Contrary to popular belief, there are various roles that excavating contractors play. You can say that there is more to these contractors that playing in the dirt, operating heavy-duty equipment, and hauling dirt around. Before shedding more light on the other tasks that they do, you have to know that these contractors may own the company you hire or simply work for a construction company. When it comes to the latter, they are often supervisors who get the job done with the help of crew members who are under them. Some of the most common tasks that these contractors take on are those that are related to the soil such as its preparation, grading, trenching, and more. For more information on the range of services that excavating contractors offer, check it out!
One of the most common tasks that excavating contractors deal with is site preparation as mentioned. Preparing the site is vital to most if not all construction projects. Usually, the survey crew begins doing their job with the site before the excavation crew arrives and takes over. The survey crew gets to deal with the proper outlining of the house and lot boundaries. The excavation crew only knows which parts they will be excavating after proper outlining of borders is carried out. Depending on the depth required for the new foundation, one of the crew members or the excavating contractor himself will remove the required soil depth.
As part of the process of site preparation, excavating contractors will be doing proper compaction testing. This process is done to determine how firm the soil is and if it is enough. For the most accurate results, some contractors take advantage of reliable compaction equipment. Using precise requirements are essential on the part of the contractor so that they can use a transit level accordingly to match the grade with that posted by the survey crew. Pouring the footers and stem wall will be the job of the foundation contractor after this task is carried out. Backfilling around the new foundation by the excavating contractor is only done after these structures have dried and set.
When it comes to moving dirt, your go-to people are the excavating contractors too. Moving dirt may be necessary when you are operating a trencher for installing flexible pipes below the ground, grading roads, excavating ditches for water or gas lines, digging sewers, digging ponds, or building roads. The equipment that these excavating contractors or the company they work for own or lease affect the kind of tasks that they can do for those who need them. Keep in mind that equipment used to do excavation jobs are costly. It is even costlier to insure them. For small- to medium-sized excavating tasks, excavating contractors or companies may own or lease backhoes, front-end loaders, trenchers, bulldozers, compactors, and skid-steers. To haul excess dirt, they also own at least one to two big dump trucks.