Site Preparation & Building Pads in Ocala, FL
House pads, barn pads and shop pads cut, filled and compacted to the grade your builder asked for.
Site prep is everything that happens between "we own a lot" and "the builder can mobilise." Get it wrong and you find out eighteen months later when a slab cracks or a corner settles.
Most of our site prep work comes from one of two directions: an owner who bought a lot and got handed a list of requirements by their builder, or a builder who wants the ground right before they bring a crew out.
From raw lot to builder-ready pad
- Clear the footprint Everything off the building area, with a working margin around it so equipment and trades have room.
- Grub the stumps out Out entirely under any footprint — not ground flush. Buried wood rots, and rotting wood settles under a slab.
- Strip the organics Topsoil and root mat come off the pad area. Organic material compresses over time; sand does not.
- Cut the drive in Before the pad, not after. Concrete trucks and lumber deliveries need a way in that will hold weight.
- Build and compact the pad Fill brought up in lifts and compacted as it goes. Dumping it all at once and compacting the top only is how pads fail.
- Shape the drainage Pad sits above surrounding grade with fall away from it on every side. Water has to leave, not sit.
- Hand it over clean Site left tidy with room for the trades to stage material and turn a truck around.
Where our work stops and the specialists start
- ✓Clearing and grubbing the building footprint
- ✓Stripping organics and unsuitable material
- ✓Bringing in, placing and compacting fill
- ✓Building house, barn and shop pads to a given elevation
- ✓Cutting and rocking the construction access drive
- ✓Shaping site drainage around the pad
- ✓Rough grading the balance of the lot
- ✕Surveying and setting the corners
- ✕Geotechnical testing and compaction certification
- ✕Engineered foundation design
- ✕Septic system permitting, design and install
- ✕Utility trenching and hookups
- ✕Pulling the building permit itself
We work to the elevation and spec your builder or engineer gives us. If you do not have one yet, get that first — it is the number everything else is built from.
Usually goes with
Most jobs need more than one
Land Clearing
Wooded lots, overgrown acreage and homesites cleared down to workable ground — brush, palmetto, stumps and all.
Land clearing in Ocala →
Grading & Leveling
Low spots filled, high spots cut, water sent where it should go instead of toward your slab.
Grading and leveling in Ocala →
Driveways
Cut a drive into raw land, or rebuild a washed-out one with limerock and proper drainage.
Driveway clearing and installation in Ocala →Questions we get asked
Site Prep & Pads questions
What does my builder actually need from me before they start?
Why do stumps have to come out under a pad if grinding is cheaper?
Do you do compaction testing?
Can you build a pad if I do not have a survey yet?
Where we work
Site preparation across Marion County
Free estimates
Get your estimate today
Tell us where the property is and what you need done. We'll call you back and come walk it with you — free, and no obligation either way.