As simple as it might seem to grade the land and create a smooth, straight finish to build or pave on, grading is actually a very involved process.
It also involves the use of many different pieces of heavy equipment to get things just right so that paving or final building site preparation can begin.
Here are just a few of those impressive machines and a brief description of what they do.
Excavators - When starting with raw land that must be prepared and then leveled, excavators are commonly used to dig out and move large amounts of soil.
Typically used for digging out for foundations, drain installation, and other site preparation needs, these tracked machines are standard at most construction and land clearing and grading job sites.
Loaders - With their big buckets and powerful lift mechanisms, loaders scoop and load things, usually soil, gravel, and other loose materials.
These machines can also be used with a variety of attachments that can replace the bucket including root and rock rakes, grapples, forks, and more.
Standard loaders run on wheels or tracks; skid loaders, smaller versions with many useful attachments for all kinds of site clearing and prepping work, are on tracks as well.
Trenching Machines - Trenchers are machines that quickly dig out deep trenches used for laying in gas, water, sewer, and utility lines before they are covered over and land grading can then be done.
Bulldozers - Bulldozers do mainly one thing and that is push earth.
On a construction site that will eventually be graded for paving or landscaping, bulldozers move large amounts of soil around with their large blades to fill in holes, spread out soil to even out the ground, and do basic leveling and first stage grading in preparation for more detailed grading.
Graders and Scrapers - Once the excavating, trenching, and loading is done, the installing of utilities and piping has been completed, and the bulldozer blade has done the preliminary grading, the graders and scrapers come in.
Performing similar jobs, both graders and scrapers scrape and flatten the top ground surface to remove excess material and ready the surface for paving or finishing in some other way.
Machines That Help Site Contractors
A great grading job starts with a solid base and many steps.
Using excavators, bulldozers, graders, and other machines, site work contractors can turn any piece of raw land into a flat, smooth site that is ready to be built on.