Land Clearing
Brush, trees, stumps and debris cleared off acreage and hauled away. We take the ground from thicket to usable.
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Mid South Mulch offers trenching services in Franklin, TN, with trenches cut by our own excavators. We dig for French drains, downspout lines, water service lines and electrical conduit. On new-home and builder sites, we cut the utility runs too. Trenching is part of our excavation work, and the digging, loading, hauling and grading all happen in-house.
We started out mowing and landscaping in 1996, then moved into trucking, excavation, grade work and site work. Our machines include excavators, a compact track loader, compaction equipment and dump trucks. We give free on-site quotes, and the trench route gets planned with you at the site.
Tell us about your project and we’ll get right back to you.
We dig trenches for drain pipe, water service lines, electrical conduit and utility runs on building sites. Drain trenches carry French drain pipe and the buried lines that move water away from downspouts and low spots. That pipe is our work, and its depth comes from the downhill slope it needs to reach an outlet. The full drain process is on our French drain and yard drainage page.
Water service lines and electrical conduit run to houses, shops, barns and detached garages. On those lines, the trench is ours, and the trade or utility that owns the line sets it. On new-home and builder sites, we cut utility runs as part of site preparation for a new build. The trades and utilities set their lines, and then we backfill the trench.
The depth depends on the line, and for utility lines the code, the utility or the inspector sets it. Where Middle Tennessee Electric supplies power, its Underground Installation Guide covers service trenches for single-family homes in developed subdivisions. Each one runs between the meter spot and the power source the utility picks, at the depth its drawings show. Its inspector checks the trench and conduit before backfill and before any wire goes in.
Drain trenches follow a different rule, since the pipe has to slope downhill the whole way to its outlet. A Williamson County soils document says several soil series mapped in the county are known for being shallow to rock. The same document lists seasonal water tables and abrupt clay layers among the most common restrictive soil conditions in county soil mapping. Rock and wet clay both change how a trench gets dug and backfilled.
Two sets of rules apply: Tennessee's 811 law before the dig and OSHA's trench rules while it is open. The 811 law covers any work that moves or disturbs the earth, and a trench does both. Whoever does the digging must get a TN811 locate ticket. That notice has to go in at least three and no more than ten working days before digging starts.
OSHA's trench rules get stricter as a trench gets deeper. A trench 4 feet deep or more needs a stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe way out. At 5 feet or deeper, OSHA requires a cave-in protective system unless the trench is cut entirely in stable rock. Dug-out dirt and equipment must stay at least 2 feet back from the edge or be held by retaining devices.
Once the line is in, we backfill the trench in layers and pack each one down. Those layers are called lifts, and our compaction equipment packs each lift before the next goes in. Packing in lifts makes the ground over the trench less likely to settle later. Middle Tennessee Electric's guide calls for rock-free dirt or sand to backfill a new home's service trench.
Extra dirt can be spread on site or loaded into our dump trucks. Hauling off the extra dirt also takes away any rock the excavator turns up. Then we smooth the top and put the surface back over the trench line. We can seed or sod over it too.
Free, no-obligation estimates across Williamson & Rutherford counties, south of Nashville.
(615) 599-7550From the first walk of the property to the final one, here is exactly how it goes.
We come out and walk the ground with you: what is growing, where the water goes, what the dirt is hiding, and what you actually want the property to become.
You get a free written quote with a real timeline. It names what happens to stumps, spoil and debris, and it flags risks like shallow rock before any machine rolls.
The equipment shows up when we said it would, machines and trucks both ours. We clear, dig, grade and haul to the plan, and you hear about anything unexpected immediately.
We walk the finished ground together. Grades checked, debris gone, surface left seed-ready or build-ready as the plan called for. Done means you say it is done.
Common questions about trenching across Williamson & Rutherford counties, south of Nashville. Don't see yours? Give us a call, we're happy to help.
Brush, trees, stumps and debris cleared off acreage and hauled away. We take the ground from thicket to usable.
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Standing brush, cedar and saplings ground into a clean mulch layer right where they grew. No burn piles, no hauling, no torn-up topsoil.
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Building pads, gravel drives, yard regrades and drainage corrections. Dirt shaped so water moves away from what you care about.
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We install French drains and yard drainage across Williamson County, and we put the surface back when the trench is closed.
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Footers, basements, trenches, ponds and tear-outs. Excavators sized to the job, with our own trucks to move the spoil.
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Everything between raw land and the first pour: clearing, cut and fill, pad building, compaction and access. One company, build-ready ground.
Learn MoreBased on Lewisburg Pike in Franklin, working a 20-mile radius south of Nashville. Thirty years on this specific dirt, and the people who quote your ground run the machines on it.
Excavators, dozers, track loaders and our own dump trucks. Clearing, dirt work and hauling in-house means your job never stalls waiting on a subcontractor.
We look over the ground in person, price it in writing with a real timeline, and flag risks like shallow rock up front. The number holds unless the scope changes.
Clear it, grade it, haul it, landscape it: the same company owns the whole sequence, so nothing falls between contractors and the finish actually gets finished.
Overgrown lot, yard that will not drain, pad that needs cutting, or a landscape ready for a redo? Call or send the form and we will look over the ground with you and hand you a free written quote.
Tell us about your project and we’ll get right back to you.
