DIRTECH LLC

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.

Pond and water management contractors excavate and shape ponds, build or repair the embankment dams that hold them, and cut the ditches, swales and channels that move water across a property. A pond that holds water starts with the soil: it needs a clay core or a compacted clay liner, or a synthetic liner where the ground is sandy or rocky, and the dam is built in compacted lifts with a keyway cut into the original ground. Every pond also needs a way to pass the big storm, usually a principal spillway pipe plus an emergency spillway cut in natural ground, sized for the watershed above it. USDA NRCS publishes free design standards for farm ponds that most contractors follow. Cleanouts, which remove years of silt and reshape banks, are common on older ponds and are priced by the cubic yard removed and where that muck can be spread.

Site preparation is the package of work that turns a lot into a place a builder can start. On a typical job that means clearing vegetation, stripping and stockpiling topsoil, cutting or filling to the pad elevation, compacting fill in lifts, cutting in a temporary driveway, and installing the silt fence and gravel entrance the stormwater inspector expects to see. The scope shifts with the ground: a flat suburban infill lot may take two days, while a sloped wooded parcel with poor soil can run weeks and involve undercutting and replacing unsuitable material. Site prep contractors typically coordinate with the surveyor who sets the corners and the geotechnical engineer who signs off on compaction.