Earthwork in Orlando
Straight version: Orlando inside the urban area isn’t a land clearing market. It’s a drainage, driveway, pad and small-excavation market on tight lots with mature trees. And access is usually what decides the price. The acreage is east of the city.
in Titusville
usually sets the price
to schedule
turnaround
A city built among lakes
Orlando is dense, green and full of water, and all three of those shape what earthwork here actually involves.
Inside the Urban Service Area, the raw land is gone. What’s left is established neighborhoods on sandy ground, a great many lakes, and mature oak and pine growing on lots that were platted long before anyone thought about getting a track machine into a back yard.
So the work changes shape. Almost everything we do inside the city falls into four buckets:
- Drainage. Water sitting where it should not, usually because a low spot has no shaped route to anywhere lower. On flat sand this is a grading problem far more often than a piping problem.
- Driveways. Drives that have sunk, rutted or spread, almost always because the base under them was thin or absent.
- Pads. Compacted footprints for additions, sheds, shops and equipment, on ground that has to be stripped and built up properly rather than leveled and hoped for.
- Small excavation. Footers, drain lines, and root balls left behind by tree crews who ground the stump flush and left the mass in the ground.
Access is the number one variable on an Orlando job. A drive we can back a trailer onto is one price. A back yard reached through a gate, past a pool cage, over a paver drive somebody doesn’t want cracked, is another. Photograph the access as well as the work.
The other Orlando factor worth naming is karst. Central Florida sits on limestone, sinkhole development in the Orlando area is a studied subject, and every so often it makes the news. It has no bearing on clearing, grading or a driveway. It’s relevant if you’re building, and it belongs to a geotechnical engineer rather than to us.
Areas we cover
- Orlando and the urban area
- Winter Park and Maitland
- Union Park and Alafaya
- Bithlo, Christmas and Wedgefield
- Apopka and the north settlements
Not our trade
- Public storm or sewer connections
- Pool excavation. Its own specialty
- Tree removal and canopy work
- Septic systems
Worth calling us, or worth calling someone else
We’d rather point you elsewhere than turn up and waste your morning.
Call us for
- Standing water that has never drained properly
- A driveway that has sunk, rutted or spread
- A compacted pad for an addition, shed or shop
- Root balls and old stumps left in the ground
- Acreage east of the city, out in the settlements
Call someone else for
- Tree removal or canopy work. A different trade
- Pool excavation, which is its own specialty
- Anything tying into a public storm or sewer system
- Septic installation or repair
Work like yours
Small lots and tight access. Getting a machine in is half the job.
What we do in Orlando
Ground work
Access & structure
Orlando questions
Can you even get a machine into my back yard?
Usually, and it’s the first thing to establish. We need a route wide enough for a track machine and agreement on what we’re driving over to get there. A photo of the gate and the side of the house tells us more about the price than a photo of the work does.
Is there land clearing in Orlando itself?
Very little inside the urban area. It’s built out. Where we do clearing in this county it’s east, in the rural settlements around Bithlo, Christmas and Wedgefield, and those are acreage jobs. The county page explains how that land is laid out.
My yard floods. Is that a pipe job or a dirt job?
On flat sand it’s a dirt job far more often than people expect. Most standing water is a low spot with no shaped route to anywhere lower, and shaping that route fixes it without a pipe. What we don’t do is connect anything into a public storm system.
Should I be worried about sinkholes?
Not for the work we do. Clearing, grading and driveways happen in the top few inches; sinkhole development is a limestone question far below that. It’s a real consideration if you’re building, and the person to ask is a geotechnical engineer, not an earthwork contractor.
Do you charge extra to come to Orlando?
Not for a normal job. It’s about an hour from our yard and we’re in the county regularly. A very small job at the far side of the city can carry a minimum, and we’ll tell you that when we quote rather than folding it into the rate.
Other areas we cover
Orange County
Where the raw land actually is, and how the rural settlements are laid out.
See Orange County →Next county northSeminole County
Built-out west, real acreage east toward Geneva and the Econ.
See Seminole →Next county northwestLake County
Old dune ridges, actual slope, and retaining wall country.
See Lake County →