Excavation contractors in Kent County, MI

Michigan's southern tier: the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Flint corridors: is deep glacial drift country, and it is the easiest digging in the state. Till of loam and silt loam with sandy ridges on the moraines runs tens of feet thick almost everywhere, so bedrock is rarely an excavation factor (bedrock within 50 inches occurs on under 10 percent of land in most counties). What the profile does have is water and sand in combination: hydric soils occupy 15-40 percent of metro counties, glacial outwash and lake plains put fine sands in many subsoils, and seasonal high water tables sit 1-3 feet down in low spots. Trench stability in clean outwash sand is the practical safety issue: cave-prone cuts and shoring show up in most utility bids. Frost depth runs 42 inches statewide, so footings and water lines always dig below the frost line. Shrink-swell is negligible, slopes are gentle, and septic systems are conventional trench systems nearly everywhere: with engineered systems common on lake-front lots where mottling and coarse sand shorten the separation distances.