Foundation holes, garage pads, additions, utility trenches, final grade — the dirt work that turns a Moultonborough lot into a build site, done on schedule so your contractor isn’t waiting.
Distances are what set Moultonborough apart. Estate lots off Moultonborough Neck Road and the roads toward Castle in the Clouds routinely need driveways measured in hundreds of yards — effectively small private roads, with the ditching, culvert crossings, and gravel depth that implies. We build them in lifts of compacted bank-run with a crushed top course, and we size culverts for mountain runoff, because water coming off the Ossipees moves fast when it moves. On the Neck and along the big lake, shallow ledge and Shoreland Permit rules shape nearly every waterfront project; the 50-foot waterfront buffer’s tree-removal point system decides what clearing is even on the table. One more local reality: several of these long drives cross wet pockets that need NHDES wetlands sign-off before a bucket touches them. We walk the full alignment before quoting — every time.
Planning a long Moultonborough driveway? Have it built to handle a loaded concrete truck — roughly 70,000 pounds — even if you drive a pickup. A drive that only carries cars will rut and fail the week your foundation pours, and rebuilding a base under construction traffic costs far more than building it right once.
Every build starts and ends with dirt. We dig foundations and frost walls to spec (four-foot frost depth here isn’t a suggestion), cut and fill to bring a sloped lot to grade, trench for water, power, and septic lines, and come back at the end for the finish grade that sheds water away from the new foundation. On ledge-prone ground we dig test pits first — finding granite with a quote instead of a change order.
We coordinate directly with your builder, and we show up when the schedule says — because everyone downstream of the dirt is waiting on it.
Machine-and-operator excavation runs $110–$200/hour in the region; typical foundation digs land $3,000–$10,000 depending on size, soils, and ledge. Test pits and a site walk get you a flat number before we start.
Most Lakes Region foundation excavations run $3,000 to $10,000 — driven by size, soil, water table, and whether we hit ledge. Test pits before quoting mean the number you get is the number you pay.
It's common here. We dig test pits at the corners before quoting, so ledge shows up in the plan — hammering or blasting gets priced up front, not as a mid-job surprise. If ledge makes one corner of the lot expensive, sometimes shifting the footprint twenty feet saves five figures.
Prime season is May through November. Deep frost slows winter digging, and March–April mud season closes many posted town roads to loaded trucks. We schedule around both — and fall is the smart time to book a spring dig.
Free site walks, test pits before quotes, flat pricing, and a crew that knows Lakes Region ground.
Tell us where the property is and what you’re trying to do. We’ll walk the site, talk it through, and give you a straight, flat quote.
