Every build in Altamont starts with moving dirt. A basement, a new home foundation, a steel shop, or a stock pond all need a hole dug to the right size and elevation before anyone else can get to work. When that first step is sloppy, the concrete crew spends days fixing it, and the building pays for it later.
Our general excavation work covers staking and elevations, stripping topsoil, digging footings and basements, sorting spoils, hauling off what can’t be reused, and backfilling in compacted lifts once the walls are ready. Altamont is a long drive out for our crews, so we plan each visit carefully and group the work so equipment isn’t sitting idle between steps. That planning is a big part of keeping your build on schedule.
We know benchland lots near the Uintas can change from soft soil to cobble in a few feet, and we plan the dig around that.
We bring excavators, loaders, and compaction equipment sized for basements, shop pads, and ponds, so the job isn't slowed by the wrong machine.
If your lot needs clearing, drainage work, or a different footing plan before we dig, we tell you plainly instead of digging anyway.
Spoils get stockpiled neatly, trash gets hauled, and we leave your Altamont site ready for forms instead of buried in loose dirt.
General excavation is the broad dig that turns a marked spot on a lot into a place a building can stand. Around Altamont that usually means basements and crawlspace foundations for new homes, footings for garages and additions, pads for steel shops and pole barns, and the occasional stock pond or retention basin on acreage. We work for homeowners, builders, ranchers, and businesses, and the job is the same each time: a hole with square corners, a firm bottom, and the elevation your plans call for.
Bigger projects often need more than one kind of dirt work. A house might need a basement dig, a pad for a detached shop, and a pond cut for stock water, all on the same property. Pulling that together into one plan keeps equipment moving and keeps the site from getting torn up twice.
Altamont sits on the upper benchlands on the south slope of the Uintas, and benchland ground tends to surprise people. One side of a lot can dig easily while the other side turns up cobble, larger rock, or a hard layer that slows every bucket. We look at the site before we quote and dig test spots when it makes sense, so the plan matches what is actually under the grass and sage.
Sloped lots add another wrinkle. Cutting into a hillside for a walkout basement means handling more spoils and paying close attention to where water will travel once the ground is opened up. Getting that right at the start saves a lot of wet basement trouble down the road.
At 6,391 feet, winters here bite hard, and footings have to sit below the frost line. Duchesne County uses a frost depth of 30 inches, which sets the minimum for footings, and basements go well past that. We shoot elevations before digging and check them as we go so the bottom of the hole lands where your engineer and inspector expect it.
Utah Blue Stakes rules apply to every dig. Whoever is excavating calls 811 at least 3 business days ahead and no more than 14 calendar days ahead, and the ticket expires after 21 days. On our jobs, that call is ours to make.
We don’t post prices because no two lots out here are alike. These are the things we look at when we walk your property:
Once the hole is dug, most builds need service lines run to the house or shop. If you need a run to a well, a barn, or a detached garage, our trenching work for water and power lines can happen while the equipment is already on site.
The Altamont, Bluebell, and Cedar Rim oil fields surround town, and plenty of local properties include a shop, a yard for trucks, or a pad for equipment. Those projects need a level, well compacted building pad and room around it for heavy vehicles to turn. We cut and fill to a consistent elevation, compact the subgrade, and leave the pad ready for concrete or gravel by others.
Shops almost always need water, power, and sometimes a septic tank or a floor drain line. Planning utility prep for a new shop or home alongside the pad dig keeps the trenches out of finished ground later.
After the foundation walls are poured, cured, and ready, we come back to backfill. That means placing material in lifts and compacting each one so the ground around the building doesn’t sink next spring. Rock and wet clay stay out of the backfill near the walls, since both can cause problems against a foundation.
The final step is shaping the ground around the building so snowmelt runs away from it. Good finish grading around a new foundation is the cheapest insurance against a damp basement there is. Building season fills up quickly once the snow leaves the benchlands, so call (801) 669-0512 early and we’ll plan our trips out around your schedule.
We walk the lot with you, look at slope, access, and soil, and review your plans for depth, footprint, and building pad elevation.
You get a written quote covering digging, hauling, backfill, and compaction, along with a date that fits our scheduled trips out to Altamont.
We stake the footprint, strip topsoil, dig to the planned elevation, and sort spoils so good material is ready for backfill.
Together we check the finished excavation against your plans, talk through backfill timing, and confirm when we'll return after the walls are poured.
