Residential Demolition
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap is a drainage contractor in West Columbia, SC, and storm drain repair is the center of the work. We replace failed drain pipe, rebuild catch basins, set driveway culverts and clean out ditch lines that stopped carrying water. On wet lots we regrade, cut swales, run buried downspout lines. A French drain here is perforated pipe set in a lined trench that carries water away from the house. Commercial storm drain repair is steady work too, for apartment complexes, churches, property managers and small commercial sites. Every job finishes with the surface put back and the ground shaped so water leaves. The old pipe and the debris leave on our own trucks.
Dirt Cheap is a family owned and woman owned demolition and site work contractor. The shop is at 4744 Edmund Hwy in West Columbia. Drainage runs on full size equipment: CASE excavators, dozers and a tri axle Kenworth dump truck with trailers. That reach matters when a storm drain sits deep under a parking lot. It matters again when a driveway culvert has to come out whole. We cover about fifty miles around the shop, including Columbia, Lexington, Cayce, Irmo, Blythewood, Sumter, Aiken, Orangeburg, Newberry and Camden. Google rates the company 4.3 from 17 reviews. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and we will come look at where the water is going.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.
Columbia sits on the fall line, where the Piedmont ends and the coastal plain begins. SCDOT's geotechnical manual traces that line from the Edgefield and Aiken county line northeast through Lancaster County. One lot here can be sandy topsoil and the next can be red clay a foot down. Clay takes water in slowly, so rain runs off the top instead of soaking down. Lexington County's land development manual rates runoff on clay ground at a curve number of 94. The most porous soils rate 77. Flat back yards and shallow ditches finish the job.
October 2015 is still the reference point. The National Weather Service recorded Gills Creek at Columbia cresting at 19.6 feet, ten feet above the old 1997 record. In Lexington County, rain over Twelve Mile Creek failed the Lexington Mill Pond dam. Part of Highway 1 went with it. Cayce's stormwater FAQ explains the split. The ditch along the road out front sits in the SCDOT right of way. A ditch perpendicular to the road belongs to whoever holds the easement. Older subdivisions often have none recorded. So the wet ground behind the house is yours. We also do storm drain work inside the Columbia city limits.
We locate the failure first. Tracing the line from the inlet to the outfall shows where it collapsed or filled in. Utilities get marked before anything opens. Then the excavator opens the ground straight down to the pipe. We cut out the bad section and set the new run to grade. The pipe gets bedded so it holds line and slope, then backfilled and compacted in lifts. Lexington County's manual allows no storm drainage pipe under fifteen inches. It wants at least half a percent of fall. Then we regrade and put the surface back. When the fix is really a plain trench and pipe run, that is our excavation service.
Driveway culverts follow the same order. The old pipe comes out and the ditch line gets reshaped so water reaches it. The new culvert is bedded, backfilled and compacted, and the drive goes back over it. Who permits the work depends on the road. SCDOT issues an encroachment permit for a state right of way, at no fee. Lexington County Public Works requires its own encroachment permit for driveway connections involving pipe installation. Richland County crews repair storm drains on county roads. Anything past the right of way line is private. The same order holds for ditch and culvert work around Cayce. If the drive itself is rutted, that is work on the drive surface itself.
Published cost guides put a yard drainage system at $2,145 to $7,171 for most homeowners, with an average near $4,631. That is roughly $10 to $25 per linear foot. National guides run a French drain at about $5,000 on average, with most jobs between $1,650 and $12,250. For a driveway culvert, published guides run $1,000 to $9,000, averaging around $4,500. What moves your number is run length, pipe depth and pipe size. How much drive or slab has to come up matters too. On larger commercial sites, disturbing an acre or more pulls in a SCDES stormwater permit.
Inside the City of Columbia, a single family home pays $15.03 a month into the stormwater utility. That money maintains the public system. The pipe and the grade on your side of the line are still yours. So drainage gets priced on site. Someone comes out, looks at the low spots with you, and finds where the water is supposed to leave. We check how much fall there is to work with. Then you get a number for the actual fix on your lot. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and set up a free on site estimate.
Free, no-obligation estimates across the Midlands, from our West Columbia shop.
(803) 796-4727From the first call to clean ground, here is how it goes.
Tell us what you need gone or built: a house, a mobile home, an overgrown lot, a driveway, a septic system. Our office gets you on the schedule fast.
We come see the property, look at access and what has to leave, and give you a written number. The estimate is free and the price covers the work we agreed on.
Our crew runs the equipment on site. Full size excavators and dozers handle the teardown or dirt work, and debris leaves on our own trucks as part of the job.
The site gets graded out, filled where it needs it, and left ready for what comes next: a new build, a driveway, a septic system or just a clean lot.
Common questions about drainage across the Midlands. Don't see yours? Give us a call and ask.
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap tears down commercial buildings across the South Carolina Midlands. Strip malls, churches, warehouses and condemned structures come down with full-size excavators and dozers. We work out of a shop in West Columbia.
We clear wooded and overgrown lots across the Midlands, half acre house sites and multi acre tracts alike. Full size excavators and dozers take out the trees, the brush, and the stumps. Our shop is in West Columbia and estimates are free.
Grading and site prep out of our West Columbia shop. We cut building pads, level low yards, and reshape wet ground so water runs off. Estimates are free anywhere in the Midlands.
Dirt Cheap digs site excavation, utility and drainage trenches, and storm drain repairs across the Midlands. Our shop sits in West Columbia, and we run full size excavators and dozers. Estimates are free.
We repair rutted, washed out and potholed driveways across the Midlands, from short residential drives to quarter mile farm lanes. Our crew cuts the ruts out, reshapes the crown and packs the surface so water leaves the drive instead of cutting into it. We also grade new lanes and replace broken concrete drives.
Full size CASE excavators, dozers and a tri axle Kenworth dump truck. Machines sized for two story houses, commercial buildings and whole lots. A mini excavator crew cannot do this work.
One contractor takes the structure down, clears the lot, fills the low spots, grades it flat and can finish with a repaired driveway, concrete or a septic system. No handoffs between companies, no waiting on a second crew.
Cleanup is part of the job, on our own trucks. The site gets cleaned as the teardown happens, so when the machines load up and leave, the lot is done.
The shop sits on Edmund Highway, so Columbia, Lexington and Cayce are minutes away. Family and woman owned. Call and you talk to our office, not a call center.
Real reviews from real demolition, excavation and site work jobs on Google.
Storm drain repair for apartment complex fixed twice, both required a large excavation. Did both jobs quickly and for a great price. Would highly recommend.
Awesome Company. Contracted them to demolish a double wide on my property. They did it quickly and cleaned up great. Even brought in fill to level the area out. Marked the septic system as required.
Stop looking. Awesome folks to deal with through and through.
HomeGuide puts land grading at $500 to $5,000 on average, or $0.40 to $2.00 per square foot. See what moves the cost to grade your yard or your lot in SC.
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Published guides put trenching at $5 to $12 per linear foot, about $500 to $1,200 for a 100 foot trench. See what moves the cost of your trench in SC.
Read more →A structure that needs to come down, a lot that needs clearing, a driveway that needs help, a septic system going in? Call or send the form and we will come look at the property and price the job. The estimate is free.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.