Why Land Grading in the West Island Requires Local Expertise

Land grading in the West Island is not the same as land grading in other parts of Quebec or Canada. The West Island’s dominant soil type — dense, clay-heavy glacial till — behaves differently from sandy or loamy soils. It drains poorly, expands and contracts significantly with moisture changes, and creates drainage problems that can damage your foundation if the land grading is done incorrectly.

The most common foundation problem we see in the West Island is water flowing toward the foundation rather than away from it — caused by incorrect land grading after construction, or by land grading that was never properly engineered in the first place. A correct land grading plan for a West Island property starts with laser-levelling to establish existing grades, then plans surface drainage toward the appropriate outlet, with a minimum fall of 6 inches in the first 10 feet from the foundation wall.

At Lourenco, we have been doing land grading in the West Island long enough to know exactly what can go wrong when it is done incorrectly — and we build every grading plan to prevent those problems from occurring. Our land grading work comes with engineering documentation that the local building department can review if permits are required.