Services
Excavation
I dig footings, foundations, shed and shop pads, utility trenches, and final grade from Brigham City to Bear Lake. One operator, clean cuts, and a site you don't have to apologize for.
What it actually involves
Most jobs are one of three things: a pad that needs digging and compacting, a trench that needs cutting, or a lot that needs shaping so it drains away from the house. The order matters more than the horsepower: utilities located, then the cut, then compaction in lifts, then finish grade.
What it costs, and what drives it
Small digs like a shed pad or a short trench run typically land in the $500–$2,500 range. Bigger cuts and full-lot grades go up from there. What moves the number:
- Access: a backyard I can drive to costs less than one I have to work around
- Ground: valley clay digs slow and heavy; bench gravel digs fast but eats teeth
- Haul-off: spoil that leaves in a truck costs more than spoil that stays
- Compaction spec: a shed pad and a garage pad are different jobs
One written number after the walk-through, not a per-hour meter.
Digging in this valley
Cache Valley bottoms are heavy lake-bed clay. It holds water, it swells, and a trench cut in spring can be a pond by Saturday without a drainage plan. Bench ground trades the clay for cobble that digs clean but shifts until it’s compacted right.
Frost is a design input here: footings get below frost depth (commonly 30–36" here) and shallow water lines burst.
Utilities get located before any digging. What locators don’t mark is private lines: secondary irrigation, power to the shop, old ditch laterals. Tell me what you know at the walk-through.