Grading is shaping the surface so water runs away from the house instead of sitting on the slab. Before sod, that work is soil prep before sod. We regrade as part of the install. We do not install French drains, and we do not repair a collapsed pipe. If the yard holds water for a reason under the ground, the limit is standing water in the yard.
A grade is not a new lawn by itself. It is the shape the lawn sits on. Sod laid over a bowl against the foundation will be a wet bowl with grass on it until the grass dies. Sod laid so the surface falls away from the wall has a chance. Seams are staggered after the shape is right, so the joints are not a set of little dams.
What it looks like here
You notice a bad grade when water stands at the stem wall after a summer rain, or when a corner of new sod is soupy while the rest is merely damp. Sandy lots usually drain. The failures are low spots, soil piled against the slab, and beds that dump onto the lawn or the other way around. A rock strip at the foundation should stay drier than mulch piled on the stucco. We set the lawn grade and the bed edge together when both are on the visit.
Mowing a yard that is still a pond cuts ruts and compacts the root zone. We reschedule those visits. A photo of standing water, taken while the water is there, tells us more than a photo of brown grass a week later. The photo says whether we are looking at surface grade or at something we do not dig up.
What we do about it
On a sod job we pull out what is there, move the sand so water leaves the house, and add topsoil only where the ground will not hold moisture. That is a judgment on the lot. A yard with a decent layer does not get a truck of soil to look busy. The sod range is $0.85–$1.75 per square foot installed, and the grade is part of why a job moves inside the band. A range, not a bid. Beds on the same visit are $3–$9 per square foot when they are real beds.
Point at the corner that holds water when we walk it. We will say if a rake and a new slope will send that water off the slab, or if you need a drain company before anyone orders grass. Start with the prep we do sell, soil prep before sod.