Grading & clearing
Grading & Land Clearing
Clearing brush and rock, cutting pads, shaping drainage and hauling off what’s left, so a raw parcel turns into something you can build on.
Clearing
Take the lot down to workable ground.
Most raw parcels out here come with juniper, sage, rabbitbrush, old fence line and a pile of rock nobody wants to deal with. We clear it, sort what is worth keeping, and haul off the rest.
Boulders that come out of a lot often go straight back in as a rock wall or slope armoring, which saves you paying to haul them away and paying again for imported stone.
What clearing covers
- Brush, juniper and tree removal
- Rock and boulder removal or reuse
- Old fence, concrete and debris demolition
- Dirt, gravel and debris hauling
- Fire-break and defensible-space clearing
- Road and driveway cuts on raw parcels
Local ground
Grading a desert lot is mostly about water and rock.
Clearing and grading in Washington County means dealing with what the lot is made of, not just what is growing on it.
Caliche
Cut-and-fill through hardpan needs the right machine. Leaving it in the wrong place under a pad leads to uneven settling.
Blue clay
Expansive clay under a pad has to be handled per the geotech report, usually over-excavation and compacted fill, before anything is built on it.
Rock & drainage
Boulders and sandstone come out or get used as fill where allowed, and every pad gets graded so monsoon runoff leaves the structure instead of pooling against it.
Grading
Water is the whole point.
Rough grading gets the lot to shape. Fine grading gets it to the plan. On a desert lot, both are really about deciding where the water goes during a monsoon, because it is going to go somewhere.
We cut and fill to the elevations on your plan, compact in lifts rather than one big dump, and pitch the finished grade so runoff leaves the structure instead of pooling against it.
Grading work
- Rough and fine grading to plan
- Building pads and shop pads
- Cut-and-fill on sloped and bench lots
- Drainage swales and positive slope away from structures
- Driveway and road base prep
- Final grade before landscaping
FAQ
Common questions
What is the difference between clearing and grading?
Clearing takes off what is growing on the lot and what is lying on it: brush, trees, rock, old fence and debris. Grading reshapes the dirt underneath to the elevations and slopes your plan calls for. Most jobs need both, in that order.
Can you reuse the rock you pull out of my lot?
Often, yes. Good sandstone boulders can become a retaining wall, slope armoring or a landscape feature instead of a hauling bill. We'll tell you at the walkthrough what is worth keeping.
Do you haul the debris away?
Yes. Dirt, gravel, rock and debris haul-off is part of the bid, not a surprise line item at the end.
How do I stop my lot from flooding when it rains?
Positive slope away from the structure, plus swales or a French drain to carry water somewhere safe. Monsoon runoff here arrives fast and all at once, so the grade has to be right the first time.
Free estimate
Tell us about the job.
Fill this out and we’ll call you back. Prefer to talk? Call (702) 289-7016.
- Site visits and estimates are free anywhere in our service area
- Residential, commercial and agricultural
- Serving Apple Valley and all of Washington County