What we do
Three trades, one bench at a time
Cuts, fills & 2-lift bases
Driveways, pads and road beds get a base built in two compacted lifts, never one deep dump — each lift graded, watered and rolled to 95% standard Proctor before the next goes on. A base like that does not pump under a truck in April or settle under a slab in August.
Benching & hillside digs
A slope is not a wall waiting to be cut. We bench hillside sites into stable steps, key each fill bench into undisturbed soil, and leave every cut face at the angle the soil table allows. Two hundred and fourteen valley hillsides, none of them moving since.
Ponds & drainage that hold
A pond leaks because its core was rushed, not because its clay was poor. Cores are packed in 6-in lifts, inlets get riprap, spillways get cut to the hundred-year line, and we come back for the first fill — a pond that holds in February is the only reference we count.
The valley, measured
How Basin & Bench runs
Two rules on every hillside
Rule one: nothing gets dumped that has not been compacted — every fill goes down in lifts thin enough to roll to density, or it stays in the truck. Rule two: water finishes the job we started, so every grade leaves here shedding it. Seventeen seasons of valley springs have graded our work harder than any inspector.
Water is the proof
Every pond we cut comes with a first-fill visit in the contract. If it will not hold, the fix is on us — core, liner or clay, whatever the ground turns out to need. Seventeen seasons in, that clause has been used twice.
Neighbours
The valley, quoted
Two contractors told us to buy the flat lot. Basin & Bench benched our slope in three steps, keyed the fill, and set the house pad so level the framer asked which surveyor we used. Four winters on, the hillside above us settled an inch; ours has not moved.
Our last pond took three summers of patching. These folks packed the core in six-inch lifts like it was a public dam, lay riprap at the inlet, and came back in February to watch it fill. It has been brim-full every wet season since.
They built our vineyard road base in two compacted lifts when the low bidder promised the same depth in one dump-and-roll. The difference shows every harvest: their section is flat, the cheap section pumps mud through the culvert. Pay for the lifts.
Before you call
Questions from the slope
The five every valley project starts with. If yours is not here, the shop line at the bottom runs seven to five, and someone who has run a machine on your road will answer it.
How steep a slope can you bench?
In the valley soils, a stable bench cuts at 1.5 horizontal to 1 vertical, with each fill bench keyed into undisturbed ground. Above roughly thirty degrees the site usually wants an engineer-drawn section — we work to stamped plans several times a season and can recommend the engineer too.
Will our pond actually hold water?
The core decides, so the core is where the time goes: clay placed and packed in 6-in lifts at 95% Proctor, keyed into a cut bowl. If the first fill shows a leak, the first-fill clause in our contract covers the repair. Two used in seventeen seasons.
What does a 2-lift base actually buy?
Density you can test. A single thick lift compacts at the top and stays loose below — it pumps, rutts and settles for years. Two thin lifts each roll to 95% Proctor through their full depth, and the density report says so on paper.
Can your machines reach a fenced backyard?
The 1.5-tonne mini passes through a 48-in gate and does full trench and footing work. If the access is narrower than that, everything moves by wheelbarrow and it still gets done — the quote just says so up front.
Do you clear the trees as well?
Clearing, grubbing and stump removal are part of the same mobilization — brush chipped, stumps pushed, root mat stripped, and marketable logs left in lengths your mill will take. One crew, one rate sheet, no subcontractor roulette.
Hillside walks booked two weeks out · (555) 010-4462 · office@basinandbench.example
Walk the slope with us
Bring the parcel, the plan if one exists, and a boots-on walkthrough. You get the benching approach, the lift schedule and a fixed number before we leave the gate. office@basinandbench.example