Excavation
Excavation around Shelby, NC. Footings, driveway culverts, drainage trenches, pond banks and site prep, with the spoil hauled off in our grapple trucks.
Home Our Work About Contact Call (704) 600-8146
Drainage and erosion control in Shelby, NC comes down to one thing. The water has to leave without taking your soil with it. Cleveland County sits on Piedmont red clay. Cecil subsoils run 35 to 70 percent clay and take in water at about half an inch per hour. A hard storm here drops far more than that. So the rain runs across the top of the ground instead of soaking in. We cut ditches, set culverts and shape the ground so it runs where you want it.
We handle the outside work that moves water off your land. That covers driveway culvert installation and replacement, ditching, drainage swales and regrading a yard that holds water. On slopes and banks we repair washouts and set rip rap. Excavators, a dozer and skid steers do the digging. Our trucks bring in stone and fill dirt and haul the spoil off. We cover about 25 miles around Shelby, into Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and Rutherford counties. When the drive itself is the problem, our gravel driveway work handles the stone and the crown.
Tell us about your land and we’ll get right back to you.
Two things cause most of it. The ground is tight, and the grade is flat or turned the wrong way. Cecil clay soils take in about half an inch of water per hour. A 2-year, 15-minute storm around Shelby runs about 3.8 inches per hour under NOAA Atlas 14. Shelby also averages 47.89 inches of rain a year. About 15 of those days drop an inch or more. That water has to go somewhere. With no fall to follow, it sits in the low spot and stays there for days.
We start by finding where the water comes in and where it can leave. Then we shape the ground to a steady fall toward that outlet. A shallow drainage swale carries a lot of water once it is cut on grade. Low spots get filled and capped with topsoil our trucks bring in. Around a house we pull the grade away from the walls so nothing pools against them. Yard leveling, building pads and general dirt work sit on our land grading and leveling page.
At a state maintained road, NCDOT sets that answer. The rule is a pipe at least 15 inches across. It has to run at least 20 feet and can go up to 48 inches. The district engineer decides the size for your spot, based on how much land drains to that ditch. NCDOT installs a residential driveway pipe at its own expense when the property owner furnishes the pipe. A single residence normally needs no driveway permit. Your drive may not push water across the pavement or fill in the road ditch.
Many rural roads around Cleveland County are state maintained, so those rules apply. We call NC 811 at least three working days before we dig. The marks stay good for 28 days after that. The pipe gets set at the flow line of the ditch so water runs straight through it. It beds on clean 57 stone. NCDOT calls for at least a foot of cover over a side drain pipe. Our post on fixing a washed out gravel drive shows what an undersized pipe does to a drive.
What moves the price is pipe size and length, ditch depth, and how much dirt has to come out. A short pipe in an open ditch is quick work. A deep cut with a big pipe and a rebuilt drive takes longer. One customer needed two 24 inch culvert pipes set before anyone could reach the land. We excavated and set them while we mulched the property. We come look at the ground, then price it, and we set a date after the estimate.
A washout on a slope means the water got fast and found bare dirt. We fill the gully, rebuild the grade and break the run so the water slows down. At pipe outlets and on steep banks we set rip rap. The NC DEQ erosion and sediment control manual calls for a filter under that stone. That is six inches of gravel filter or a layer of filter cloth. NCDOT sizes erosion control stone by class. Class A runs 2 to 6 inches and Class B runs 5 to 15 inches. The toe gets keyed into solid ground so the stone stays put.
Pond banks and creek banks wear down the same way. We clear the brush, pull the downed trees and rebuild the bank so it holds. A mini excavator can work right down at the edge of the water. It does that without tearing up the whole bank. One customer had trees down along a creek after Hurricane Helene. We cleared them and opened the way back to the woods and the creek. Digging a new pond is different work, and that sits with our excavation and site digging.
On our own clearing and grading jobs we run silt fence and keep the sediment on the property. Disturbing an acre or more needs an approved Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan under G.S. 113A-57. It has to be filed 30 days before work starts. Cleveland County has no delegated program, so those plans go to the state DEMLR office. Gaston and Lincoln counties run their own programs and their own fees. We do this work around Boiling Springs, Lawndale and Lincolnton, plus everything we handle in Kings Mountain.
Free, no-obligation estimates across Shelby, NC and 25 miles around.
(704) 600-8146From the first call to the last pass of the rake, here is how it goes.
Tell us where the land is and what you want it to do. We set a time to come see it, usually within a few days.
We look at the ground, the growth and the access in person. You get a real number and a plan before any machine moves.
Our own equipment rides in on our lowboy. Most residential jobs run one to three days, and you see progress the first morning.
Debris is mulched or hauled off and the ground is left ready to use. We look the job over with you before we leave.
Common questions about drainage & erosion control across Shelby, NC and 25 miles around. Don't see yours? Give us a call and ask.
Excavation around Shelby, NC. Footings, driveway culverts, drainage trenches, pond banks and site prep, with the spoil hauled off in our grapple trucks.
Land grading in Shelby, NC. We cut, fill and compact so your yard, pad or gravel drive sits flat and sheds water instead of holding it.
Gravel driveway installation, repair and regrading around Shelby, plus farm lanes, access roads and gravel parking pads on Piedmont clay ground.
Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees into a mulch layer where they stand. Nothing gets hauled off and nothing gets burned.
Bush hogging for fields, pastures and overgrown lots around Shelby, NC. Our rotary cutters take down waist high growth, briar and small saplings, and put the ground back in shape.
Tree removal in Shelby, NC for leaning, dead and storm-downed trees. We drop them with machines and haul the wood off.
LDS Solutions runs the way a veteran-owned company should: show up on time, do the work right, leave the place better than you found it. Our own crew runs our own machines.
Tracked mulcher, skid steers, excavators, dozer and grapple trucks, all owned. Your job never waits on a rental yard, and the right machine is always on the trailer.
We come look at the ground in person, tell you what the job takes, and give you a real number before any machine moves. The estimate costs you nothing.
Red clay that ruts when wet, pine and privet that come back every summer, foothill slopes that shed rain sideways. We work this ground every week and plan for it.
Gravel driveways wash out when water runs down them instead of off them. The crown, ditch, culvert and stone that fix it for good, with published repair costs.
Read more →
Most NC land clearing under 1 acre needs no state permit. Over 1 acre for development requires an erosion control plan filed 30 days ahead. The rules, plainly.
Read more →Land to clear, a field to mow, trees down from a storm, or a building that needs to come down? Call or send the form. We come look at the ground in person and the estimate is free. We clear land. You build dreams.
Tell us about your land and we’ll get right back to you.