Foundation Excavation

Basements, footings, stem walls and compacted building pads , dug to grade, kept safe and true, and built to carry the load without settling.

Everything you build sits on the work nobody sees. The slab, the stem wall, the shop, the house , all of it is only as good as the hole it sits in and the compacted ground beneath it. Excavate carelessly, skip compaction, or ignore what the local soils are doing, and you get the one thing no builder wants: cracks, settling and callbacks after the concrete is already poured.

JH Excavation digs foundations and builds pads across Powell, Cody and the Big Horn Basin for homes, shops, garages, additions and outbuildings. We excavate to the grades and dimensions your plans call for, keep excavation walls safe and workable, and compact engineered pads that hold the load for the life of the structure.

We work closely with builders and owners to hit the numbers on the plan and stay ahead of the pour schedule , because a foundation dig that's late or off-grade holds up every trade that comes after it.

Basements, Footings & Stem Walls

Digging a basement or footing is about precision and control. We excavate to the depth and footprint the plans specify, keep the sides clean and stable, and give the concrete crew a level, accurate hole to work in. On deeper digs we manage the walls and spoil carefully so the site stays safe and there's room to form and pour.

Getting the over-dig right matters too , enough room to work and drain, but not so much that you're backfilling and compacting more than you need to. Experience is what tells you the difference, and it's what keeps the job efficient and the foundation solid.

Engineered Building Pads

For slab-on-grade construction , shops, garages, barns, many homes , the building pad is the foundation. We strip unsuitable material, bring in and place structural fill in controlled lifts, and compact each lift to the density the design requires. A pad built this way won't settle unevenly and crack the slab above it.

Basin soils make this step non-negotiable. Clay-loam and mixed alluvial ground behave differently under load, and moisture changes everything. We build pads that account for the material we're actually working with, so what you pour on top stays flat and sound.

Drainage & Backfill Done Right

Water is the enemy of any foundation, so we build drainage into the work from the start , sloping the surrounding grade away from the structure, accommodating foundation drains where called for, and making sure water has somewhere to go besides against your footings.

When it's time to backfill, we place and compact material in a controlled way so the ground around the foundation stays stable and doesn't settle into a trench line around your new building. It's the finishing detail that protects everything underneath.

Questions About Foundation Excavation