A slab is only as good as the pad under it. We build house, barndominium, and shop pads with engineered fill placed in compacted lifts, held to plan elevation, and shaped so water leaves on every side.
Credibility comes from how it's done, not from promises. Here's the order of operations on every building pads job.
Pad elevation, footprint, and any engineer or manufacturer spec come first. On the expansive clay across much of North Texas the pad design carries as much weight as the slab design, and we build to what the documents call for rather than to a rule of thumb.
Topsoil and organic material come off the entire pad footprint plus the overbuild. Fill placed over grass and roots settles unevenly, so that never happens under one of our pads.
We balance cut and fill where the site allows and import select fill where it does not. The fill goes down in thin lifts, moisture-conditioned and compacted, so the pad carries the building instead of consolidating under it once the load arrives.
Compaction is where a pad is won or lost. Each lift is compacted before the next one is placed over it, and where the project carries testing requirements we build so the density tests pass on the first pass, not after rework.
The finished pad is held to plan elevation, built above the surrounding grade, and shaped so water sheds away on all four sides. When the builder arrives, the pad is sitting exactly where the plans put it.
Most dirt-work outfits go quiet once the tractor leaves. We pick up the phone, show up when we say, and come back after the first hard rain if something needs a second pass. The follow-through is the difference.
An operator we know runs your job and a vetted crew does the work, managed by GradeWerx, one company accountable from the first walkthrough to the final grade check.
COI on file before the first machine unloads. The documentation that lets builders and commercial clients release payment and gives homeowners peace of mind.
Prepared subgrade, compaction in lifts, positive drainage away from every structure, and a laser-checked final grade. We earn trust through the process, not promises. On building pads, that starts with start from the plan and the soil.
Stripped footprint, select fill in compacted lifts, held elevations, and positive drainage on every side. When the forming crew shows up, the pad is at grade and firm underfoot, which is the review that actually counts.
Most pads land somewhere between $2,500 and $15,000 or more. Where a given pad falls depends on its footprint, how much fill has to be brought up to reach plan elevation, whether select fill has to be imported instead of balanced on site, truck and equipment access, and whether the job carries density-testing requirements. We put a number on it after walking the lot and reading the plan set. We will not float a figure over the phone that we would have to take back once we see the dirt.
Select fill is soil with controlled clay content that compacts predictably and swells far less than native Blackland clay. Foundation engineers across North Texas commonly spec select fill under slabs because the native clay moves with moisture. Building the pad from the right material up front is cheaper than fighting a moving slab later.
High enough that water always moves away from the slab, set by the plans and the lot's own drainage. Elevation above grade plus positive fall is the pad's first line of defense for the foundation above it. We can't stop North Texas clay from swelling and shrinking with the seasons, so we build the pad so the water leaves first.
We build to spec and coordinate with the owner's or builder's geotechnical firm when the project calls for density tests. Lift thickness and moisture conditioning are managed so the tests pass as built, not after we tear back into a finished pad.
Yes. The cut and fill get benched into the slope and keyed so the fill side does not creep, with drainage designed to carry uphill water around the pad instead of through it. Slope adds cost, and we show you where it comes from rather than burying it.
The building footprint plus overbuild on each side, at the elevation and compaction the slab design calls for. Your building package or engineer sets the numbers; we build the dirt to match them and hold it there.
We bring building pads to Burleson, Celina, Midlothian, Royse City, Weatherford, and more of the DFW metroplex. All service areas →
You'll hear back from a real person. No call center, no runaround, no chasing us down.
Or call (817) 865-1077