Site Preparation Services and Dirt Work in Ohio: Clearing, Grubbing, House Pads, Driveways and Drainage

Site preparation is five steps: clear, grub, rough grade, drain, stabilize. Residential and commercial projects run the same list; a house pad and a 40-acre warehouse differ in days, not steps. Professional site preparation is one service, one crew, from the first tree to the last silt fence. Dependable site preparation starts with the soil conditions on your parcel: till clay, Kokomo flats, gravel terrace or lake-plain clay. Send the plat and I tell you which one you own.

Clearing and grubbing is the first step and the dirtiest. The mulcher takes the honeysuckle, then the excavator pulls stumps and root balls at $160 an hour with operator. OUPS 811 marks the utility lines 48 hours before the bucket goes in; tile lines are not marked and we find them at 30 inches. Land clearing to dirt with stumps runs $2,800 to 5,000 an acre. Burning is out inside corporation limits, so what does not chip is hauled at $600 to 1,100 a load. Count the stumps over 12 inches and send me the number.

Dirt on till clay moves in June, not April. We excavate the high side, fill the low, and compact in 8-inch lifts; clay that goes in wet never firms up. Rough grade brings the pad within a few tenths; site grading of the yard comes later. Grading and leveling of the whole yard, finish grade and topsoil, is a separate pass; leveling services on a slope are by the hour. Excavation and site preparation on a 2-acre homesite is three to five machine days. Tell me the cut on the plat and I tell you the days.

Frost depth here is 32 to 36 inches, which is why a pad built on wet clay heaves. The pad years taught me three things. Strip the topsoil all the way off; a pad on organics is unstable foundations in five years. Compact in lifts and proof-roll with a loaded truck before the footer crew comes. Around Dayton, limestone sits within 3 feet, so plan the basement around the rock.

A stable surface is the whole job; long-term stability costs a day of compaction now. Soil testing is the owner's call on a warehouse pad and rarely needed on a house pad on known till. A half-acre lot in Plain City was one day of clearing and grading, $2,500, and the pad followed in July when the clay held a truck.

A gravel driveway is a 12-inch cut, geotextile, 6 inches of 304 stone, crowned to shed water. The culvert at the road is sized by the county engineer, who also owns the county ditch you may not block. Swales carry water runoff to that ditch, never to the neighbor. Drainage solutions beyond a swale, a dry well or new tile, are an excavator add at the hour. Prevent water from standing on the pad and the house is dry for fifty years. Send a photo of the road frontage and I size the culvert.

One acre or more of disturbance brings the Ohio EPA construction general permit, OHC000006, and a SWPPP the county SWCD reviews. I wrote those plans on pads for 14 years: silt fence downhill, a stone entrance, stabilization within 7 days of final grade. Erosion control is the law at 1 acre and smart at a half. Hamilton County SWCD issues an earthwork permit; Lorain runs it through the Stormwater Management District. Prevent water accumulation and you prevent the inspector's letter. The SWCD line goes in the quote before the dirt line.

A farm pond in upland clay needs no permit; a pond dug in a wet spot does. If the low corner holds water into May it gets an ORAM look first, because fill in an isolated wetland is an Ohio EPA Level 1 permit under half an acre, and a Corps Section 404 matter if a stream connects. The liner is the till itself, compacted. We dig ponds in winter when the bank holds the excavator. Send a photo of the low spot after a rain.

Clearing and grubbing run December to February on frozen ground, no mud surcharge. Dirt waits for June. Clay moved in March or April goes in wet, never compacts, and the pad settles under the slab; a month of waiting is cheaper than that costly problems list. June to September is dust and hard clay, normal rate, and the proof-roll passes. On our jobs in Delaware County the sequence never changes: trees in winter, dirt in summer.

We do not demolish houses; I know a contractor who does. We take down a barn, a pole shed or a fence line and haul off at $600 to 1,100 per 10-yard load. Concrete goes to a recycler, a separate service. Once the structure is gone the job site is ours: strip, grub, grade. A clean parcel before the construction project begins saves the pad crew a day.

$160 an hour for the dozer or excavator with operator is the number this page comes back to.

• Clearing and grubbing to dirt with stumps: $2,800 to 5,000 per acre.
• Mulching the brush first: $2,500 a day, transport included within 60 miles of Delaware or Lebanon.
• Dozer or excavator: $160 per hour. A half-acre house pad is 8 to 12 hours.
• Haul-off: $600 to 1,100 per load. Stone and culvert pipe at cost plus the hour to place them.
• SWPPP and silt fence at 1 acre: by the foot.

Services tailored to the parcel, not a package. Full-service from the first tree to a site for construction, ready for construction, or just the dirt after someone else cleared. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the form with the plat. I email you a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Within 60 miles of Delaware or Lebanon, transport included; Northeast and Northwest carry a transport line from Delaware. Every site gets the same walk. I assess your property for site conditions, mark the wet corner, count the stumps, and tell you what reliable site preparation costs on that ground. Directories list the top 10 best site preparation near you and 10 best site preparation near any town; what you want is an experienced team with advanced equipment that has built pads on your county's clay. Preparing land for a build is a two-season service: clear this winter, grade in June, and the site is prepared when the footer crew arrives. Expert site work, every site, one service, one crew. Send the form with the plat or call (740) 729-8625.