Our Excavation Services
Photo: USDA NRCS (public domain)Every service below has its own page with pricing factors, process, and timelines.
Land Grading & Leveling
Rough and final grading, yard leveling, slope correction, and regrading around foundations so water runs away from your house instead of into it. The most-requested job in Augusta, and the one our red clay makes hardest to DIY.
Site Preparation
Building pads, cut and fill, compaction, and lot prep for new construction — from a single garage slab to a full homesite in Columbia County's growth corridors.
Land Clearing
Brush, trees, stumps, and overgrown lots cleared, grubbed, and hauled off. Acreage pricing explained up front, Georgia burn rules handled properly.
Trenching & Utility Trenches
Water lines, electrical conduit, septic lines, irrigation, and French drain trenches — dug to depth and to code, with Georgia 811 locates called before any bucket touches dirt.
Drainage Solutions
Standing water, soggy yards, wet crawlspaces, and water against the foundation. French drains, swales, catch basins, and regrading — engineered for Augusta's clay, not against it.
Pond Excavation
Farm ponds, recreational ponds, and retention ponds. Our clay is actually an asset here — it seals a pond bottom naturally when it's cut and compacted correctly.
Basement & Foundation Excavation
Footings, slab prep, crawlspace dig-outs, and backfill compacted in lifts — dug to your engineer's specs and kept dry while the hole is open.
Gravel Driveways & Culverts
New gravel driveways, regrades of washed-out drives, culvert pipe sizing and installation, and the crown-and-ditch drainage that keeps a driveway from becoming a creek bed.
Demolition
Sheds, garages, mobile homes, pools, and other small structures taken down and hauled off — including our "demo to dirt pad" package that leaves you build-ready.
Why Augusta Properties Need Professional Grading
Most of the CSRA sits on Cecil series soil — the red clay every Augusta homeowner knows. It barely absorbs water, so rain ponds in yards, against slabs, and under crawlspaces unless the lot is graded to move it. It swells wet and shrinks dry, putting hydrostatic pressure on foundations — nationally, typical foundation repairs average around $4,500, and a regrade that keeps water off the foundation costs a fraction of that. And because Augusta sits on the fall line, soil can change character across a single lot.
Add the Savannah River: close to 20% of Augusta's land lies in a mapped 100- or 500-year floodplain according to the city's floodplain outreach. Grading, drainage, and building pad elevation aren't cosmetic here — they're what stands between your property and standing water. That's why grading and drainage work are the heart of what we do.
Residential & Commercial Excavation
Homeowners call for yard regrades, drainage fixes, gravel driveways, and pool or shed demos. Builders and GCs call for lot clearing, building pads, utility trenches, and final grade — on schedule, because your framing crew's start date depends on it. No job is too small to price: if it takes a machine and a good operator, call (762) 224-7903.
Service Area: Augusta & the CSRA
We serve Augusta (Summerville, West Augusta, south Augusta, Hephzibah), Columbia County (Evans, Grovetown, Martinez — including the fast-growing neighborhoods around Fort Eisenhower), and across the river in North Augusta and Aiken, SC. If you're anywhere in the CSRA searching "excavation near me," call and we'll confirm scheduling for your address.
How Our Process Works
- Call or send the form. Tell us what you're dealing with — a wet yard, a lot to clear, a pad to build. We'll ask a few questions and give you a realistic ballpark on the phone.
- Free on-site visit. We walk the property with you, check slopes, soil, access, and utilities, and talk through options. No charge, no obligation.
- Written quote. A firm, itemized written estimate — not a number scribbled on a card. You'll know what's included, what's excluded, and how long it takes.
- The work. Georgia 811 locates are called before any digging — it's Georgia law — then the work is done to spec and the site left clean and stable.
What to Expect
Excavation and grading at this scale is work for licensed, insured operators — ask any contractor for proof of insurance before work starts, and expect a free written, itemized estimate so the invoice matches the quote. That's the standard every job through this site is held to, residential or commercial. {{LICENSE_LINE_IF_APPLICABLE}}
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do excavators charge per hour in Augusta?
Most excavation work with an operator and machine runs $100–$300 per hour depending on the machine size and the job, though we quote nearly everything as a fixed price after a free site visit — an hourly number alone doesn't tell you what your project costs. Call (762) 224-7903 with your address and project description and we'll give you a real number.
Do I need a permit for grading or excavation in Augusta?
Often, yes. Augusta–Richmond County requires an approved soil erosion and sedimentation control plan and grading permit for non-exempt grading projects, and Columbia County issues land disturbance permits through its Stormwater Compliance Department. Construction activity disturbing one acre or more also requires coverage under Georgia EPD's NPDES construction stormwater general permits, with a Notice of Intent filed at least 14 days before land disturbance begins. Small residential regrades frequently don't need a permit, but requirements are confirmed for your specific parcel before work starts.
Is my property in a flood zone?
Close to 20% of Augusta's land sits in a mapped floodplain, so it's a fair question. Check the FEMA flood map for your address (or ask us — we look it up during every site visit). Augusta's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance requires a flood permit before construction or land disturbance in mapped flood-prone areas, and new structures there generally must be elevated relative to base flood elevation — which affects how much fill your project needs and what it costs.
Do you take small jobs?
Yes. A half-day skid steer job — spreading a few loads of fill, cutting a short drainage swale, grading a gravel drive — is a normal week for us, not a nuisance. Small dirt jobs done wrong become big drainage jobs later, so we'd rather do them right the first time.