Excavation & grading · Marrow Creek, Hodge Cutoff, Pyne Hollow · Since 1992
The dirt does not lie. Neither does the rate sheet.
Grit & Grade cuts basements, pads, ponds and trenches with four machines, one foreman and a rate sheet that has been public for thirty-four years. The numbers are below the headline because they are the headline.
Basements from $4,100 · pads graded to ±0.5 in · 95% Proctor on every lift · (555) 021-4478 · rates@gritandgrade.example
The 2026 sheet is the spring sheet — it changes when diesel does, and not before. Forty-mile radius from the Marrow yard, travel inside it free.
Services & rates
The 2026 rate sheet
Basement dig, 9–12 ft$4,100–8,900
Benching and OSHA slopes included, topsoil stockpiled on your site
Building pad, fine grade$0.16 / sq ft
GPS dozer to ±0.5 in of stake line, density report stapled to the invoice
Utility & septic trench$9.80 / lin ft
Bedding stone, pipe to invert, backfill compacted in lifts under the drive
Rock trench, breaker$16.40 / lin ft
Hydraulic hammer at the bucket’s own hourly rate — quoted before it starts
Pond, dirt moved$1.90 / yd³
Bowl cut to your waterline, clay core packed in 6-in lifts, spillway to plan
Spoils haul-off$148 / load
22-t tandem loads, clean-fill receipts filed for the township
2025 — 2026
The hole wall
Six digs from the last two seasons. Nothing staged — a hole photographed is a hole inspected, and the inspection tag is in the truck if you want it.
Small access
Through the gate, not through the fence
The 1.5-tonne mini walks through a 48-inch gate and digs full footings behind a house nobody thought was diggable. Backyards, side yards, the strip between the garage and the property line — if a wheelbarrow fits, we fit, and the rate is the same sheet rate as the big iron.
How a dig goes
Five moves, same every time
The only variable between jobs is what is in the ground. The sequence never changes, so the invoice never has a surprise line in it.
The walk and the number
Free, on your site, sheet on the tailgate. Slope, access, soils and the plan — the number is written before the truck leaves.
Locate & stake
The 811 ticket goes in 72 hours ahead of the iron, hubs are set to the plan, and private lines get walked and flagged with you.
Strip & stockpile
Six to eight inches of topsoil peeled and piled on your site — it is landscaping you already own, and it does not leave in a dump bed.
Cut, fill & compact
Earth moves in balance where the site allows; structural fill goes down in 8-in lifts at 95% standard Proctor, tested, not assumed.
Grade sheet & handover
Finish verified at ±0.5 in with the rover, density log stapled to the invoice, and the site left the way the sheet said it would be.
Rule one — the number holds
The sheet price is the invoice price. If the ground hands us something the walk could not see, the machine stops and you get a phone call with a new number in it — before the work, never after the bill.
Rule two — rock stops the machine
Hammer time is quoted ahead at the same hourly rate as the bucket, in writing, if the soils or the neighbourhood say basalt is likely. We never hammer first and negotiate after — that is how a rate sheet stops meaning anything.
The sheet said $6,900 for an eleven-foot basement. They hit shale at eight, called me from the pit, and the add was $410 — the hammer hours, at the rate I had already read. I have never had a dirt invoice I could predict before.
Four contractors told us the backyard was unreachable. The mini came through the gate like a wheelbarrow, dug the footing lines in two days, and the backfill was compacted in lifts you could see being tested. Same sheet rate as the big machines, to the hour.
Before the iron rolls
Fair questions
The four we get on every first call. If yours is not here, the yard line runs six to five, Monday to Saturday, and the person who answers has dug in your township.
What happens when you hit rock halfway through?
The machine stops and the hammer quote comes first — same hourly rate as the bucket, written before the chipping starts. The sheet says $16.40 a foot for rock trench because that is what it costs; it never becomes a negotiation after the hole is open.
Do you charge for the site walk?
No, and we will not quote your dig without one — a hole priced from a photograph is a guess with a deposit. The walk is free, the number is written on the tailgate, and it is yours to shop around with whether you hire us or not.
Can we keep the topsoil?
It is stripped and stockpiled on your site by default, marked in the contract so nobody hauls it by accident. Clean topsoil is the most expensive dirt on any job precisely because you already paid to move it once.
How deep before you have to shore?
Five feet in our soils and the trench gets benched or shored to the OSHA tables, no exceptions and no eyeball engineering. The sheet price already includes it — a dig that needs benches is priced as a dig that needs benches.
Spring holes book three weeks out · (555) 021-4478 · rates@gritandgrade.example
Get the number before the iron moves
The site, the scope, and the square footage if you have it. The walk is free, the sheet is the quote, and the hours you sign at the tailgate are the hours on the invoice. rates@gritandgrade.example