Cost to Level a Yard in St. Louis [2025 Data]

The average cost to level a yard in St. Louis, Missouri, is $1,894, and most residents pay between $1,048 and $2,801. Your total will depend mainly on the size of the area you’re altering and how much of a slope you’re correcting. Given the small property size in St. Louis and the rock outcrops that sometimes restrict leveling projects, you’ll pay less for yard leveling in St. Louis than in most other cities.

Yard Leveling Cost Factors

The price range for yard leveling in St. Louis, Missouri, is so wide because there are numerous factors at play that will affect your total.

Size

You’ll pay between $1 and $2 per square foot to level your yard in St. Louis. Since contractors base their costs mostly on the square footage, you should measure the area you’re leveling to get an accurate estimate. Smaller projects to make a flat area for a shed or fence will sit closer to $600, while full yard leveling can climb up to $5,000.

For homeowners who want to fix lawn depressions across their entire property, it may be more helpful to base your price on acreage. The average property in the city is 0.098 acres, well below the national average. This is one reason why the average yard leveling cost in St. Louis, Missouri, is lower than you’d pay in most other cities.

Type of Project

The part of the outdoor space you’re regrading and why plays a significant role in calculating the final cost to level your yard. Check out these common regrading projects below to better understand how your specific project will affect your total.

Severity of Slope

The slope of your existing lawn will help dictate the overall price tag for this project. If you have a very steep slope on one side of your yard that you need to level, that will cost you more than a slight slope. Contractors typically charge based on the elevation change; the more significant the change, the bigger the price tag.

St. Louis has some elevation change across its surface, so steady slopes on properties are not uncommon. However, plausible slope changes are sometimes limited by the rock outcrops that sit under much of the city, so drastic slope alterations are not always feasible.

Land Clearing

In some cases, you’ll need to clear your land before you can level it. If you have shrubs or light debris covering the area you want leveled, you could pay a few hundred dollars extra to clear everything. If you have larger things to remove, like small structures or trees, you could pay up to $1,000 to remove everything.

Trees are the most expensive things to clear from land, but since just 26% of the city is covered by the tree canopy, you’re less likely to need tree removal when it’s time to level your land than in many other cities.

Land Surveying

If you’re grading land for a fence that will sit between your property and your neighbor’s, you may need to pay for a survey to ensure you’re only changing the land you own. Depending on your project, a land survey can cost between $800 and $5,500, but it may be a necessary expense.

St. Louis also has underground utility lines that sometimes run shallow due to bedrock depth and related restrictions. Water lines, sewer lines, and the recently buried electrical lines in the city can all be dangerous to excavate around, so a survey might be necessary to ensure your project doesn’t include excavation around the lines.

Fill and Topsoil

Fill dirt is a rocky material that’s ideal for packing in pockets during a regrade. It costs between $5 and $30 per cubic yard. How much you need depends on the size of your project and what’s available to relocate from elsewhere in your yard.

Topsoil goes down over the fill dirt. You’ll pay between $12 and $55 per cubic yard. Topsoil costs more than fill dirt because it’s full of nutrients to help nurture a lush landscape.

Yard Leveling Pro Costs

When you hire a professional to level your yard, between 90% and 95% of the total will go toward labor, or an average of between $1,700 and $1,800. On a per-hour basis, labor costs in St. Louis are just below the national average due to the city's slightly lower cost of living.

Despite the high cost of labor, it’s still a good idea to hire a landscape grading company in St. Louis to get the job done. A pro will ensure your yard is graded smoothly to allow for proper drainage, which is crucial since the city sees above-average rainfall each year. Hiring an expert will also reduce the risk of injury from labor-intensive work and the risk of hitting underground utility lines that could pose a danger to you and your home.

The City of St. Louis doesn’t require permits for yard leveling unless it requires excavation in a public right of way, which residential projects almost never will. However, if you’re leveling your yard to construct a shed, a fence, or put in a pool, patio, or deck, you’ll need to consider permit fees for the additional work.

Does Leveling a Yard Increase Home Value?

Leveling your yard normally won’t have much of an impact on property value in St. Louis, largely because elevation changes in the city aren’t severe enough to make a property unusable to the point where it detracts from home value. However, the reason for leveling your yard could boost home value. For example, you could see up to a 200% return on landscaping upgrade costs and as much as an 80% return on the cost for a new patio or driveway.

How Angi Gets Its Cost Data

Home is the most important place on earth, which is why Angi has helped more than 150 million homeowners transform their houses into homes they adore. To help homeowners with their next project, Angi provides readers with the most accurate cost data and upholds strict editorial standards. We survey real Angi customers about their project costs to develop the pricing data you see, so you can make the best decisions for you and your home. We pair this data with research from reputable sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, academic journals, market studies, and interviews with industry experts—all to ensure our prices reflect real-world projects. 

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