Home town · Sterling, CT
Excavation in Sterling — from the guys whose shop is down the road.
Sterling Village, Sterling Hill, Oneco, Ekonk, North Sterling — we work here every week. Ledge, wells, septic, driveways, rock. The full rural kit.
Most of what we do in Sterling comes down to two things: granite under your feet, and no town water or sewer to tie into. Plan for both and the job goes smooth.
Types of excavation in Sterling, CT.
Real services we run here every week — each anchored in a specific Sterling condition.
Foundations on ledge.
Hitting granite on a Sterling foundation isn’t an if — it’s a when. Smith and Williams started quarrying the local ledge in the 1850s and the industry is still active. We test-pit first, quote with a rock-removal contingency built in, and break/haul whatever shows up. That surprise-free pricing is the biggest difference between working with us and someone who hasn’t spent twenty-plus years in this town.
Wells & septic installations.
Almost no property in Sterling is on town water or sewer. New builds and failing-system replacements go through the Northeast District Department of Health — a certified engineer designs the septic, a CT-licensed installer builds it, we handle the excavation and the tank set. A residential tank starts at 1,000 gallons for 1–3 bedrooms, plus 125 gallons per bedroom over three.
Rural driveways & back-lot access.
Long approaches, graded right for mud season, proper culverts at the stream crossings. Most of our Sterling driveway work is out in Ekonk and North Sterling where lots are big and the build site sits a few hundred feet off the road. We handle the full access job — clear, grade, sub-base, drainage, final surface.
Rock & boulder removal.
Surface rock, buried ledge, decorative placement. Sterling is granite country, so rock work isn’t a specialty — it’s table stakes. We’ve been clearing it for construction and setting it for landscape features for two decades.
Land clearing & site prep.
Clearing, stumping, rough grade for new residential and small-commercial builds. We check wetland mapping before we fell anything — Sterling’s zoning reduces a lot’s buildable acreage if wetlands or floodplain soils cut through it, so siting matters more here than in drier towns.
Drainage on wet-bottom lots.
Curtain drains and regraded swales for lots that fall toward a stream or wetland. Most of Sterling drains fine on its sandy upland till, but the low spots can be stubborn.
A Sterling lot is a different problem than a Plainfield lot. Plainfield sits on sandy loam and river-bottom silts along the Quinebaug and Moosup — drainage is the first question. Sterling sits on a granite shelf — rock is the first question. Norwich, down the road, has NPU gas and sewer under every street; Sterling has almost none of that. Three towns in the same county, three different first questions.
On the ground in Sterling.
Field photo
Four Sterling rules we plan every job around.
- 01Granite ledge is normal. We price foundations with a rock contingency rather than pretending it won’t show up.
- 02Wells and septic are permitted through NDDH, not town hall. Engineer design + licensed installer required.
- 03Wetlands review has to finish before P&Z decides. Floodplain soils are cut from a lot’s buildable area outright.
- 04Town road cuts go through Sterling; Route 14 and state-maintained segments go through CT DOT.
Call direct. We’re five minutes away.