Douglas County, Washington
Excavation in Waterville, Washington
The Waterville Plateau is easy ground to work on top of and hard ground to dig into, because of what sits about two feet down.
Working ground in Waterville
- Plateau ground here carries a weakly cemented hardpan at 20 to 40 inches, with dense lodgement till under it. A 24-inch footing lands right on it.
- Douglas County code requires the bottom of footings a minimum of 24 inches below finished grade. On this plateau that is exactly the depth where the ground stops cooperating.
- The Withrow Moraine is over 200 feet high and two miles wide, with till up to 50 feet thick and basalt boulders big enough to have a local name.
- Southwest of the moraine it flips completely. Deep loess, easy to cut, and it erodes the moment you leave it bare.
- Orondo is not plateau work. It sits down on the Columbia, so everything there is river bench and terrace work reached by steep canyon grades.
- Douglas County treats any slope of 45 percent or steeper with 10 feet of relief as a steep slope hazard, and can require a sealed geotechnical report.
Backcountry Excavation LLC is a registered Washington contractor, licensed, bonded and insured. You can check all of it before you hire us.
Waterville questions
Why does a footing cost more up on the plateau?
Because the hardpan sits at about the depth a footing has to reach. It is not a surprise if you plan for it, and you will hear about it before we start.
Do you work down at Orondo as well?
Yes. Different ground entirely, river bench rather than plateau, and the access grades matter more than the digging does.
Start with a straightforward estimate
Got a job in Waterville?
Tell us where the site is and what you are trying to get done. We will let you know whether we can take it on and roughly when.