Fill Dirt and Excavation
Loxahatchee, FL

Loxahatchee is flat, low country on the edge of the Everglades. Water table and wet-season rain decide what a lot can do, so a pad that sits an inch too low will hold water against a slab, and a drive that is not shaped will wash out at the first storm. Fill dirt and excavation are the two directions of the same job: bring ground up where it is too low, or cut it down where a driveway base, a footing or a drain has to go.

We run both with one machine. The Bobcat T740 and its 60-inch grapple push and spread fill, level a graded pad, and dig a cut to depth, at $1,385 a day with an operator. Call (561) 779-3213, give us the address and what the ground has to do when we are done, and the estimate is free.

We publish the machine rate and not a per-yard price for material. The day rate covers the T740 and an operator pushing, spreading and leveling. The fill itself, which is delivered and dumped by the load, is priced by the supplier and depends on how many loads your lot needs, so we say call for a quote rather than guess a number that would be wrong next week.

People ask whether fill is cheaper than topsoil. They are different materials with different jobs: fill is what you build up and compact under a pad, a drive or a slab, and topsoil is what you grow on top once the ground is at its final height. Most lots need fill first and, if you are planting, a thin layer of something better last. Tell us which end of that you are on and we will scope only that.

The Acreage and the areas around it sit inside the Indian Trail Improvement District, administered from 13476 61st Street North, which maintains the canals and the roadside swales. ITID requires its own approval for work that disturbs a swale, a culvert or its right-of-way, separate from any county permit. Fill that raises a lot also changes where its water goes, so a higher pad can send runoff toward a neighbour or into the swale, and that is exactly what the district looks at.

The Town of Loxahatchee Groves is a separate municipality with its own rules, and the western edge of 33470 includes Westlake, which runs its own building department. Most of the rest is unincorporated Palm Beach County, where the county's Planning, Zoning and Building Division, 2300 North Jog Road, handles permits. A Loxahatchee mailing address is not a jurisdiction, so we confirm the parcel before we quote, in writing, before the machine arrives.

Moving soil is not regulated like clearing brush. Grading, filling and changing drainage can trigger a separate permit review from simple vegetation clearing, and the review asks where the water goes once the lot is higher. Read our permits and regulations guide for the county-wide picture, then tell us the address so we can confirm which desk applies to yours.

Every dig starts with a Sunshine State One Call (811) utility locate, which is free and required by law, so buried power, water and cable are marked before the bucket goes in. On a well-and-septic property we also keep the machine clear of the drainfield and the well, because a compacted septic field is a repair bill nobody wants.

A filled and graded lot rarely ends there. The next stop is usually the building itself (construction in Loxahatchee), the roof over it (roofing in Loxahatchee), an association that has to approve the change (property management in Loxahatchee), or a bite to eat while the crew works (food truck in Loxahatchee).