A pad that settles unevenly cracks the slab above it and throws the doors out of square. Getting it flat and properly compacted the first time is most of the job. We grade and compact building pads across Spokane County with a mini excavator and skid steer. Plenty of excavation companies will not return a call about a single shed pad. We will, and you deal directly with the person who runs the machine.
What we build pads for
- Shops and pole barns
- Sheds, run-ins and lean-tos
- Hot tub and above-ground pool pads
- Gravel parking areas and equipment pads
- Sea container and RV pads
- Concrete slab prep for someone else to pour
How a pad job actually goes
Most residential pads run one to two days. We strip the topsoil and any organic material off the footprint, because sod and roots left underneath will rot and settle and take your slab with them. We cut to grade, compact the subgrade, then bring in and compact crushed rock to the depth your build calls for.
We set the pad slightly proud of the surrounding ground and slope the finish grade away from where the building will sit. We get called out to fix water pooling against shop walls more than any other problem, and it is nearly always a finish grade that was left flat.
The City of Spokane requires footings 24 inches below finished grade for frost. If you are pouring footings rather than setting a slab on grade, that depth is part of what we dig, and it changes the material volume. Tell us what your building plans call for and we will size it correctly.
What drives the price
The same size pad can vary by a factor of three depending on the site, so we price it after we have seen it. What moves the number:
- Size and depth — a 12×16 shed pad and a 40×60 shop pad are different jobs
- How much rock you need — usually the largest line on the estimate, and it is priced by the yard delivered
- How level the ground already is — cutting into a slope means more material moved and more of it to place somewhere
- Access — whether a truck can back to the pad, or everything has to be shuttled in
- Where the spoil goes — see below
Where the topsoil goes
The topsoil we strip off the footprint gets spread or bermed wherever you want it on the property. Most people would rather keep it than pay to have it carted off. If it needs to leave instead, say so early and we will help you line up hauling.
We build and compact the pad ready to pour. Your concrete crew forms and pours from there.
Related work
Pads usually need backfill and finish grading around them, and often trenching for power and water out to the building. If the site holds water, sort drainage first.
Where we work
Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Mead, Colbert, Chattaroy, Deer Park, Nine Mile Falls, Cheney, Airway Heights and Medical Lake — roughly 50 miles out from Spokane. We work the Washington side of the state line.
Rural acreage north and east of town is where we do most of our pad work, and it is where the ground gets interesting — glacial till with rock in it behaves nothing like the silt loam south of town, and it changes how much you can compact and how fast the digging goes.
Get a number on it
Send a few details and we will get back to you, usually the same day. If you can tell us the footprint size and roughly what is going on it, that is enough to get you a real estimate.
Grizzly Excavation Services LLC — Washington contractor license GRIZZES767J5. Licensed, bonded and insured. Free estimates.