A full range of services to complement your team.

Dirtwirx specializes in preparing a construction site so that the actual construction can take place. We lay down the fundamental necessities, such as access roads or trenches for utilities, and perform any kind of excavation or land clearing that the property requires.

We can create engineered building pads, dig out basement cavities and perform rough and final land grading. Our equipment makes these tasks a snap, and our experienced team members can troubleshoot any situation and rise to meet any need that you may have, no matter how unique. Partner with us to complement your own capabilities without having to invest in your own equipment or manpower.

What Exactly Is Site Work?

“Site work” refers to any kind of construction outside of the actual building being constructed. But there could be no building without the proper site preparation, and that’s where a professional dirt work crew like Dirtwirx is so crucial. If you don’t want your home or office building to become the next Leaning Tower of Pisa, you need to make sure the ground is stable, the building pad is level and that the surrounding ground is properly graded before construction can begin. This important attention to detail is what keeps a building structurally sound, even more so than the quality of the materials and craftsmanship used in its construction.

You can think of dirt work as all of our services rolled into an easy 2-word phrase. Tree removal, stump grinding, root raking, demolition, brush clearing, land clearing, driveways, culverts, utility trenches, construction entrances and more all constitute dirt work.

Who We Work With

The Dirtwirx team is highly flexible and skilled at working in a variety of environments and situations. We work directly with homeowners or we contract with other construction teams to fill a service gap. We may have the knowledge and equipment that complements another crew’s services, and we may be asked to partner with them on an existing project to get the job done right. Whatever the circumstances, it’s our pleasure to work with you or your team and to provide high-quality dirt work time and time again. We will work alongside your site supervisor to make sure our work is done in a way that makes sense for the overall project, and of course as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible.

Site Work Pricing

Naturally, pinning down the price of our dirt work services involves a number of factors. At the forefront are the site itself and your ultimate goal. If a dramatic transformation is required, it will certainly require more working hours and perhaps more specialized equipment. Therefore, we recommend calling us to discuss your particular situation. We’ll take a look at which specific services your project will require and then provide you with a detailed line estimate.

Dirt Work Equipment

We have a veritable arsenal of machinery that makes it possible for us to provide quality dirt work in an efficient and safe manner. Because the equipment we use is top of the line and makes our job that much easier, we are able to pass on the savings in labor cost to our clients.

We have a range of heavy-duty machines used for the demolition of buildings or parking lots:

      Hydraulic excavator

      High-reach excavator

      Hoe ram

      Bulldozer

      Crane + wrecking ball

      Hydraulic shears

      Hydraulic hammer

      Fire hoses (to keep down dust)

We also have a fleet of machines designed for land clearing and tree removal:

      Self-Propelled Horizontal Grinders

      Feller Buncher

      Whole Tree Chipper

      Stumper

      Tree Skidder

      Hydro-ax Mulcher (also known as a Forestry Mulcher)

      Bulldozer

      Excavator

      Backhoe

      Skidsteer

      Compact Track Loader

This is by no means an exhaustive list. In addition, if your project requires equipment that we do not already have, we have many top-tier industry contacts from which we can rent the machines that will allow us to perform the highest quality site work possible.

Site Work Process

The first thing we do before beginning any site work is to make sure all of the permits are in order. Having the correct county permits means that the project should go smoothly from a bureaucratic point of view. Applying for permits is typically straightforward and is a service that we are happy to provide for our clients, as it can be a little confusing when applying for such a permit for the first time.

When the necessary permits have been granted, we then go to the site and build a construction entrance. This is a temporary driveway that is stable enough to withstand the daily traffic of heavy machinery and vehicles (such as dump trucks) coming and going. A construction entrance also provides enough room for large trucks to easily turn around and maneuver. The construction entrance will also be used throughout the construction process, even after our preparatory dirt work is finished and the building crew takes over.

Sometimes there will be an existing building on site that we will first deconstruct (an attentive process in which we remove elements of historical significance and/or remove materials that may otherwise not be recycled) the building if needed, then demolish the structure and also haul away the debris. But when we are tasked with preparing a site that has never been built on before (or that has since become severely overgrown), we begin the overall land clearing process with tree removal. On large plots of land, this usually means we break out the hydro-ax and go to town. The hydro-ax is a powerful tool that turns whole trees into mulch within minutes. However, in smaller spaces where a hydro-ax isn’t so practical, we use smaller, tamer equipment to cut down and process the trees.

From there we may mow down the underbrush, if it is particularly unruly, before using the backhoes to skim off the top layer of vegetation until only the dirt remains. Once this is done, we begin the elaborate process of scraping, digging, moving and shifting the dirt to grade the land. If the area is already naturally graded, this is not a long process. In other cases we may have to do a significant amount of dirt work, building berms and swales or digging detention or retention ponds to ensure that heavy rainfall won’t collect and pool near the building. This is called the “rough grading” stage.

Next we’ll move on to the engineered building pad. This is a flat, level area of stabilized land that is suitable for building on top of. The building pad typically holds a poured concrete base for a home, office, barn, shed or garage. Sometimes a basement will be carved into the building pad as well.

Final grading is the process that fine-tunes the previous grading work, smoothing out the contours of the land and verifying that everything is as it should be for proper water flow.

Once the building crew comes in to do their work, we may do additional site work to prepare for landscaping areas or parking lots. We’ll dig utility trenches, install culverts and the driveway, as well as any parking lots. Finally, we help with any final site clean-up, such as hauling away debris from the construction process.