Excavation & Trenching
Mini excavator trenching, pits and utility excavation for water lines, drains and site work, done by our own crew.
We own our excavation equipment and we run it ourselves. That started because we were tired of locating a leak and then waiting on someone else's excavator, and it has become one of the main reasons customers call us. Our mini excavator fits through a standard gate, works on a sloped lot, and opens a clean trench through Kitsap hardpan and boulders in a fraction of the time a crew with shovels can. When the job is tight against a foundation or under a tree's root zone, the shovels come out too.
Most of our excavation is in service of a water line or drain line: a single pit at a pinpointed leak, a trench for a replacement service line, a footing drain exposure, a French drain run. But we also take on standalone excavation around the county: utility trenches for electrical conduit, trenching for a new water or drain line on a build site, digging out a failed drain, exposing a foundation for a waterproofing contractor, and small grading and drainage work.
We do it carefully. Utilities are located before we dig. Spoils go on tarps or plywood, not on your lawn. Trenches are opened to a clean grade so pipe sits right. Groundwater gets pumped. Backfill goes in compacted lifts, not dumped in one go to settle for the next five years. And the surface goes back: lawn regraded, gravel raked, beds rebuilt.
If you need a trench opened, a pit dug, or a line exposed anywhere from Hansville to Olalla, call (206) 354-9906.
When you need excavation and trenching
- A trench for a new or replacement water line
- A pit at a pinpointed leak
- Exposing a footing drain, foundation or buried drain line
- Utility trenching for conduit or other lines on a build site
- Drainage and small grading work
- A failed drain, catch basin or pipe that has to be dug out
How the job goes
- Locates. Utilities are marked before any machine work. Where we're close to marked lines we hand dig.
- Protect the site. Tarps and plywood down for spoils and tracks, cones and tape where people walk.
- Open the ground. Mini excavator for depth and hardpan, shovels for the tight spots. Clean trench bottoms at the right grade.
- Manage water. Submersible pumps keep the excavation workable in Kitsap's wet months.
- Backfill in lifts. Bedding gravel where pipe needs it, then native soil in compacted lifts.
- Restore. Grade, rake, seed or sod, gravel, bark, pavers, whatever was there.
Equipment and materials
- Mini excavator with digging and grading buckets
- Hand tools for tight and root-zone work
- Submersible pumps
- Plywood ground protection and tarps
- Compaction equipment
- Bedding gravel
What shapes the scope
Every property is different, and these are the things that decide whether a job is a quick morning or a full day. We'll tell you which it is before we start.
- Length, width and depth of the excavation
- Soil: hardpan, boulders, roots, clay, groundwater
- Access for the machine and where spoils can go
- Surfaces to be removed and restored
- Slope and any retaining structures nearby
Excavation & Trenching on real Kitsap jobs
Excavation & Trenching across the peninsula
Each community page covers what the local ground, water utility and housing stock mean for this work.
Excavation & Trenching in Bremerton
The shipyard city's older galvanized lines fail quietly and show up as a wet lawn or a water bill nobody can explain.
Excavation & Trenching in Silverdale
The 1980s and 90s subdivision boom around the mall left thousands of polybutylene service lines that are now failing on schedule.
Excavation & Trenching in Port Orchard
The county seat's hillside lots and clay soils turn small leaks into slope problems, and long rural runs hide breaks for months.
Excavation & Trenching in Poulsbo
Little Norway's mix of century-old downtown lines and fast-draining bay-side outwash means leaks hide well and fail suddenly.
Excavation & Trenching in Bainbridge Island
Clay soils and 500-foot driveways make island leaks slow to surface and expensive to guess at, which is why we locate before we dig.
Excavation & Trenching in Kingston
Ferry-town acreage with long wooded service runs where a leak can hide under hardpan for an entire winter.
Excavation & Trenching in Keyport
A century-old Navy village with short lots, old lines and shoreline clay that keeps everything damp.
Excavation & Trenching in Tracyton
Bluff-side lots over Dyes Inlet where seeps and springs make it easy to mistake groundwater for a leak and vice versa.
Excavation & Trenching in Hansville
Beach cabins at the tip of the peninsula with shallow lines, high water tables and a long drive for anyone who isn't already in Kitsap.
Excavation & Trenching in Indianola
A century-old summer colony where shared lines, easements and bluff clay make leaks a neighborhood puzzle.
Excavation & Trenching in Suquamish
Two utilities, mixed-era housing and Agate Pass shoreline clay in the heart of the Port Madison reservation.
Excavation & Trenching in Manchester
Rich Passage waterfront lots where the service line runs downhill and every leak finds the beach.
Excavation & Trenching in Enetai
East Bremerton's bluff-side neighborhood where mid-century copper lines fail on slopes that drain toward the bay.
Excavation & Trenching in Lofall
Rural acreage between Poulsbo and the Hood Canal Bridge where well lines run hundreds of feet through hardpan.
Excavation & Trenching in Olalla
Well country at the south end of Kitsap where a leaking line shows up as a pump that won't shut off.
Excavation & Trenching in Seabeck
Hood Canal forest parcels where boulders, hardpan and long well lines make guessing at a leak an expensive mistake.
Excavation & Trenching in East Port Orchard
South Kitsap's 1970s and 80s subdivisions where copper and poly lines are reaching the end of their run.
Excavation & Trenching in Rollingbay
The northeast corner of Bainbridge where clay slopes, long drives and small community systems keep leaks hidden for seasons.
Excavation & Trenching in Port Townsend
A Victorian seaport where 1890s service lines sit under historic sidewalks and the gravity pipeline from the Quilcene delivers the water.
Excavation & Trenching: common questions
Will the excavator fit in my backyard?
Do you call for utility locates?
Do you do excavation for other contractors?
Services that often go together
Water Line Replacement
Full replacement of a failed or end-of-life water service line in continuous HDPE or PEX, meter to house.
Read more →
New Water Service Line Installation
New buried water service lines for additions, ADUs, shops, outbuildings, remodels and new meters.
Read more →
Exterior Drain Line Repair
Dig out and replace collapsed, crushed, root-bound or clay exterior drain lines and yard drains.
Read more →Something underground isn't right?
We answer 24 hours a day. We locate before we dig, and we handle the whole job with our own crew and equipment.