BEST Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep Twin Falls ID | Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep Near Me in Twin Falls, Burley & the Magic Valley | Gravel Driveway Contractors, Driveway Grading, Approaches & Parking Pads, Road Base & Crushed Rock | Licensed & Insured, Free Estimates

Name: Dave's Excavating
Address: 767 E 200 S, Burley, ID, 83318, US
Telephone: (208) 808-9396

What the job includes

New gravel driveways, approaches and parking areas — cut, based, crowned and rocked so they shed water instead of holding it. A gravel driveway that rutted out after one spring was almost always built on top of soft ground with no crown and no base. Rock is the last step, not the fix.

Most of this work happens in the Mini-Cassia towns around the yard - Burley, Rupert, Heyburn, Paul and Declo - and across the Magic Valley in Twin Falls, Kimberly, Filer, Buhl and Jerome. We also run scheduled route days east to American Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls for gravel driveways & driveway prep on acreage and new construction, so a job there gets a real date rather than a maybe.

Grading and gravel work on a residential property.

How we do it

Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep, step by step

Strip the topsoil first

Organic topsoil never stops moving. It gets stripped off and set aside before any rock goes down, or the driveway keeps sinking into it no matter how much gravel you buy.

Base rock, then surface rock

A driveway that carries a loaded truck needs a coarse base course compacted under a finer surface course. Dumping a single load of 3/4-inch on soft dirt looks like a driveway for about one wet season.

Crown and drainage

The whole point of a crown is to move water to the edges. Add a ditch or a culvert where the ground makes one necessary. Flat driveways hold water, water softens the base, and the base is what fails.

Prepping for concrete or asphalt

If you're pouring or paving later, the sub-base has to be right first — stripped, filled to grade in lifts and compacted. We do the dirt work and hand it off ready.

Long rural lanes

Acreage driveways run hundreds of feet across changing ground. Culverts at the low spots and consistent crown the whole run are what keep a lane passable through spring runoff.

Fixing a driveway that already failed

Ruts, potholes and soft spots usually mean the base is contaminated with dirt. Regrading alone buys a season; digging out the soft spot and rebuilding it fixes it.

Our work

Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep photos

Real jobs, our own machines. Captions describe what is in the frame.

Freshly graded dirt lot with excavator track marks next to a house — Lot rough graded and tracked in beside a new home

Mini excavator loaded and headed to a job site.

Before you call

What decides how a gravel driveway is built

Length and width. A 60-foot approach and a quarter-mile lane to a house on acreage are different jobs with different rock counts. Rough measurements help.

What is under it. Topsoil and organics have to come off and a base go in. A driveway laid straight on sod turns to ruts the first spring.

How it drains. Crown, ditches and culverts where it crosses low ground. Water that stands on a driveway takes the driveway with it.

Approach and culvert permits. A new approach onto a county road or a highway needs an approach permit and often a culvert. We tell you when that applies.

What it has to carry. A pickup and a car, or a fifth-wheel and a hay truck. Base depth and rock size follow from the answer.

Around the valley

Driveways across the Magic Valley and eastern Idaho

Acreage driveways around Burley, Declo, Oakley and Filer tend to be long, flat and crossed by irrigation ditches, so culverts and grade are the work. Twin Falls, Kimberly and Jerome lots hit rock sooner, which can mean less cut and more imported base. Buhl and the canyon-edge properties see spring water and need ditching that actually moves it. East toward American Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls the freeze-thaw is harder, and a driveway without a proper base heaves and pot-holes by March. Everywhere, the same rule: base, crown, compaction, then rock.

Estimates

Free on-site estimates, in writing

Four things set the price on excavation work. We walk the property, look at all four, and hand you one written number before anything gets dug.

AccessCan the excavator and dump trailer get to the work without wrecking the yard? Tight lots and soft ground add time.
Soil and rockMagic Valley ground goes from sandy loam to basalt a foot down. Rock changes the machine, the pace and the price.
Haul-off and materialsDirt hauled away, gravel and road base hauled in, concrete to the recycler. Distance to the pit or the dump sets the cost.
Permits and locatesSeptic permits, inspections and utility locates are part of the job and part of the estimate, not an add-on at the end.

Call (208) 808-9396

How it works

Four steps, no surprises

01Call or text
Tell us what you need done and where. Photos of the site help, and a rough sketch of what you have in mind helps more.
02We walk the site
Free on-site estimate. We look at access, slope, soil, what is buried and where the water goes, then give you a written number.
03Locates and permits
Utility locates are called before any digging. Septic permits and inspections are scheduled with the health district.
04Dug, graded, cleaned up
The work gets done to grade, compacted where it needs to be, and the site is raked back so it is ready for whoever comes next.

Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep by town

Pick your town for local detail, or just call and tell us where the property is.

Questions

Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep questions

How much does a gravel driveway cost?

It depends on length, width, how much cut and fill the ground needs, and rock haul distance. We'll walk it, measure it and give you an itemized number rather than a per-foot guess over the phone.

How long does a gravel driveway take to install?

A standard residential driveway is usually one to two days. Long rural lanes with culverts and significant cut and fill take longer.

Can you fix my existing driveway instead of replacing it?

Often yes. If the base is still sound, regrading, re-crowning and adding a surface course does it. If the base is contaminated with dirt, that section needs to be dug out and rebuilt.

Do you install culverts?

Yes. Where a driveway crosses a ditch or a low spot, a properly sized and bedded culvert is what keeps the crossing from washing out.

Gravel Driveways & Driveway Prep in Twin Falls, ID