House, barn & shop pads in Columbia, Lawrenceburg & Middle TN

Building pads in Columbia and Lawrenceburg: what is included

• Site walk and layout. We look at the slope, where water runs, where the driveway comes in and where the septic area is. If your builder or engineer has finished-floor elevations or grade stakes, we build to them.
• Clearing and stripping. Trees, stumps and roots come out with the excavator, and topsoil is stripped and set aside. If the site is overgrown, see land clearing.
• Cut and fill in lifts. We cut the high side and place fill on the low side, compacting each lift with the machine. If the dirt on site is not suitable, we haul in fill dirt and gravel from local quarries.
• Final grade and drainage. The surface is shaped to shed water away from the building, with swales, ditches or a culvert where water needs a way out. Barn and shop pads can be capped with stone.
• The driveway to the pad, if you want it done while the equipment is on site.

Not included: slabs, foundations, framing, surveying, engineering or permits. If a lender, engineer or inspector requires compaction testing, a third-party lab does it, so tell us up front and the fill is placed to suit.

How a pad job goes

1. Walk the lot with us and share any plans, stakes or finished-floor heights.
2. Free on-site quote that lays out the clearing, cut and fill, and drainage.
3. Clear and strip trees, stumps and topsoil. Organic material does not go under a pad.
4. Cut, fill and compact in lifts until the pad reaches the planned height.
5. Final grade and walk-through. We shape the surface to shed water and check it with you against the plans.

From stumps to a packed pad: photos from our jobs

Trees and stumps coming out, the SVL97-2 leveling, and finished, packed pads from our own pad jobs.

A pad is a drainage project first

Water that sits against a slab or under a barn floor causes cracks, mud and rot for the life of the building. On the Highland Rim around Lawrenceburg and Pulaski, a dense subsoil layer can hold water close to the surface. In the Central Basin around Columbia and Lewisburg, you can hit rock ledges in one spot and soft, wet clay twenty feet away. Setting the pad height and shaping the ground around it is where the real work is.

House pads vs. barn and shop pads

A house pad has to carry a slab or foundation and sit above surrounding drainage. A barn pad needs a firm gravel approach and a floor that sheds water out of the stalls. A shop or barndominium has heavy slab loads, overhead doors that need a flat apron, and trucks that need room to turn. The pad should extend past the building on every side so there is firm ground for forms and equipment. Your builder will tell you how far.

What moves the price

We quote pads after seeing the site. What changes the cost: the size of the pad and how much dirt is cut or filled; whether the cut balances the fill or dirt must be hauled in or out; clearing and stumps; rock or wet ground; stone for a cap or apron; the driveway and drainage work that goes with it; and how far materials travel.

Permits, settling and timing

Before dirt moves, line up your county building permit and, if the lot needs septic, the site evaluation through the county environmental health office. Disturbing an acre or more generally brings Tennessee's construction stormwater permit into play, which your builder or engineer typically handles. We are an excavation and grading contractor, not a permitting service. Ask your builder how long they want the fill to settle before building.

Frequently asked questions