Merrow Excavation · Odell Township · third generation · since 1968
We dig it like the deed carries our name.
What the pit does
Three packages, dug the same way since 1968
Small enough to price honestly, whole enough to mean it. Every package carries the locate, the lift schedule and the density tests — the parts other outfits itemize into surprises.
The Trench Package
$1,150from
- Up to 100 ft, benched and shored to the tables
- Bedding stone and pipe set to invert
- Backfill compacted in 8-in lifts
- Locate ticket and inspection tag handled
Perc-tested septic fields quoted after the soils report.
The Pad Package
$3,400from
- Topsoil stripped and stockpiled on site
- Cut-and-fill balanced across the parcel
- Fine graded to ±0.5 in of stake line
- 95% Proctor — every lift tested
Rock and groundwater priced before the bucket finds them.
The Pond Package
$6,800from
- Bowl cut to your surveyed waterline
- Clay core keyed and packed in 6-in lifts
- Spillway cut to the hundred-year line
- First-fill visit in the contract
A pond that will not hold is our pond to fix — twice in fifty-eight years.
The sequence
Grandfather Merrow’s five moves
The walk
Boots on the parcel with your plan, reading slope, soil and access. Grandfather charged for the walk; we never have, and his reason still holds — the walk is where the honest number is made.
The stake
Hubs and benchmarks set to the drawing, cut-and-fill flagged. Everything the machines do afterwards answers to those hubs, not to a foreman’s eye.
The strip
Topsoil peeled and piled on your site, brush grubbed, roots out. What is worth keeping never rides to somebody else’s fill pit.
The cut
Earth moved in balance where the site allows, structural fill placed in thin lifts. Merrow dirt is never dumped — it is placed.
The certify
Density tested lift by lift, finish verified at the hubs, and the whole record handed over with the invoice — a Merrow hole closes with paperwork or it does not close.
The wall
Dug by which Merrow, when
The pit keeps a board with every job on it since the beginning — the photographs moved to this wall as of last spring.
The pit ledger is public and on the counter · (555) 024-6613 · crew@merrowexcavation.example
Aldous Merrow — second generation
Runs the pits. Fifty-one seasons in the seat, reads a soil profile the way the county engineer reads a drawing, and has stopped exactly two jobs in his life — both for water, both correctly.
Petra Merrow-Voss — third generation
Grades and closes. GPS model in the morning, density report at dusk — the one who turned grandfather’s five moves into a checklist the county inspector now asks for by name.
Cole Barrow — foreman, 26 years
Started sweeping the shack at sixteen and knows where every field tile in Odell Township lies, including the ones that are on no map anywhere.
The pond package was $7,200 quoted and $7,200 invoiced, and the first-fill visit was in the contract before we asked. Two springs later it is brim-full and the geese have opinions about it. That is the whole review.
Asked at the counter
Do three generations argue about how to dig?
Constantly, and the dirt settles it. Grandfather’s five moves have not changed because they cannot; what has changed is the model in the machine, the density gauge and the closure report. The arguments now are about whether a lift passes at 96 or gets another pass. It gets another pass.
What if the package price is wrong for my site?
Then the package stops being the price — before the work, on paper. Slope, access and soils can push a job either side of “from”, and the walk exists to find that out. What never happens is the hole getting deeper while the number quietly follows it.
Why does the first-fill visit come in the pond contract?
Because a pond is finished by water, not by us. We cut the bowl, key and pack the core, cut the spillway — and then we come back to watch it do the only thing that proves the work. It has been needed twice in fifty-eight years, and it was our excavator both times.
Can you dig in the township where my site actually is?
Odell and the four townships touching it, plus anywhere within an hour of the pit that lets us keep the same foreman on your job. Past that we will tell you who to call — the ledger has a reputation to protect, and so does the name on it.
If the number moves, the shovel stops
A Merrow quote changes only with your knowledge and a written revision — never with the invoice. Rock, water, a buried foundation nobody recorded: the machine waits while you decide. That was grandfather’s rule and it survived two successions without a scratch on it.
The counter is open six to five
Or leave it here and Petra calls before the next coffee. Walks happen the same week in digging season, and the package number goes on paper before the truck rolls. crew@merrowexcavation.example