Dirt work · Site prep
We start before anyone else can.
Site prep, excavation, cut and fill, grading, drainage and building pads. Kay Ranch handles the job from the initial dirt work up, so the ground is right before anything sits on it.
First on site
Most crews wait for the ground to be ready. We make it ready.
When the dirt work and the finish work are separate contracts, the wall crew inherits someone else's grade, the drainage inherits someone else's compaction, and every problem gets blamed on the other guy. We do not run jobs that way.
The excavator and the stone are one contract. The crew that cuts the grade is the crew that sets the base, runs the drainage and builds on top of it, so the ground under the finished work is never a question mark.
Scope
What dirt work covers
Site prep and clearing
The site gets opened up and set to the plan before any machine commits to a line.
Excavation
Cuts for walls, footings, and the space behind them that drainage and grid will need.
Cut and fill
Soil moved from where it is to where the plan needs it, compacted in lifts, not dumped and hoped flat.
Grading
Final grades that move water away from what you are about to build. Flat where you need flat, pitched where you need pitch.
Drainage
Swales, pipe and daylight. Water gets a route off the site that does not run through your wall or your slab.
Building pads
Cut, filled and compacted so what goes on top starts level and stays level.
Where it shows
This pad started as dirt work.
The lakefront pad began as a raw hillside cut, an excavator and a skid steer. The cut, the drainage and the wall were one continuous job, and the finished aerial is the same hillside holding a buildable pad above the water.
That is the argument for starting with the dirt. See the full before and after.
Next step
Building on ground that is not ready yet?
Call before the plans are final. Dirt is the cheapest part of a job to get right and the most expensive part to fix later.
Call or text Kay Ranch(682) 288-1845