Dig Wise Hydro Inc

Concrete cutting and removal contractors saw, drill, break and haul concrete on everything from a cracked patio to a doorway through a foundation wall. The tools are specialized: walk-behind slab saws with diamond blades for flat cuts, track-mounted wall saws for straight openings, core drills for round penetrations for pipe and conduit, and hydraulic breakers or robotic demolition machines for bulk removal. Wet cutting controls silica dust, which OSHA regulates tightly, but produces slurry that has to be contained and disposed of rather than washed into a storm drain. Because a saw cannot see rebar, post-tension cables, conduit or radiant tubing inside the slab, a GPR scan before cutting is standard practice on any structural or unknown concrete, and cutting a post-tension slab without one can be dangerous.

Excavation contractors dig and move earth for foundations, basements, utilities, pools and site cuts. Most residential jobs run on a mini or mid-size excavator paired with a skid steer and a dump truck; larger cuts bring in a dozer or scraper. The price depends less on the size of the hole than on what is in the ground: clay, ledge rock, high groundwater and buried utilities all slow the machine down and change the hauling math. Before the bucket touches dirt the site needs an 811 utility locate, and any trench deeper than five feet needs a protective system under OSHA rules.

Trenching and underground utility contractors open the ground for pipe and conduit, bed and backfill it, and put the surface back. What looks like a straight line on a plan is governed by a few hard numbers: 811 locates before any digging, a minimum cover depth that varies by utility (commonly 18 to 24 inches for electric and gas service, and below the frost line for water), and OSHA's requirement that any trench five feet or deeper have a protective system such as a trench box, shoring or a sloped wall, with a competent person on site. Bedding material under the pipe, compaction of the backfill in lifts and tracer wire on non-metallic pipe are the details that separate a line that lasts fifty years from one that settles and cracks the driveway above it.