Excavation and Dirt Work
General excavation with trackhoes, a dozer and dump trucks: digging, grading and moving dirt and rock on homesites, farms and rural land.
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Dirt work in Decatur usually runs into one of two problems. On the ridge ground, red clay sits over limestone, and chert and rock turn up as soon as you dig. Soil surveys for this part of the Highland Rim put limestone rock inside the top few feet in places. Closer to Flint Creek and the river bottoms the trouble flips, and the ground stays soft and wet.
Precision Excavation is based in Trinity, six miles west of Decatur on AL-24, so this is our next town over. We start with excavation and dirt work: digging, grading and moving dirt with trackhoes, a dozer and dump trucks. We also clear overgrown lots, cut house pads, dig ponds, build gravel drives, pull rock and take down small buildings. Call or text (256) 303-7210 for a free estimate.
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Decatur sits in the Tennessee Valley on the Highland Rim, on red clay weathered out of limestone. There is even a soil series named for this town. Decatur silt loam is a deep red clay formed in limestone residuum. Red clay packs tight in lifts, which is what a building pad needs.
Not all of Decatur is deep clay. Soil surveys for the Highland Rim also map cherty soils on the ridges, full of chert gravel and cobbles. Other soils here sit only twenty to forty inches above limestone rock. A dig on one side of town can look nothing like a dig on the other.
Our trackhoes carry rippers for that kind of ground. The ripper breaks and lifts rock so it can be pulled and loaded out. Pulling rock out of a pad or a driveway line is regular work in this county. Solid bedrock ledge needs other methods, and we say so when we see it.
Wheeler Lake runs along the north side of Decatur. Flint Creek comes up out of Cullman County, crosses Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and empties into the river at Decatur. The refuge covers about 35,000 acres of river bottom. Ground near the creek and the bottoms stays soft and holds water.
Decatur averages a little over 53 inches of rain a year. December is the wettest month, and spring runs wet too. Severe storms come mostly in spring, with a second stretch in November, and they leave trees down. All of that changes how a job gets planned and when the machines go in.
Farm ponds are common on the land south and east of town. We dig new ponds, reshape old ones and clean out ponds that have silted in. The spoil gets spread on site or loaded in the dump trucks and hauled off. We look at where water runs before we cut anything.
Land around Decatur grows back fast when nobody works it. Chinese privet is the worst of it. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System reports privet on more than a million acres in Alabama. It takes over forest understory, fence lines and field edges, and it resprouts from stem and root.
Under the privet you get briars, saplings and young pine coming up through old pasture. We push and pile trees with the dozer and pull stumps and roots with the trackhoe. The debris goes out in the dump trucks and the ground gets left rough graded and usable.
Some ground is better mulched than cleared. Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees in place and leaves a mulch layer, with nothing to pile or haul. A lot that has to go down to bare dirt for a build is a full clearing job instead. We do both and will tell you which one fits your ground.
Decatur is the Morgan County seat and the biggest city in it, at about 58,000 people. The county counted 123,421 people in the 2020 census, and the Census Bureau put it near 126,500 in 2025. People keep building on rural lots outside the city limits.
That kind of build starts with dirt. We clear the footprint, then cut to grade or build up a compacted house pad in lifts. Rock gets ripped and pulled out before the pad goes in. The ground gets sloped so water sheds away from it.
A long drive back to a rural homesite needs a cut base, a crown and ditches. We build new gravel driveways and farm roads and regrade rutted ones. Our trucks bring the crusher run or chert. Old houses, barns, sheds and mobile homes come down with the trackhoe, and the debris leaves by the load.
Communities and areas we serve around Decatur: Old Decatur, Albany (New Decatur), Austinville, Moulton Heights, Burningtree Mountain, Indian Hills, Flint, Cedar Lake, Chapel Hill, Point Mallard, Beltline Road, Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
Decatur ZIP codes served: 35601, 35602, 35603, 35609, 35699.
Free estimates throughout Morgan County and the surrounding area.
(256) 303-7210 General excavation with trackhoes, a dozer and dump trucks: digging, grading and moving dirt and rock on homesites, farms and rural land.
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We clear wooded lots and overgrown acreage with the dozer and trackhoe. Trees and stumps come out, the debris gets hauled off, and the ground is left rough graded.
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We mulch brush, briars and small trees in place with a skid steer mulching head. The wood ends up as a mulch layer on the ground.
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We run a crawler dozer for pushing brush, rough grading and leveling ground across North Alabama. That covers spreading fill, cutting pads, reclaiming grown-up pasture and shaping pond banks and road beds.
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We build house pads for new homes, barns, shops and metal buildings on lots across North Alabama. Fill comes in by the load, goes down in packed lifts and gets graded so water runs away from the building.
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Rock removal for house pads, driveways, ponds, pastures and fence lines across North Alabama. Trackhoes with rippers break the rock loose, and the dump trucks haul it off.
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We dig new farm ponds, enlarge old ones and clean out ponds that have silted in. The trackhoe cuts the basin, the dozer shapes the bank, and the spoil gets spread or hauled off.
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We build new gravel driveways and farm roads, and regrade old ones that have rutted or washed out. Base cut, crown shaped, ditches cut, rock hauled in and graded out.
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We tear down old houses, barns, sheds, mobile homes and concrete slabs with the trackhoe. The dump trucks haul the debris off and the ground gets leveled behind us.
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Two dump trucks move material by the load across North Alabama. Fill dirt, topsoil, gravel, crusher run and chert come in, spoil and debris go out.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Decatur. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Tell us what you need done and where the property is. Call or text (256) 303-7210, or send the form and we will get back to you.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.