Excavation Contractors in Buffalo, NY

Excavation contractors in Buffalo work on ground that was under glacial lakes when the ice retreated. The city sits at 600 feet on the eastern shore of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River, and it is generally flat outside a few rises in University Heights and the Fruit Belt. Flat land sounds easy to dig, but it is slow to drain. Water that cannot run off soaks into clay, freezes, thaws and finds basements. Most of what we do here, whether grading, trenching or a foundation dig, comes back to moving water.

Snow, frost and spring melt

Buffalo Niagara International Airport averages 95.4 inches of snow a year under the 1991 to 2020 normals, with 26.7 inches in January alone, and the January mean temperature is 25.5 degrees. The November 2014 storm dropped more than five and a half feet in the region. All of that snow melts, often over frozen ground that cannot absorb it. Yards that hold water in April, basements that leak during thaws and driveways that heave are the symptoms. We grade so meltwater moves away from buildings, set footings and lines below frost, and backfill so trenches do not settle into ditches by spring.

Clay and old lakebeds

North of the city, Glacial Lake Tonawanda once covered the land south of the Niagara Escarpment. In Amherst, the old lakebed has been tied to an ongoing problem with sinking homes, and parts of the town that were once floodplain and marsh have seen residential foundations collapse because of unstable soil. When we dig in areas like that, we look at what the soil is doing before we promise anything about a slab or a footing, and we recommend a soil check when the stakes are high.

Four waterways in one city

The Niagara River, the Buffalo River and Creek, Scajaquada Creek and the Black Rock Canal all run through city limits, and in the suburbs Ellicott, Cayuga, Cazenovia and Tonawanda creeks do the same. Low lots near any of them carry floodplain limits and higher groundwater. We check before grading or filling near a creek.

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Buried lines first

New York requires anyone digging to notify the one-call center, Dig Safely New York (811), before excavation so utilities can mark their lines. Every job gets a locate request, and no bucket goes in before the marks are down. Private lines, such as a feed to a detached garage or an old sprinkler main, are something we ask you about.

A typical residential job

• Free site visit and written quote
• Utility locate and any town or village permits
• Access protected: drive, walks and lawn
• Excavation with topsoil set aside
• Compacted backfill and grading that sheds water
• Hauling and cleanup

Buffalo is home base. We work across Erie County and into Niagara County: Cheektowaga, Amherst, Williamsville, Tonawanda, Kenmore, West Seneca, Lackawanna, Orchard Park, Hamburg, Lancaster, Depew, Clarence, Grand Island, East Aurora, Elma, Alden, North Tonawanda and Lockport among them. Each town and village has its own building department, and conditions run from dense city lots and old railroad villages to former lakebed in the Northtowns and rolling farmland in the Southtowns. The town pages cover the details.