Chelan County, Washington
Excavation in Wenatchee, WA
Wenatchee mixes town lots with orchard and acreage on the edges, and the two need very different approaches on the ground.
Core sample
What’s under Wenatchee
- 1Orchard and yard topsoilIrrigation lines common
- 2River and bench depositsVaries a lot parcel to parcel
- 3Gravels near the riversOne lot is no guide to the next
- Frost depth 24 inFootings and water lines go below it
Illustration based on the ground notes for Wenatchee, Sunnyslope and Malaga. Not to scale and not a soil test.
Working ground in Wenatchee
What the ground is like
- In town work is usually about access and neighbors: narrow side yards, fences, and keeping the street clean.
- Acreage on the outskirts is more about drainage, driveways and getting a usable building site out of sloping ground.
- Ground near the rivers and along the benches varies a lot, so what worked on one parcel isn’t a guide to the next.
- Old orchard land is full of utility and irrigation lines, so locates come first.
Town lots and side yards
In town the job is often decided by a side yard gate and a neighbor’s fence. A compact machine with a tight tail works between them, and rubber tracks are easier on the driveway and the street. We keep material off the road and clean up at the end of each day.
Orchard conversions and acreage
Old orchard ground around Wenatchee turns into building sites, and it brings buried irrigation, uneven ground and water that used to be managed by the orchard system. Getting a pad, a driveway and drainage out of it works best as one plan.
Permits around Wenatchee
Inside city limits the City of Wenatchee handles permits. Unincorporated areas like Sunnyslope and Malaga go through Chelan County Community Development. East Wenatchee is across the river in Douglas County, which is a different code. We’ll talk through which one applies to your parcel.
Backcountry Excavation LLC is a registered Washington contractor, licensed, bonded and insured. You can check all of it before you hire us.
Services in Wenatchee
What we do in Wenatchee
Site Preparation in Wenatchee
Raw ground turned into a pad you can build on: cleared, stripped, cut to grade and compacted.
See the detailExcavation and Earthwork in Wenatchee
Digging, moving and placing dirt. Foundation holes, bulk earthwork, backfill and haul off.
See the detailGrading and Drainage in Wenatchee
Shaping ground so water leaves the property the way it should, instead of sitting against a building.
See the detailLand Clearing in Wenatchee
Overgrown or wooded ground opened up. Brush, stumps, slash and debris out, site left workable.
See the detailDriveways and Access Roads in Wenatchee
Gravel driveways and access roads built or rebuilt to hold up to weather, grade and loaded trucks.
See the detailUtility Trenching in Wenatchee
Trenching and backfill for water, power and other underground lines, dug to depth and bedded properly.
See the detailFoundation Excavation in Wenatchee
Foundation holes, footings and cutting to concrete grade, ready for the concrete crew.
See the detailStorm Drainage Systems in Wenatchee
Catch basins, storm pipe, culverts and drywells that carry storm water off the property.
See the detailRetaining Walls in Wenatchee
Vertical block and large retaining walls that hold a grade change where dirt alone won’t.
See the detailAsphalt Prep in Wenatchee
Subgrade cut, base rock placed and compacted, grades held so the paving crew can do their job.
See the detailDemolition in Wenatchee
Structures, slabs and hardscape taken down, material hauled off and the ground left clean.
See the detailEmergency work in Wenatchee
Washouts, broken lines, plugged culverts and storm damage. Call or text the owners.
What to do right nowSomething else in Wenatchee?
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
Wenatchee questions
Do you travel to Wenatchee for residential work?
Yes. Tell us what the job is and where the site is, and we’ll tell you whether it’s a fit and roughly when we could get to it.
Can you get into a backyard in town?
If there’s about 7 feet of clear width, usually yes. Tighter than that, send a photo and we’ll tell you before anything is booked.
Do you work in East Wenatchee?
Yes. It’s Douglas County, so the permit side is different, but the dirt work is the same.
Nearby
Other ground we work
Chelan County
Cashmere, WA
Cashmere, Monitor and Dryden sit on the Wenatchee River bottom. Bedrock is a hundred feet down, so the digging problems come from what the river and the floods left on top of it.
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 groundChelan County
Entiat, WA
Entiat runs from the Columbia back up a narrow river valley, and properties up that valley tend to be long on ground and short on easy access.
See the groundWhat our machine fits through · How an estimate works · Permits and locates
Call or text the owners
Got a job in Wenatchee?
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