-thaw cycle is one of the most important factors in how excavation and grading work is planned and executed in Lower Chichester. Ground that freezes and thaws repeatedly through winter and early spring expands and contracts and any base material that wasn’t properly compacted will shift with it. A graded yard that looked correct in October can re-slope noticeably by March if the compaction wasn’t done right. A retaining wall excavated without accounting for freeze-thaw pressure on the footing can fail within a few seasons.
This is why base preparation and compaction aren’t optional steps they’re the part of the job that determines whether the work holds up. Our paving and excavation work in Lower Chichester is already built around this reality, which means the freeze-thaw cycle is factored into the plan from the start, not treated as a variable to hope for the best on. Timing also matters: spring and fall are typically the best windows for grading and excavation work in this area, before the ground freezes or after it fully thaws.
Yes and for most homeowners in Lower Chichester, that’s actually the more practical way to approach the project. When excavation leads into a finished scope like a patio, retaining wall, or drainage system, having the same crew handle both phases eliminates the coordination gap that causes most problems in multi-trade projects. The grading decisions made during excavation directly affect how the finished surface drains and performs, so having one team responsible for both means those decisions are made with the full picture in mind.
For Lower Chichester homeowners who’ve been putting off a patio or outdoor space because the underlying drainage issue made it feel pointless, this matters. Fixing the grade and building the finished space in one project on one timeline, with one crew is the difference between a yard that functions and a yard that you actually use. We handle excavation, grading, drainage correction, retaining walls, and paver patios as part of the same scope, so the project doesn’t stall out between phases waiting on a second contractor to schedule.
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