What site prep means
Site prep is the work that happens before anything gets built. The lot gets cleared of brush, weeds, debris and old fill, and the ground is shaped so the next crew has a clean, workable surface. Skip it or rush it and every trade after you pays for it.
The before and after on the Dig Daddy home page is a good example: a rough lot of gravel, weeds and a dumped tire, cleared and graded flat in a day. Some lots are that simple. Others have trees, buried junk or soft fill that has to come out before the ground can hold anything.
Land clearing for homeowners and builders
Homeowners call for land clearing when a back lot has gone wild, when they want room for a shop or a garden, or when a property they just bought needs to be cleaned up. General contractors call when a lot needs to be ready before footings and foundations go in.
Ryan works out of Hooper across Weber, Davis, Box Elder and Salt Lake counties, from city lots in Ogden and Layton to bigger properties out toward Brigham City and Tremonton. If the ground is between Salt Lake City and Tremonton, he works there.
For builders, a clean handoff matters. The ground gets left at the grade the next phase needs, so the foundation crew is not fighting soft spots or leftover debris.
How a clearing job goes
Start with photos of the whole area and a rough idea of what is going on it. Ryan will call to set up a live estimate within 24 hours, look over the ground and tell you what has to come out and what can stay.
Before digging into the ground itself, buried utilities need to be marked. In Utah that means calling Blue Stakes of Utah at 811. Then Ryan clears the site, removes the debris, and sets the ground up with backfill, compaction and rough grading where the job calls for it.
He runs the machine himself and stays until the site is done. If a job before yours wraps early, he will call and offer to move you up.
What affects the cost
The size of the area is the starting point. After that, the price depends on how thick the brush is, whether trees and roots have to come out, how much debris or old fill has to leave the site, and how easy it is to get the machine in.
Ryan breaks the price out so you can see the options side by side, like clearing alone or clearing with grading. That makes it easier to hold a budget and decide what you need now and what can wait.
Ground that has been used as a dumping spot for years can hide more than shows on top. Ryan will tell you if something buried could change the price, so there are no surprises halfway through.
