Grading and excavation
Dirt is the first thing on a job and the thing everything after it sits on. We clear, cut, fill, and compact to the lines and grades on the plan, and we test as we go rather than at the end, because a pad that fails a compaction test after the plumbing is in costs a great deal more than one that fails at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday.
What is in a grading contract
Grading is priced on quantity moved and how far it has to go. A takeoff off your plan set gives cubic yards of cut, cubic yards of fill, and the difference, which is either import you buy or export we haul off. Everything else, the clearing, the stripping, the moisture conditioning, the compaction, follows from those three numbers.
- Clear and grub, strip topsoil and stockpile it if it is worth keeping
- Cut and fill to plan, with fills placed in lifts and compacted to the spec
- Building pads, slabs on grade, and pad certifications
- Ag land leveling, laser and GPS grade, tailwater returns
- Ponds, basins, and reservoirs
- Import and export on our own trucks
- Overexcavation and recompaction where the soils report calls for it
Machine control, and why it matters on a bid
Our blades and excavators run 3D machine control off the same digital surface the civil engineer designed. The operator sees cut and fill on a screen instead of chasing a stake that a truck already knocked over. On a large site that is fewer grade checks, less rework, and a finished surface that holds tolerance across the whole pad rather than only near the hubs.
It also means we can hand you an as-built surface at the end. If the district or the lender wants proof the pad is where the plan said it would be, the data is already there.
Valley clay, and the reason grading has a season
Most of the valley floor between Chico and Willows is a heavy clay that swells wet and sets like concrete dry. Neither state compacts. There is a moisture window on either side of optimum where clay will take compaction, and hitting it is most of the skill in valley dirt work: a water truck on a dry August fill, and a disc and a week of sun on a damp one in March.
That window is why grading schedules run April to November here, and why a job that has to happen in winter needs either imported select material or a rock cap in the bid from the start. We would rather write that into the schedule in the estimate than discover it in the rain.
Compaction and testing
Fills go in at the lift thickness the spec allows for the equipment on site, usually six to eight inches loose for a sheepsfoot on clay. The testing lab is yours or the agency's; we coordinate with them so the tester is on site while the lift is open, not after the next one covers it. Failed tests get reworked and retested at our cost when the failure is ours.
What grading runs
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Mass excavation, on-site cut and fill | $4 to $9 per CY |
| Export, hauled off and disposed | $14 to $28 per CY |
| Import, select fill delivered and placed | $28 to $45 per CY |
| Building pad, cut to finish grade and certified | $1.50 to $4 per SF |
| Clear and grub, light brush to heavy orchard | $2,500 to $9,000 per acre |
| Mobilization, one machine and a lowbed | $900 to $2,400 |
Unit ranges are what this kind of work has been going for in the Sacramento Valley, put here so you can sanity-check a budget. They are not a bid. Quantities, access, haul distance, and the spec move every one of them.
Questions we get
By the cubic yard moved, plus mobilization. Send the grading plan and we will do our own takeoff. If there is no plan yet, we can price it time and materials with a not-to-exceed, which is usually the right answer for pads, driveways, and pond cleanouts.
For a permitted building pad, almost always. The report sets the overexcavation depth, the fill material, the compaction percentage, and the R-value that a pavement section is designed from. Without one we are guessing, and the inspector will ask.
Balance it on site if the plan lets us, because moving dirt twice is the most expensive thing in grading. What has to leave, leaves on our trucks. Clean fill often has somewhere nearby that wants it, which takes the disposal fee out of the number.
Yes. Small excavators, rubber tracks, and a plan for access before anything drives on it. On orchard and vineyard ground we lay the haul route out with you first, because compacted ground in a row middle is a problem that outlives the job.
Photos are stand-ins until our own job photos are up: public domain images from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service, plus freely licensed photos from Wikimedia Commons (CC0 and CC BY-SA 4.0).
Request a bid: grading and excavation
Scope, rough quantities, the town, and when the site is available. If there is a bid date on it, put the date and time in and we will confirm receipt the same day.
- The yard
- (530) 555-0142
- Bids and plan sets
- bids@northstateconstruction.com
- Where we work
- Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Colusa, Shasta, Sutter, and Yuba counties
- Yard at 4180 Midway, Chico, CA 95928
CSLB Class A General Engineering · license pending, expected June