Dirt Work
House pads, barn pads, site prep and fill: dirt hauled, placed, shaped and packed so what you build on it stays put.
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Pollard's Dozer Service builds mobile home pads in Buna, TX and across Jasper, Orange, Hardin, Newton and Jefferson counties. We clear the homesite and strip the grass, roots and other organic material where the home and its footings go. Fill is brought in, built up in layers, packed with the tracks and crowned so water runs off. Then we slope the ground away from the home and cut and gravel the drive the home comes in on.
A mobile home pad goes in like the house, barn and shop pads that are part of our dirt work. When the lot is still wooded, land clearing opens up the homesite before the pad goes in. The drive the home comes in on is cut in before delivery day and graveled like our gravel driveways. Each job starts with a free on-site estimate, so have the installer's plan on hand when we come look.
Tell us about your land — we’ll get right back to you.
HUD's Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards spell out what the ground under a home needs. All organic material, such as grass, roots, twigs and wood scraps, must be removed where the footings go. After that, the home site must be graded or prepared so it drains. To help prevent settling or sagging, the foundation must sit on firm, undisturbed soil or compacted fill.
The same standards call for drainage that moves surface water away and keeps it from building up under the home. All drainage must slope at least one-half inch per foot away from the foundation for the first ten feet. Where that slope cannot be had, the site needs drains or swales to carry water away. For us, that means a pad stripped clean, built up in packed layers and crowned, plus land grading around it.
Buna sits in Jasper County, where USDA's Evadale soil series has its type location. Through the cool season, Evadale soil stays saturated from the surface down to its clay layer. The Beaumont clay series, with its type location in Jefferson County, runs 42 to 60 percent clay. Both are poorly drained and very slow to let water through, and Beaumont clay sheds almost no runoff.
Dry Beaumont clay cracks open 1/2 inch to more than 1 inch wide and 12 inches deep or more. NOAA's normals give Port Arthur about 62 inches of rain in a normal year, with August the wettest month. So the pad gets built up out of the wet, on firm ground with the grass and roots stripped away. We build mobile home pads in Buna, Evadale, Lumberton, Kirbyville and Vidor, and throughout the surrounding counties.
Before the home is ordered, look up the lot on FEMA's flood map, as Jasper County's floodplain notice suggests. The federal flood insurance rules cover a manufactured home placed in Zones A1-30, AH or AE. There, the home must sit on a permanent foundation with its lowest floor at or above the base flood elevation. In a plain Zone A, the home must be elevated and anchored to resist flotation, collapse or lateral movement.
In Jasper County, a property owner needs a Floodplain Permit before any work in a FEMA floodplain, including placing fill. The county also sets a floor height for new homes in a floodplain, so ask its Floodplain Administrator first. HUD puts Orange and Jefferson counties in Wind Zone II, where homes are designed for a 100 mph wind speed. Jasper, Hardin and Newton counties are not on that list, so tell your dealer which county the lot is in.
We build the ground, the pad and the drive, and a licensed installer sets, levels and anchors the home. Texas law says no one may act as a manufactured home installer without an installer's license. We do not block, pier or tie down a home, or pour runners, footings or slabs. Skirting and utility hookups for water and power are not part of our work either.
We also do not pull permits, survey the lot or do soil or compaction testing. Under HUD's standards, soil that looks like peat or organic clay needs a registered professional to classify it. Where the drive crosses a road ditch, the county's culvert rules come first, and our drainage and culvert work covers the ditch side. With the installer's plan in hand, ask for a free on-site estimate and we will come look at your ground.
From the first walk of the property to the last pass of the blade, here is exactly how it goes.
We come see the property — the trees, the brush, the ground under it, and how wet it runs. What you want cleared, what's worth keeping, and what the job really takes. No blind quotes over the phone.
You get a free estimate with a real number and a real timeline. It covers what's included, from the clearing and the dirt to the shaping and the debris, and it holds unless the scope changes.
The dozer, excavator or mulcher shows up when we said and does the job the way we quoted it. Anything unexpected in the ground, you hear about it immediately, not on the invoice.
We walk the finished ground with you before we call it done. Clean lines, shaped banks, a pad you can build on or a pasture you can mow. Done means you say it's done.
Common questions about mobile home pads across Buna & all of Texas. Don't see yours? Give us a call — we're happy to help.
House pads, barn pads, site prep and fill: dirt hauled, placed, shaped and packed so what you build on it stays put.
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Wooded lots, overgrown acreage and future homesites cleared with our own dozer — trees and brush out, clean workable dirt left behind.
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New gravel driveways cut and crowned, rutted and muddy drives rebuilt, and ranch roads, lanes and shop pads graveled so they hold up in the wet.
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We cut ditches, shape swales, set driveway culverts and regrade the low spots where water stands on your property.
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Site dig-outs, soft-spot removal, pond and basin digging and cleanup work with our own excavator.
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Bulldozer services around Buna and across Texas, pushing out growth, cutting pads and lanes to grade, and shaping pond banks.
View DetailsFamily owned and operated since 1990, with three generations on the same iron. The name on the machine is the family doing the work — and answering the phone.
Dozer, excavator and tracked mulcher under one roof. Clearing, dirt work, grading and the pond get done as one job with one estimate — not three contractors pointing at each other.
We come look at your ground, tell you what it actually needs and what it does not, and hand you a real number. No phone guesses, no surprise extras.
Sandy uplands, gumbo clay bottoms, wet winters and brush that never quits — this is the only dirt we have ever worked, and we build for what it does.
Land to clear, a pad to build, brush that's won too many summers, or a pond you've been thinking about for years? Call or send the form and we'll come look at your ground with you and hand you a free estimate from the family that's worked this dirt since 1990.
Tell us about your land — we’ll get right back to you.