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A lot of homes in Upper Chichester especially in Boothwyn and Twin Oaks were built decades ago on grading that was never quite right to begin with. Over time, the ground settles, slopes shift, and water starts going places it shouldn’t. You end up with pooling near the foundation, a soggy yard after every rain, or a retaining wall that’s slowly losing the battle. That’s not just an eyesore it’s a real structural problem that gets more expensive the longer it sits.
Upper Chichester Township joined the Southeastern Pennsylvania Stormwater Authority in January 2025 specifically because runoff and drainage are active, documented issues across the township. When excavation and grading are done correctly with proper slope away from your foundation and compliance with the township’s stormwater management requirements you’re not just fixing a yard. You’re protecting the home underneath it.
The difference between a job done right and one done fast shows up the first time it rains hard. With proper site grading and excavation in Upper Chichester, water moves where it’s supposed to, the ground is stable, and whatever gets built on top of it a patio, a retaining wall, a finished outdoor space actually lasts.
We’re based in Aston, PA the township directly on Upper Chichester’s northern border. That proximity isn’t a talking point. It means faster estimates, quicker mobilization, and a crew that already knows the terrain, the soil conditions along the Conchester Highway corridor, and what Upper Chichester Township’s permit process actually looks like from the inside.
Renato Spennato leads every project personally. Reviewers on BuildZoom where we hold a score of 102, placing us in the top 11% of more than 125,000 licensed Pennsylvania contractors specifically call out that our crew is “always on time or early” and that the experience was “arguably the best contractor experience I have had as a homeowner.” That kind of feedback doesn’t come from a company that sends out a sub and hopes for the best.
From the first site assessment to the finished grade, you’re working with one team that handles excavation, grading, retaining walls, and outdoor living construction no handoffs, no finger-pointing between trades, no gaps in accountability.
It starts with a site assessment not a quick walk-around, but a real look at your existing terrain, drainage patterns, soil composition, and what the project actually requires. In Upper Chichester, that assessment includes identifying whether your project triggers the township’s grading permit threshold. Any project disturbing 750 square feet or more requires a grading permit, engineer-signed plans, and an escrow account through Upper Chichester Township’s License and Inspection Department. That’s not something most homeowners know going in, and it’s not something you want to discover mid-project. We handle that entire process permit application, plan coordination, and township compliance so it doesn’t land on you.
Once the permit side is squared away, the physical work follows a clear sequence. Existing material is removed and disposed of properly, the site is excavated to the required depth and dimensions, and the grade is established with intentional slope to direct water away from structures and toward appropriate drainage paths. If the project involves a retaining wall, patio base, or other finished work, that comes next with the same crew that did the excavation, so the grade is built for what’s going on top of it.
Before any digging starts, PA One Call (811) is contacted required by Pennsylvania law for all excavation work. It’s a step that protects your utilities and protects the project. The whole process is straightforward when you know what you’re doing, and that’s the point.
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Our excavation work in Upper Chichester covers the full scope of residential site preparation: land clearing, excavation, rough and finish grading, drainage planning, retaining wall construction, and finished outdoor living installation. The equipment bulldozers, excavators, and loaders is scaled to residential lots in established neighborhoods like Boothwyn and Ogden, where tight lot configurations and mature landscaping require precision, not brute force.
Every project starts with a clear, itemized estimate. Residential excavation in the Philadelphia metro area typically runs between $1,658 and $6,709 depending on scope, soil conditions, terrain, and permit requirements and Delaware County labor rates run 15 to 25 percent higher than rural Pennsylvania. Upper Chichester’s permit fees and escrow requirements are real costs that some contractors quietly leave out of the initial quote. You’ll see all of it upfront, before any work begins.
What makes us different from the excavation-only contractors serving the Chichester corridor isn’t just the equipment or the permit knowledge it’s the fact that the same team that digs your site can also build the retaining wall, pour the patio base, and finish the outdoor space. If your project in Upper Chichester involves more than just a dig, you won’t need to find and coordinate three separate contractors. One call handles it.
Yes, and the requirements are more specific than most homeowners expect. Under Upper Chichester Township’s Chapter 334 (Grading and Excavating), no person can excavate or remove earth materials for off-site use without first obtaining permission from the Board of Commissioners. On top of that, any project that disturbs 750 square feet or more triggers a grading permit requirement which means you’ll need engineer-signed plans, a permit fee, and an escrow account established through the township’s License and Inspection Department.
Upper Chichester also enforces the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code through a third-party agency, which adds an additional review layer to the permit and inspection process. That’s not unusual for Delaware County, but it does mean the timeline for permit approval can be longer than homeowners expect if the paperwork isn’t submitted correctly the first time. We handle the permit process as part of every qualifying project so you’re not navigating Chapter 334 and Chapter 490 stormwater compliance on your own while also trying to manage a construction schedule.
For a typical residential excavation project in Upper Chichester, you’re looking at a range of roughly $1,658 to $6,709, with the Philadelphia metro area carrying a cost multiplier of about 1.10 times the national average. Labor in Delaware County runs 15 to 25 percent higher than rural Pennsylvania, so if you’re comparing quotes from a Chester County or Lancaster County contractor to a local Delaware County contractor, the difference in labor cost is real and expected not a red flag.
What drives the final number is scope, soil conditions, terrain, and permit requirements. A straightforward grading and site prep job on a flat Boothwyn lot is going to cost less than a project on a sloped Twin Oaks property that requires a retaining wall, engineered plans, and a grading escrow account. The best way to get an accurate number is a site assessment not a phone estimate because the variables that move the price are things that have to be seen in person. We provide detailed, itemized estimates so you know exactly what’s included and what’s driving the cost before any work starts.
Excavation is the process of removing earth digging down to a required depth to prepare a site for construction, drainage work, or a structural element like a retaining wall or patio base. Grading is what happens after: shaping and sloping the remaining ground so water drains correctly and the surface is stable and level for whatever comes next. Most residential projects in Upper Chichester require both, because excavation without proper grading just leaves you with a hole that collects water.
In a township where stormwater runoff is an active municipal concern Upper Chichester joined the Southeastern Pennsylvania Stormwater Authority in early 2025 specifically to address drainage and impervious surface issues grading isn’t optional. The township’s Chapter 490 stormwater management ordinance governs how drainage-related work has to be handled, and proper slope away from foundations and toward appropriate drainage paths is a real requirement, not just a best practice. If your project involves both excavation and finished construction, the grade has to be engineered for the specific load and use which is why having one team handle the full scope matters.
The physical excavation work itself depending on scope typically runs one to three days for a standard residential project. What takes longer is the front end: site assessment, permit application, engineer plan review, and Upper Chichester Township’s third-party permit approval process. For projects that hit the 750-square-foot grading permit threshold, you need to factor in the time for the township’s review cycle before any digging starts. Starting the permit process early is the single biggest thing you can do to keep your project on schedule.
Seasonally, spring is the highest-demand window in Delaware County homeowners who deferred fall and winter projects all come to market at the same time, and scheduling fills up fast. If you’re planning a spring project in Boothwyn or anywhere in Upper Chichester, getting the site assessment and permit process started in late winter is the practical move. Summer and fall are also strong windows, and fall grading before the ground freezes is often the most cost-effective timing for projects that don’t have a hard deadline.
Yes and in most cases, that’s the better approach. When the same team that grades your site also builds the retaining wall or patio on top of it, the grade is engineered specifically for what’s going on there. When you hire a dig-only contractor and then bring in a separate mason, you’re the one managing the handoff and if the patio installer says the grade is off, or the excavation contractor says the measurements were wrong, you’re stuck in the middle of a dispute with no clear accountability.
In Upper Chichester’s residential neighborhoods, where projects often involve aging housing stock, drainage correction, and finished outdoor living work all in the same scope, the full-service model isn’t just convenient it’s practical. We handle excavation, grading, retaining walls, and finished outdoor construction as a single engagement. That means one estimate, one schedule, one team accountable for the complete result. No coordination gaps, no finger-pointing between trades, and no surprise that the patio base wasn’t graded to spec because two different contractors made two different assumptions.
The $99.47 million PennDOT reconstruction of U.S. Route 322 (Conchester Highway) and Route 452 (Market Street) has been actively underway in Upper Chichester Township through 2024 and 2025. Infrastructure projects at this scale a 1.4-mile reconstruction and widening that includes reconfiguring the U.S. 322 and Route 452 interchange generate vibration, utility disruptions, and drainage pattern changes that can affect residential properties in the surrounding area, sometimes in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
If you’ve noticed new settling in your yard, changes in how water drains after a rain, or cracks in a retaining wall that weren’t there before the construction activity started, it’s worth having the site assessed before the problem compounds. Ground vibration from heavy equipment and roadway reconstruction can accelerate settling in older foundations and retaining structures both common in Upper Chichester’s established neighborhoods. A site assessment will tell you whether what you’re seeing is cosmetic or whether the grade and drainage have actually shifted in a way that needs to be corrected. Catching it early is significantly less expensive than addressing it after a wet winter has done additional damage.
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