Douglas County, Washington
Excavation in Waterville, WA
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.
Core sample
What’s under Waterville
- 1Plateau soilEasy to work on top of
- 2Hardpan at 20 to 40 inRight where a footing lands
- 3Dense lodgement tillUnder the hardpan
- Frost depth 24 inFootings and water lines go below it
Illustration based on the ground notes for Waterville, the plateau and Orondo. Not to scale and not a soil test.
Working ground in Waterville
What the ground is like
- 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’s 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 isn’t plateau work. It sits down on the Columbia, so everything there’s 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.
Permits around Waterville
Inside town limits the Town of Waterville handles permits. The plateau and Orondo go through Douglas County Land Services.
Backcountry Excavation LLC is a registered Washington contractor, licensed, bonded and insured. You can check all of it before you hire us.
Services in Waterville
What we do in Waterville
Site Preparation in Waterville
Raw ground turned into a pad you can build on: cleared, stripped, cut to grade and compacted.
See the detailExcavation and Earthwork in Waterville
Digging, moving and placing dirt. Foundation holes, bulk earthwork, backfill and haul off.
See the detailGrading and Drainage in Waterville
Shaping ground so water leaves the property the way it should, instead of sitting against a building.
See the detailLand Clearing in Waterville
Overgrown or wooded ground opened up. Brush, stumps, slash and debris out, site left workable.
See the detailDriveways and Access Roads in Waterville
Gravel driveways and access roads built or rebuilt to hold up to weather, grade and loaded trucks.
See the detailUtility Trenching in Waterville
Trenching and backfill for water, power and other underground lines, dug to depth and bedded properly.
See the detailFoundation Excavation in Waterville
Foundation holes, footings and cutting to concrete grade, ready for the concrete crew.
See the detailStorm Drainage Systems in Waterville
Catch basins, storm pipe, culverts and drywells that carry storm water off the property.
See the detailRetaining Walls in Waterville
Vertical block and large retaining walls that hold a grade change where dirt alone won’t.
See the detailAsphalt Prep in Waterville
Subgrade cut, base rock placed and compacted, grades held so the paving crew can do their job.
See the detailDemolition in Waterville
Structures, slabs and hardscape taken down, material hauled off and the ground left clean.
See the detailEmergency work in Waterville
Washouts, broken lines, plugged culverts and storm damage. Call or text the owners.
What to do right nowSomething else in Waterville?
Most jobs are a combination. Describe what you want to end up with and we’ll work out the pieces.
Tell us about the jobQuestions
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 isn’t a surprise if you plan for it, and you’ll 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.
Nearby
Other ground we work
Chelan County
Wenatchee, WA
Wenatchee mixes town lots with orchard and acreage on the edges, and the two need very different approaches on the ground.
See the groundGrant County
Quincy, WA
Quincy sits on the floor of the Quincy Basin, on Ice Age flood gravel over basalt. Caliche and sand are the two things that catch people out here.
See the groundChelan County
Chelan, WA
Chelan is home. It’s also where a lot of the hardest ground in the valley is, and most of what makes a job here difficult shows up before the first bucket of dirt moves.
See the groundWhat our machine fits through · How an estimate works · Permits and locates
Call or text the owners
Got a job in Waterville?
Tell us where the site is and what you’re trying to get done. We’ll let you know whether we can take it on and roughly when.
(509) 421-1539