Every building starts with dirt work, and the quality of that dig follows the project all the way to the roof. A basement that’s a few inches off grade, walls that slough in, or spoils piled where the concrete truck needs to park all cost time and money later. Good general excavation avoids those problems by getting the shape, depth, and staging right on day one.
We dig across Ashley Valley for homeowners, builders, farms, and businesses. That covers basements and crawl spaces, footings for additions and garages, pads for shops and pole barns, retaining wall cuts, ponds, and removal of buried concrete or junk. We plan where the dirt goes before we start, keep good material for backfill, and haul off what won’t compact.
We dig all over Ashley Valley, so we know where clay, cobble, and old farm fill tend to show up under the topsoil.
Excavators, loaders, and compaction gear sized to the job let us work a tight town lot or a wide shop pad efficiently.
If your plans put the house too low or the spoils in the wrong spot, we'll tell you before digging, not after.
We keep roads and driveways free of mud, stack spoils neatly, and leave the hole clean and ready for forms.
Ashley Valley is a lot of different ground packed into one basin. You’ve got older town lots near the center, newer subdivisions on the edges, and farms and homes spread out toward Naples and Maeser. General excavation looks a little different on each one. A tight lot means careful staging and short hauls, while open acreage gives equipment room but often means longer truck trips and bigger piles of spoils to manage.
Plenty of building sites here started out as pasture or hay ground, and some still have brush, old fence lines, or scrap piles on them. Getting lot clearing done before we dig keeps roots and trash out of the dirt you’ll want back as backfill.
Ashley Valley sits around 5,300 feet, and winter lows dip to about 10°F. Cold like that drives frost into the ground, and frozen soil expands enough to lift a shallow footing. That’s why Uintah County requires footings at least 30 inches below grade. Basements and crawl spaces go well past that, and a walkout on a sloped lot may need two different depths in the same hole.
We shoot elevations from a fixed benchmark before the first bucket and check them as the dig goes down. Hitting the bottom right the first time matters, because overdigging means bringing in fill and compacting it back up, and that’s slower and costlier than digging to the right depth.
A basement dig pulls a surprising amount of dirt out of the ground, and where it sits matters more than most people expect. Before we start, we work out a plan for the spoils with you:
Getting that layout right keeps the site workable for every crew that comes after us.
Not every dig is a basement. Around the valley we excavate for steel shops, pole barns, equipment pads, stock ponds, and cuts for retaining walls. Pads need soft topsoil and organic material stripped out, then a firm subgrade built up and compacted so the slab or gravel on top doesn’t settle unevenly. Ponds need sides cut to a stable slope and a plan for where overflow will go.
Once the main dig is done, grading the surrounding ground pitches everything away from the new structure so snowmelt and summer storms run off instead of soaking in at the walls.
In Utah, whoever runs the equipment is the one who calls Blue Stakes at 811, so on our jobs that’s us. The call has to go in at least 3 business days before digging, but not more than 14 calendar days ahead, and the locate ticket expires after 21 days. If a dig stalls past that window, we call again for fresh marks.
Blue Stakes only marks public utility lines. Private lines like a power feed to a detached garage, a sprinkler main, or an old septic line are on the owner to point out, so walk the site with us and tell us everything you know is buried.
After the footings are poured and the foundation walls cure, we come back to backfill. That means placing soil in thin lifts and compacting each one instead of pushing it all in at once, which is what keeps the ground around your house from sinking over the next few winters. We keep heavy equipment back from fresh walls while we work.
If water, sewer, gas, or power lines still need to reach the building, utility prep trenching fits right after backfill while equipment is still on site. Call (801) 669-0512 and we’ll walk your lot and talk through the dig.
We walk the lot with your plans, check access for trucks, and talk through where spoils and topsoil will sit.
Your free quote lays out depth, footprint, material to keep or haul, and backfill, so you know exactly what's included.
We stake, shoot elevations, dig to grade, and keep walls clean and corners square so forms go in without trimming.
We walk the finished hole with you or your builder, confirm depths, and set a date to come back for backfill.
