Dirt work contractor · Pads, drives, grading, drainage
A pad that holds and a drive that drains is mostly a question of fall — getting it right, and getting it compacted so it stays right. That is the whole job.
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Free on-site estimates · Jack, Wise, Young, Palo Pinto and Parker counties
Dirt work is shaping the ground so it drains, carries weight and stays where you put it. A dirt work contractor builds house, barn and shop pads, cuts and rocks driveways, sets culverts, fixes drainage that runs the wrong way, and digs or cleans out stock tanks. We do it across Jack, Wise, Young, Palo Pinto and Parker counties with our own excavator, dozer and track loaders. Estimates are free.
Looking for dirt work near you in Jack, Wise, Young, Palo Pinto or Parker county? We are based in Jacksboro and work out to Bryson, Graham, Bridgeport, Decatur, Mineral Wells, Graford, Springtown and Weatherford, and the country in between.
Most dirt work out here is on rural property: a homesite on a few acres, a barn pad behind the house, a ranch drive that washes out every spring, a stock tank that has silted in. Ground around here changes fast. Sandy ground, tight clay and rock can all turn up on the same place, and what is under a pad or a drive decides how it has to be built. That is one more reason we walk it before we price it.
The jobs we do most, and what sets the price on each.
| Job | What it involves | What sets the price |
|---|---|---|
| House, barn & shop pads | Cut and fill to elevation, compacted in lifts, crowned and shaped to drain | How much dirt moves, and whether fill comes from your place or is hauled in |
| Driveways | Route cut in, crowned and ditched, base rock and gravel placed | Length, cut and fill, loads of rock and how far they are trucked |
| Culverts | Pipe set at the ditch flow line under entrances and crossings, bedded and covered | Pipe size and length, ditch depth, rock, permit requirements |
| Grading & leveling | Rough grade after clearing, smoothing ruts and old terraces, finish grade for seed or gravel | Area, how rough it is, how fine a finish you need |
| Drainage correction | Swales, diversions, washout and erosion repair, water turned away from buildings | How much ground gets reshaped and how far the water has to go |
| Pond & stock tank work | New tanks dug and shaped, silted tanks cleaned back to depth | Size, soil, how much silt, where the spoil goes |
All dirt work is quoted per job after we walk it. It is not priced by the acre like land clearing.
Cut, filled, shaped and compacted to a finished elevation that sits above the surrounding grade so water runs away from your slab, not toward it.
New drives cut and rocked, old drives reshaped and re-crowned, culverts set at the right invert so the ditch keeps working.
Water standing where it should not be, running through a barn, or cutting a rut across a pasture. We reshape the ground so it goes where it should.
Rough grading behind a clearing job, smoothing rutted or terraced ground, and finish grading ahead of grass, gravel or concrete.
Almost every dirt work problem we get called out to fix is one of two things: the ground does not fall the way it needs to, or the fill was never compacted properly.
Fall is slope — how much the ground drops over a given distance. A pad that looks flat to the eye needs a deliberate crown and a deliberate fall away from the building on every side. A driveway needs a crown down the centerline and ditches that actually carry water somewhere. Get this wrong and no amount of rock will save the drive; you will be adding material to the same soft spot every spring.
Compaction is the other half. Fill dirt placed in one thick lift and driven over a couple of times will settle — and it settles unevenly, which is worse than settling a lot. Placing it in lifts and compacting each one is slower and it is the difference between a pad that is still true in five years and one that has a low corner by next winter.
Both of these are invisible in a finished job. That is exactly why they are the corners most often cut, and it is why we would rather walk your ground and talk about water than quote you over the phone.
Dirt work is quoted per job, not by the acre, because the price comes from how much dirt has to move and how. A pad on ground that is close to level, built with fill from your own place, is a very different number from one that needs several hundred yards hauled in. Driveways turn on length and rock, and drainage work on how much ground gets reshaped. We walk it and give you a number, free.
If you are in Jack, Wise, Young, Palo Pinto or Parker county, yes. We are based in Jacksboro and work across Bryson, Graham, Bridgeport, Decatur, Mineral Wells, Graford, Weatherford and the country in between. Near the edge of that area? Call and we will tell you straight whether it is worth the drive for both of us.
Usually, and it is normally the cheapest way to do it. Very often the fill for a pad comes out of a stock tank we are digging or cleaning out on the same job, which gets you two things done for one mobilization.
If it is compacted properly in lifts, it is ready when we leave. What we do recommend, where your schedule allows it, is letting a pad see one good rain before the slab goes down — it is a free test of whether the drainage does what we said it would.
Yes. We can source and haul base rock and gravel for drives and pads, or place material you have already had delivered.
Nearly always, and nearly always the fix is drainage rather than more rock. If water is running down your drive instead of across it and off, adding gravel just gives the water something new to carry away. We look at where the water comes from first.
Most of the time, yes. Clearing and grading on the same mobilization saves you money and means the ground gets shaped correctly right after the brush comes off, rather than being left to wash for a season.
We are based in Jacksboro and work out from there across Jack, Wise, Young, Palo Pinto and Parker counties. If you are close to the edge of that circle, call and ask — we will tell you straight whether it is worth the drive for both of us.
We will come look at where the water goes and tell you what it takes to fix it.
