Site Drainage Planning
A drainage plan is not a generic sketch or a promise that water will never collect. It is a project-specific way to coordinate the proposed home, grading, runoff, outlets, erosion controls, access, utilities, and neighboring property before and after site work.
Short answer: Start with the approved home location and current site documents, then ask the responsible local authority and qualified site professional what drainage information the project needs. A grader can price a defined scope, but should not be expected to invent an outlet, approve off-site discharge, diagnose soil, or replace engineering when professional design is required.
The goal is to avoid a thin answer and turn the search into a practical checklist for the property, county, budget, and next contractor or permit step.
Separate existing water patterns, proposed grading, roof runoff, driveway drainage, erosion control, and final stabilization.
Use the current survey or site plan, approved home location, utility and wastewater areas, access route, photos, and local requirements as inputs.
Keep design, discharge, soil, retaining, flood, watershed, and approval decisions with the responsible authority and qualified professionals.
What This Means For You
The homeowner's job is to make the inputs and handoffs visible, not to design drainage from general web guidance. Site conditions, local programs, disturbed area, receiving points, utilities, wastewater areas, foundation documents, and the retained professional scopes can all change what is needed.
Situation
What it tells you
Next step
A wet area, ditch, seep, low point, or prior erosion mark is useful evidence, but it does not identify the cause or safe corrective design.
Record the location, date, recent weather, photos, and direction of visible flow, then give that evidence to the qualified site professional and responsible authority.
That phrase may not identify plan source, outlet, quantities, erosion measures, roof-water handling, driveway work, stabilization, return trips, or professional design.
Ask for the exact included work, controlling documents, exclusions, allowances, inspection points, and finish condition in writing.
Delivery and setup can disturb the approach or home area, while roofs, gutters, utility trenches, decks, skirting, and final grade can change how water is observed.
Compare current conditions with the accepted plan and written scopes; send concerns to the responsible provider or authority without changing or concealing work that still needs review.
Step 1
Gather the survey or site plan, proposed home footprint, elevations if available, driveway, utilities, wastewater and water areas, visible drainage features, photos, and authority contacts.
Step 2
Ask which plan, permit, review, inspection, stabilization, outlet, or professional-design questions apply before grading begins or changes are authorized.
Step 3
Put grading, drainage, erosion-control, delivery-touch-up, inspection, and final-stabilization responsibilities in writing, then preserve dated photos and closeout records.
Details to Sort
The plan or documented scope should show how site work relates to the home area, access, utilities, erosion control, stabilization, and a lawful or accepted receiving path. The exact required document can vary by site and local program.
The homeowner gathers records and assigns written scopes. A surveyor addresses retained survey work. A grading provider performs defined earthwork. An engineer or other qualified professional handles retained design or evaluation. The local or state authority administers its review and inspection lane. The setup provider supplies installation-area inputs within its scope.
Have the parcel and jurisdiction, survey or site plan, proposed home location and dimensions, available elevation or contour information, driveway and delivery route, utilities, wastewater and water areas, flood or watershed records, photos in different weather, permits, and all written site-work scopes.
Ask what document controls; who confirms the outlet; how roof, driveway, uphill, utility-trench, foundation-area, and neighboring-property questions are handled; what remains visible; what must be stabilized; who returns after delivery; and what evidence closes the scope.
Topography, access, cut and fill, unsuitable or wet material, rock, off-site material, drainage structures, erosion controls, stabilization, weather, professional services, review timing, delivery disturbance, utility trenches, and change orders can affect cost and sequence.
Common mistakes include using a generic pad dimension, treating a level-looking surface as a drainage answer, assuming runoff can be sent across another property, leaving roof water or driveway work out of the scope, covering work before review, and failing to assign final grading and stabilization.
My Manufactured Home Guide does not design drainage, determine a lawful outlet, diagnose soil or water, set grades, approve fill, evaluate a retaining condition, establish property rights, or predict a permit or inspection result. Use the actual project documents, responsible authority, and qualified professionals.
Sources And Boundaries
Sources were reviewed 2026-07-30. Statewide guidance and county process pages answer different questions. Confirm current, property-specific requirements with the responsible authority and qualified professionals.
state source
Official statewide starting point for erosion and sediment-control program information. Local delegation, disturbed area, site conditions, and project scope affect the applicable path.
state source
Official professional planning source covering grading, runoff control, conveyance, outlets, and stabilization. It is not a homeowner design recipe or site approval.
state source
Official state starting point for manufactured-home installation requirements and the manufacturer-instruction boundary.
Choose the next action
Use the path that matches the question you have already defined. These are private request paths, not public provider results, automatic matching, approval, or a guaranteed response.
Most relevant product
A Land Feasibility Report can organize known parcel, topography, flood or watershed, access, utility, wastewater, water, and proposed-home-location records and identify what still needs authority or professional confirmation.
This is a research and question-organizing path, not a zoning, utility, septic, access, title, permit, or site-approval determination.
Provider help by need and ZIP
Tell us what you need and enter your ZIP Code. Continue to the existing private request for review.
Name the confirmed private work or retained evaluation. The request does not design drainage, approve an outlet, determine property rights, or promise provider availability.
Free fallback
Ask one bounded question if you cannot tell whether the next answer belongs to the local authority, surveyor, grading provider, setup provider, engineer, utility, or another qualified party.
Keep Planning
Use the broader site-work owner for pad, grading, access, utility, foundation, and quote-scope coordination.
Gather the home, parcel, survey, utility, wastewater, access, and work-area inputs that may affect drainage planning.
Keep flood, watershed, stream, wetland, and mapped-area research separate from field drainage design.
Organize safe observations and responsibility handoffs after delivery and setup disturb the site.
Secondary Support
Use the project router first, then share details for review if you still need help organizing the project context. This does not guarantee a provider match or availability.
No. The required information and review path depend on the site, jurisdiction, disturbed area, topography, soils, flood or watershed context, home location, utilities, access, and local program.
A grading provider can perform a defined retained scope, but outlet, design, property-right, environmental, authority, or engineering questions may require other qualified parties and current approvals.
Without entering unsafe areas, record the date, recent weather, visible water locations, erosion, ponding, roof or downspout discharge, driveway and ditch conditions, and wide-context photos. Those observations do not diagnose the cause.
