On this page
- Site Preparation Services for Residential and Commercial Construction
- Clearing and Grubbing at $160 an Hour
- Excavation Services and Rough Grading: Cut and Fill
- House Pads and Building Pad Preparation by Soil
- Driveways, Culverts and Drainage on Acreage
- Stock Tanks and Ponds: NRCS Basics, Dozer or Excavator
- Rock, Caliche and Wet Blackland Add a Day
- Demolition and Haul-Off Before Grading
- Site Preparation Cost in Texas
- Trusted Site Prep Near You: DFW, Hill Country, East Texas
- FAQ
Site Preparation Services for Residential and Commercial Construction
Our site prep services cover five steps: clearing, grubbing, rough grading, pad placement and water control. A house lot and a commercial site run on the same equipment. Home builders, commercial contractors and the homeowner building one house get the same written scope: hours, loads, days, cut and fill. Every site graded onto buried brush settles, so the first phase matters most.
Clearing and Grubbing at $160 an Hour
Grubbing pulls the root crowns after the land clearing and runs $160 an hour with dozer and operator. A mulcher leaves roots; a slab needs them gone, so we grub the footprint plus 10 feet and leave the rest mulched. Mesquite roots run 3 feet deep and come up whole on a root rake; cedar, which is ashe juniper, comes up shallow with topsoil on it. Remove the vegetation first, then the roots, then grade.
Excavation Services and Rough Grading: Cut and Fill
Rough grading moves soil from high spots to low spots until the elevation matches the plan, within 2 inches. Our excavation services and grading services bill $160 an hour. Cut and fill balanced on-site means no trucks. Imported fill adds $650 to $1,200 per load. Finish grading to a quarter inch belongs to the concrete contractor. Subgrade preparation for a slab is fill placed in 8-inch lifts, which a dozer track does well.
House Pads and Building Pad Preparation by Soil
A Texas house pad is 2 to 3 feet of select fill above natural grade, built in lifts and crowned to shed water. Blackland clay in DFW swells wet and shrinks dry, so it gets a crushed base and a moisture barrier from the builder. Blackland is a sponge in March and a brick in August. Hill Country caliche is a base already; we shape it and compact it. East Texas sandy loam packs well but needs positive drainage off every side. Tell me the foundation type and I will spec the fill to it.
Driveways, Culverts and Drainage on Acreage
A 300-foot gravel driveway on cleared ground takes one dozer day plus 6 to 8 loads of base, $4,500 to $7,000 all in. Drainage issues on acreage come from water crossing the drive instead of under it. The culvert goes in the natural swale and the drive sits 8 inches above grade. Low spots that hold water a day after rain get a ditch. Proper drainage off a slab is a 2 percent fall for the first 10 feet.
Stock Tanks and Ponds: NRCS Basics, Dozer or Excavator
A one-acre stock tank needs about 10 acres of watershed in the Hill Country and 6 in East Texas; NRCS pond standards still size mine. The dam core is clay keyed 3 feet into subsoil, with the spillway carrying the 25-year storm around the dam. A dozer builds a tank in open ground faster than an excavator because it moves and packs clay in one pass. When I wrote EQIP plans, half the tanks I evaluated leaked at the dam key.
Rock, Caliche and Wet Blackland Add a Day
Rock or caliche adds a day on Hill Country tracts; wet blackland adds a day in North Texas from November to April. Both go in the quote before the price. Wet blackland will not pack; it smears, and a slab on smeared clay loses stability the first dry summer. Last spring on a tract off US 380 we waited 9 days for the ground to firm. The wait cost nothing.
Demolition and Haul-Off Before Grading
We do not demolish houses; I refer that to a demolition contractor I trust and we come in behind. Barns, sheds, pens and slabs under 400 square feet we take down and haul at $650 to $1,200 per load, $1,100 minimum trip. Buried utility lines get located before any demolition or grubbing; the 811 call is free.
Site Preparation Cost in Texas
- Dozer or excavator with operator: $160 an hour
- Clearing before grading: $2,000 to $4,500 per acre by density
- Half-acre lot cleared: one skid steer day, $2,800
- Stumps: $4 per inch of diameter, $175 minimum
- Haul-off: $650 to $1,200 per load, $1,100 minimum trip
- Rock, caliche or wet blackland: add one day
A 0.6-acre lot in Celina, TX took one day and $2,800, plus 11 stumps at $420, before we started to prepare the site. Free estimate within 60 miles of a yard. Call (832) 987-3495 or send the form. Teo will call you back before the end of the business day.
Trusted Site Prep Near You: DFW, Hill Country, East Texas
Our crews work within 60 miles of Weatherford for DFW, Johnson City for the Hill Country, and Lindale for Tyler. Collin County pulled 11,136 single-family permits in 2025 by the Census Building Permits Survey. Floodplain lots need the county floodplain development permit before grading, FEMA map in hand. Expert site work from an insured crew is a usable pad that stays level. Call (832) 987-3495 or fill out the form. Teo will call you back before the end of the business day.
