Basement Excavation Contractor
Creative Excavating provides professional residential excavation St George Utah for homeowners looking to add valuable square footage and natural cooling to their homes. Our team specializes in foundation excavation in Utah, ensuring that every dig is executed with the heavy equipment and technical skill required for Southern Utah's unique terrain. From initial site clearing to the final basement trenching, we deliver a clean, construction-ready hole that meets all architectural and engineering specifications.
Basement Excavation Contractor – St. George, Utah
Here in St George, many homeowners prefer to add on basements. The added square footage and the excellent insulation from our hot summer months provide added value and cool escapes for families throughout Southern Utah. If you are like most of the homeowners who ask us what is involved with basement digging Southern Utah, then you too might be a little surprised to learn there is quite a bit of preparation, skill and even engineering that goes into digging out a basement.
Did you know that the overall finished height of your home and sometimes even the dimensions of your basement may be affected by one or more of the following:
Considering Utility Elevations
Topography
Soils Testing – Composition and Compaction
Excavation and Planning
Considering Utility Elevations
When digging or excavating for a walkout basement, it is important to consider the elevation of the existing sewer lines. If the house is set too deep and the finished grade of the basement is too low, then a sewer pump might be needed in order to get the waste out of the home. Given the additional cost and the long term maintenance of sewer pumps, it is usually better to bring up the grade of the home rather than installing a sewage pump, but in some cases it might not be possible any other way.
When figuring out how to excavate a basement and how deep we need to dig for the height of the walls, we need to take into account the existing elevation of the lateral sewer line coming in from the city or county and the distance from it. From there we determine how low the finished grade of the home can be while still offering appropriate drainage. If the overall height of the home needs to be raised, we perform sub-grade digging services that are more shallow and use the excavated earth as backfill around the home.
Building Lot Topography
Another important element to consider is the drainage of the lot and this is determined in large part by the topography of the lot. This is especially true here in Southern Utah where we can get flash floods (usually during the months of June through August). A lot of people who relocate to the desert, specifically here in Southern Utah are surprised to learn that flooding can be a problem in the desert. When the monsoons season comes, basement excavation St George Utah can turn into a swimming pool in minutes if the appropriate drainage is not planned for.
Caliche soil (also known as blue clay) is something you definitely don’t want. If you have been around St. George for a while, then you know that several decades back blue clay was causing a lot of people a lot of problems. The problem with blue clay is that it swells when it gets moist. If you have a lot of it under your house, under your footings, it can actually raise that portion of the footings, causing cracks and damage. The inverse is that if you build on the clay when it is swollen, and it dries, it will actually collapse equal to the amount of swelling. That is why it is so important to get a soil report done by a soil engineer before you purchase your lot or before you begin foundation excavation Utah.
One of the only solutions to the blue clay problem is basement over-excavation until you don’t find any more (up to 14 feet) and then bring back the right kind of fill-in lifts (usually every 12 inches) and compact that new soil properly. As you might guess, digging out 14 feet of dirt, hauling it away, bringing in new good material, and compacting it every foot can get expensive. A soil engineer will test the soil at the very bottom of the hole after basement digging in Southern Utah is complete to ensure we don't need to go any deeper.
On properties that have a slope, walkout basement excavation is popular. In this case, you will usually need to plan for retention walls to the side, but this will depend on the lot, drainage, and choice of materials.
Soils Testing – Composition and Compaction
Excavation and Planning
We like to plan out your basement excavation near me in St. George before we begin digging. We also need to consider if the lot will have a well and/or septic system, but they should be spelled out on the plot plan/blueprint which we will need to have before any excavation begins. We will consider where the spoil pile (the ground removed from the hole) must go and if we are going to need to haul any material away. In some cases we may need some of the dirt and material to build access ramps for the equipment and even the concrete trucks.
When excavating a basement, we really don’t want all the dirt removed and stacked on one side of the property. A portion of this dirt has to be backfilled against the basement walls. If there is enough room on site we can slope the extra dirt so that the concrete contractor can have room to walk around or have room to position their stacks of form boards. Our precision basement trenching ensures the amount of room we have on site dictates where we can position the extra dirt and how your concrete contractor can access the site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime. If you’re feeling ready, go ahead and apply.
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To learn how to excavate a basement correctly, you must verify utility elevations and soil composition to ensure the foundation remains dry and the sewer lines drain properly.
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A walkout basement excavation is ideal for sloped lots, providing natural light and outdoor access, but it requires specialized precision basement trenching for side retention.
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Basement over-excavation is required when "blue clay" is found; we remove the expansive soil and replace it with compacted structural fill to prevent future foundation damage.
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Yes. Our precision basement trenching ensures that both interior and exterior footings are dug to the exact width and depth specified by your structural engineer.
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Sub-grade digging services involve excavating below ground level for basements and foundations while ensuring soil density is high enough to support the structure.