Graded building pad beside a long dark pole barn with equipment on site

Service

Site Preparation & Construction Site Work

Clearing, stripping, cutting and rough grading a site so the builder can start on schedule.

Free estimates
Based in Greencastle, Indiana
One crew, first cut to final grade

Call (317) 203-8928 Get a Free Estimate

What it includes

What the job covers

Clearing and stripping
Topsoil stockpiled for reuse
Cutting and rough grading
Cut, fill and compaction
Drainage and erosion control
A stable entrance

Call (317) 203-8928 Free Estimate

Site Preparation across Central Indiana

Greencastle Zionsville Plainfield Avon Brownsburg Whitestown Danville Pittsboro Lebanon All areas

The work

What this actually involves

Clearing, stripping, cutting and rough grading a site so the builder can start on schedule.

Strip, stockpile, and know what is underneath

Site prep starts by taking the topsoil off and putting it somewhere it can be reused, not burying it under fill where it will rot and settle. How deep the strip goes depends on the ground — some of this county gives up four inches, some farm ground gives up more than a foot. Underneath it you find out what you are actually building on, and on old farmland you find out where the field tile runs, because it is almost never on a drawing.

Poured foundation wall at a new house with backfill being worked along its face

Cut, fill and compaction that will pass

Balancing cut and fill on site is the difference between a job that trucks nothing and a job that trucks everything. Fill that will carry a building goes in as engineered lifts and gets compacted, not pushed into place and left to find its own level over the next two winters. If a geotechnical report sets a compaction standard we build to it and let the testing firm do their passes; if the settling shows up later it is nobody's argument.

Drainage and erosion control before anybody else arrives

Water has to have somewhere to go from the first day the ground is open, not from the day the drives go in. That means rough grades that fall the right way, swales cut where the water already wants to run, and a stable entrance so the site is not tracked onto the road. Any site disturbing an acre or more falls under Indiana's Rule 5 stormwater requirements, and the controls need to be in and working before the disturbance, not installed after somebody comes out to look.

What site preparation actually includes

A longer walk through the sequence — clearing and stripping, cut and fill, drainage, access, foundation excavation and finish grade — and why the order matters.

Read the guide

Pads

Building pads and pole barn pads

How a pad for a house, a pole barn or a machine shed gets built, step by step, and what changes the job.

Building pad & pole barn pad preparation

For grading on its own, from a house pad to a field that holds water, see site grading and land grading across Central Indiana.

How it goes

From the first call to the final grade.

Call or text Travis

The address, roughly what you are trying to do, and when you need it.

A look at the ground

Most jobs need a look. Travis will arrange a time to come out, walk the ground with you and give you a number.

Located before digging

Anything that breaks ground gets located through Indiana 811 first.

One crew, start to finish

The person who strips the site is the person who sets the final grade.

Where we do it

Site Preparation across Central Indiana

Based in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana, and working east through Hendricks and Boone counties into Indianapolis. See every service area.

See the service area

Site Preparation by area

Central Indiana

Site Grading & Land Grading in Central Indiana

Site grading sets the ground to the shape a build or a property needs: level where things sit, falling where water has to go. On Grade grades sites and land across Putnam County, Indiana, Hendricks and Boone counties and the west side of Indianapolis.

See the page

On the ground

Site Preparation, photographed

Every photograph on this site is a job On Grade did. Nothing is stock and nothing is staged. See more work.

Stripped and levelled ground behind a metal building, staked and ready

Compacted base running the full length of a metal building

Rough-graded house site with the finished home standing at the back of the lot

Wide stripped and levelled field ready for building layout

Questions about this work

Questions about this work.

Not seeing yours? Call or text (317) 203-8928 and ask Travis, or read the guides.

Answers & guides

All guides

Do you work in Indianapolis, or only around Greencastle?

Both. On Grade is based in Greencastle and works east through Hendricks and Boone counties into Indianapolis and Marion County. Call with the address and you will get a straight answer on whether it is a job worth mobilising for.

Do you do commercial work as well as residential?

Yes. Pads, parking, drainage and mass grading for commercial and industrial sites, alongside the residential site prep, driveways and pond work.

How soon can you start?

It depends on weather and what is already on the schedule. Wet ground stops excavation faster than anything else. Call and ask — we will tell you the real timeline, not the one you want to hear.

Everything else