Site Prep and Grading
Site prep and grading for new homes, barns and commercial buildings around Milford. We build pads, cut and fill, place stone base and put in private roads and access lanes.
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Most lots around Milford start as woods. Land clearing is the first step before anything gets built. We clear wooded lots and acreage for homesites, additions, septic areas, roads and building pads. Trees, brush, stumps and rock ledge come out with excavators, and the debris is hauled off the lot.
We run our own excavators and equipment, so the clearing and the dirt work run together. Once the lot is open, we can dig the area for a new septic system. We can also move straight into grading and building pads. Estimates are free, and we clear for homes and commercial sites.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.
The woods around Milford sit on the glaciated Pocono plateau. Most of it is mixed hardwood: red oak, white oak, red maple, black cherry and black birch. Eastern hemlock and white pine fill the cooler north-facing slopes and the creek bottoms. Hemlock woolly adelgid has weakened hemlock stands across Pennsylvania, so dead standing trees come down with the rest.
Under the trees is glacial till, a mix of sand, silt, clay and stone the ice left behind. Boulders turn up where nobody planned for them. Sandstone and shale bedrock sits close to the surface in many spots and comes up as ledge. Shallow depth to bedrock is one of the soil limits Pike County asks you to flag on a plan.
That mix decides how a lot clears. Stumps in till usually pull out whole with an excavator. Where ledge runs shallow, we break it out and haul it off. That is the same work we do on a foundation or utility dig.
We clear with excavators. Trees come down and get cut up on the ground. Brush clearing and undergrowth come out on the same pass. Stumps and root balls come up whole, roots and all.
Stump removal matters more than people expect. Grinding a stump leaves the root ball in the ground, and buried wood rots and settles. Anything built over it settles with it. Pulling the stump out takes the wood with it, then the hole gets backfilled and compacted.
Everything that comes down leaves the lot. Stumps, brush and slash get loaded out and hauled off the site. We can also clear selectively and leave the trees you want to keep. Mark them before we start, and they stay.
Clearing usually opens ground for something specific. A house site, an addition, or a pad for a garage or barn. The area for a septic system needs room for the tank, the distribution box and the absorption area. A private road or access lane into the back of a property is another common one.
How much comes down depends on the plan. A septic area needs the trees and stumps out and room to work around the absorption area. A building pad needs clearing past the footprint, so there is room for the dig and the backfill. On a slope, the cut may need a boulder or block wall to hold the grade behind it.
Clearing changes how water moves across a lot. Pennsylvania counts clearing and grubbing as earth disturbance, so erosion controls go in before the machines start. A written erosion and sediment control plan belongs on site at 5,000 square feet of disturbance. An acre or more goes through the Pike County Conservation District.
Free, no-obligation estimates across the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York tri-state area.
(973) 552-8580From the first call or text to the final grading, here is how it goes.
Call or text (973) 552-8580 and tell us about the property. New builds, empty lots and failing systems all start here.
We come out and look at the property, the soil and where a system can fit. Estimates are free.
We dig the soil test pits. The township sewage enforcement officer runs the probes and the percolation tests, and approves the design. In New Jersey and New York, the county health department issues the permit.
Once the permit is issued, we set the tank and run the lines to the distribution box. Then we build the absorption area to the approved design. Conventional in-ground beds and elevated sand mounds are both common on lots around here.
The system gets inspected before anything is covered. In Pennsylvania the township sewage enforcement officer does that inspection. Then we backfill, grade the ground back out and clean up the site.
Common questions about land clearing across the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York tri-state area. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Site prep and grading for new homes, barns and commercial buildings around Milford. We build pads, cut and fill, place stone base and put in private roads and access lanes.
Learn More
We handle general excavation for homes and commercial sites around Milford: foundation and basement digs, footings, trenches and rock ledge. We run our own excavators and equipment, so the dig, the backfill and the compaction stay with one company.
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We build block and boulder retaining walls that hold slopes, cuts and fills on hillside lots. Proper base, drainage stone and pipe behind the wall, then backfill and compaction.
Learn MoreSawkill Environmental is licensed and insured, with Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor registration PA HIC #PA225040. That number is public, and you can look it up before you hire anyone.
We run our own excavators and equipment. That keeps the test pits, the install and the final grading on one schedule.
We work from Milford out about 25 miles. That covers Pike and Wayne counties in Pennsylvania, Sussex in New Jersey, and Orange and Sullivan in New York.
Estimates are free. We come out, look at the property and tell you what the job needs. Call or text (973) 552-8580.
Tell us about the property and what you need done, and we will come back with a free estimate. You can also call or text (973) 552-8580.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.
