Grading & Leveling
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.
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Dirt work in Shelby, NC starts with the ground you already have. We cut the high spots down and fill the low ones. We backfill around footings and shape ground so water runs off it. We run tracked skid steers with grapples and excavators from a mini up to 27 ton. A dozer with a root rake does the pushing. You can also hire a machine and our operator by the hour or the day. Every job starts with a free on-site estimate.
Most of what we move here is red clay. It packs hard when it is dry and goes slick when it is wet. Timing matters as much as horsepower. On a wooded lot, clearing the trees and brush first has to happen before any dirt moves. On an open lot we go straight to cutting and filling. We move, spread and shape dirt that is already on your property, or dirt you have had delivered. Grapple trucks haul the brush and debris off.
Tell us about your land and we’ll get right back to you.
Dirt work is the machine work that changes the shape of the ground. It covers cutting, filling, spreading, backfilling and stripping topsoil. Site preparation for a house, shop or barn is dirt work. So is a rough grade after a builder pulls out. So is cleaning up ruts and piles after a timber harvest. The digging end of a job, footings, trenching and pond bank work, has its own page. Dirt work is the umbrella over all of it. The dirt has to go somewhere, and a machine has to put it there.
Plenty of these jobs are small. A backfill around a new footing. A load of fill spread and shaped where a low spot holds water. A cut for a shop pad or a camper pad. A yard left rough after a builder finished. We bring the machine that fits the space. On a tight lot that is a mini excavator or a skid steer. Finish work like yard leveling and building pads has its own page. The two jobs often run back to back.
A pad that a building goes on has rules behind it. The state residential code, section R506.2, says vegetation, top soil and foreign material come out from inside the foundation walls. Fill has to be clean and packed so it holds the slab up evenly. That is why we strip topsoil off a pad instead of grading over it. Stumps and roots have to come all the way out. Fill goes back in layers and gets tracked in as it comes up.
Nobody can price dirt work over the phone, and the published data says the same thing. HomeGuide's 2026 excavation guide puts operated machine time at $100 to $300 per hour. An operator without a machine runs $50 to $150 per hour there. Most operators charge a minimum of one day or eight hours. Many excavation contractors also carry a $500 to $800 minimum project fee. Those are national figures, not our quote. HomeGuide's own line is that a contractor has to visit the site in person for an accurate estimate. Our guide to excavator, skid steer and dozer rates with an operator lays out every published range.
Six things move the price on a dirt work job. How much dirt moves, and how far it has to travel. Whether it stays on the property or leaves. Access, since a 27 ton excavator needs room a mini does not. Rock, which sits a foot or two down in spots around here. Wet ground, which stops machine work until the clay dries out. And what goes on top, whether that is grass, a building pad or a new gravel drive or parking pad. We look at all of it on site, price the job from what we see, then set a date.
Cleveland County sits on Piedmont red clay. Cecil soils run 35 to 70 percent clay in the subsoil and take in water at about half an inch an hour. Rock can sit a foot or two down toward the foothills. Shelby averages 47.89 inches of rain a year, with about 15 days that drop an inch or more. A 2-year, 15-minute storm here runs near 3.8 inches an hour. That water sheets across the top instead of soaking in, and wet clay stops a machine cold.
A few rules set the order of work. We call NC 811 at least three working days before we dig, every time. No machine goes within 10 feet of a high voltage line, under G.S. 95-229.7. The utility gets 48 hours of notice. A job that disturbs more than an acre needs an approved erosion control plan, under G.S. 113A-57. It goes on file 30 days before work starts. Water also has to leave the site without running onto the property next door. That is where ditches, culverts and swales come in.
We do dirt work around Shelby, Kings Mountain, Lincolnton, Cherryville and Forest City. That covers Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and Rutherford counties, roughly 25 miles out from Shelby. Builders and site contractors hire a machine and our operator by the hour or the day. Landowners hire us for a day of cleanup after a timber harvest. Call (704) 600-8146 and we will come look at the job.
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 dirt work across Shelby, NC and 25 miles around. Don't see yours? Give us a call and ask.
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.
Excavation around Shelby, NC. Footings, driveway culverts, drainage trenches, pond banks and site prep, with the spoil hauled off in our grapple trucks.
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.
Straight from the landowners we've cleared, graded and dug for.
Highly recommend Dewey and the team at LDS Solutions! They have done phenomenal work for us at Wallace Haven LLC clearing downed and dying trees, cleaning up overgrown areas, and helping transform our property. They've been dependable, hardworking, professional, and easy to work with from start to finish.
We couldn't be happier with the work this crew did on our property! They handled land clearing, forestry mulching, brush hogging, and even some skid steer and excavator work. The land clearing and mulching made such a huge difference; it looks like a whole new space now. We'll definitely be using them again!
Hurricane Helene took down many of our trees, preventing us from enjoying our space by the creek. These folks came, developed a plan, reviewed it with me, provided a fair price, and restored my access to the woods and creek. They also left the property spotless once the project was completed. CLEAN!
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.
