Excavation and Land Clearing Questions

An excavation contractor, also called an excavating contractor, digs and moves earth so a project can go ahead. On our jobs, that means utility trenches, water and sewer lines, foundation and footing excavation, backfill and compaction. We also set culverts, spread topsoil and gravel, drill post holes and haul away debris. For a new home or barn, see site preparation for a building lot.

Yes. A drainage ditch, a single culvert, a yard to regrade or a driveway washout are all jobs we take. We also drill post holes and sonotubes for fences and business signs. Send a photo and a short description, and we go from there.

Oak Hill sits at the center of our service area, which runs about 35 miles around. That takes in Greene County, including Durham, Greenville, Cairo, Catskill, Coxsackie, Athens, Windham and Hunter. We also work in Rensselaerville and Preston Hollow in Albany County and Saugerties in Ulster County. See the towns we serve for the full list.

Every job is priced on its own, so we give a free estimate before any work starts. The size of the job and access for the machines drive most of the price. Rock or wet ground can add to it, and so can material hauled in or out. Send the location and a few photos to get started.

In New York, the law puts that call on the excavator, the business doing the digging. Dialing 811 reaches UDig NY, the one-call center for our service area. Notice goes in two to ten working days before digging, not counting the day of the call. Member utilities do not mark private lines on your property, such as a line out to a barn.

Some jobs do, and each town's building department or code office answers that question. In Oak Hill, that office is the Town of Durham's Building and Code Department. On permitted work, the town inspects water and sewer lines before they are backfilled. Excavation in a mapped flood zone needs a floodplain development permit as well.

Winter is our slow season for digging, so it is our snow plowing season. We plow driveways and private roads, plus parking areas for businesses. You can set up plowing for the whole season or call storm by storm.

Ponds are work for another contractor, and so are paving and asphalt. We build gravel driveways instead. We pull stumps with their roots, so stump grinding goes to a stump grinding company. Septic pumping and well drilling belong to other trades as well.

Yes, along with homes, we take farm and commercial work. On a farm, we brush hog fields and pastures and clear fence lines. One job cleared brush and overgrowth to open a pasture for new goats. For a business, we drill post holes for signs and prepare sites for new buildings.