Our Work
What the Money Buys
See full project write-ups on our Projects page →
Straight numbers from a local excavating contractor — what dirt work actually costs in Starke, Lawtey, Lake Butler, Middleburg, Gainesville, and the surrounding counties, and what moves the price up or down.
Most dirt work projects in North Central Florida start at $2,000. A compacted house pad typically runs $2,500 to $12,000, a driveway install $2,000 to $10,000, and a pond dig $5,000 to $25,000.
The final number on any dirt job comes down to three things: how many loads of fill it needs, how far the dirt has to be hauled, and how easy the site is to work. Everything below breaks that down.
| Project | Typical Range | What Drives It |
|---|---|---|
| Fill & grading projects | from $2,000 | Loads of fill needed, haul distance, and how much shaping the grade takes once the dirt is down. |
| House & building pads | $2,500 – $12,000 | Pad size and the height needed to reach the builder's elevation — fill volume is the biggest single factor. |
| Driveway installs | $2,000 – $10,000 | Length, base material, and culverts. A straightforward 200-ft driveway usually lands $2,000–$4,000. |
| Land clearing | $2,000 – $5,000 / acre | Vegetation density, tree size, and what happens to the debris. |
| Ponds | $5,000 – $25,000 | Size and depth, soil conditions, and where the spoil goes — dug and hauled, or shaped on site. |
| Septic systems | Quoted per job | Tank size, drain field design, and county permitting — priced after the site evaluation. |
These are real ranges we quote from, not national averages — see the dirt work, site prep, and driveway pages for what each service includes. Every job gets a free on-site estimate with a firm number before work starts.
Two jobs that look identical from the road can be thousands of dollars apart. When that happens, it's almost always one of these three.
Dirt moves by the truckload, so volume is the whole ballgame. A low spot might take a few loads; raising a building site to elevation can take dozens. Doubling the height of a pad more than doubles the dirt — the sides slope, so the volume grows fast.
Every load rides in a dump truck between the dirt source and your property. Fill sourced close to the site means your money goes into dirt; fill trucked from far away means it goes into diesel and drive time. We source as close as we can — it's the easiest cost lever on the job.
Trucks need room to get in, turn, and dump. Tight or wooded access adds handling. And what's under the surface matters: muck or organic soil has to come out before good fill goes in, because bad material under a pad is how slabs crack later.
A load price without a plan is a trap. The cheap per-load number you got quoted doesn't include what it costs to spread it, compact it, and grade it — or whether the estimate of "about 10 loads" turns into 25 once someone actually measures. Guessing wrong in either direction costs you money: too little dirt means a second mobilization, too much means you paid to haul dirt you didn't need.
That's why we measure every site in person, calculate the loads, and hand you one firm number for dirt delivered, placed, compacted, and graded. The estimate is free, and the number doesn't move after we start.
See full project write-ups on our Projects page →
These are our working ranges across North Central Florida. Pick your town for local details:
Free on-site estimates. We measure, calculate the loads, and the price doesn't move after we start.
386-288-2212