Bush Hogging
Rotary cutting for overgrown fields, pastures, vacant lots and fence lines across southeastern North Carolina.
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Coastal Brush Mowing is based in Burgaw, and drainage and culvert installation is a core part of our work. Most calls start with water that sits and will not leave. A ditch has silted in, a pipe has crushed, or a yard holds every rain. We set driveway culverts, replace failed pipe, cut and re-cut ditches, and shape drainage swales. We have done this work since 2013 with excavators, a tracked skid steer and a dump truck.
Pender County sits on the lower coastal plain, and the ground is nearly level almost everywhere. The USDA soil survey maps about 54 percent of the county as very poorly drained to moderately well drained. Leon and Murville sands hold water near the surface for months at a time. Flat ground with a high water table has no fall, so a ditch or swale has to give it one. When the whole lot needs reshaping first, our grading and dirt work sets the surface and the drainage follows.
The estimate is free and comes from looking at the property. We find where the water comes from and where it can finally leave. Then the excavator digs the ditch or pipe bed, and the tracked skid steer shapes and dresses the swale. Spoil gets spread where the lot needs fill, or hauled off in the dump truck as part of the job. Scheduling usually runs within days. We do this work around Rocky Point, Hampstead, Wilmington and Jacksonville, across Pender, New Hanover, Onslow, Brunswick and Duplin counties.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.
Many rural Pender County roads are state maintained. NC General Statute 136-93 requires a written NCDOT permit before anyone places a pipe in the state right of way. Under NCDOT's driveway access policy, the state can set a single home or farm entrance pipe once you buy and deliver it, so ask the district office first. The district engineer sizes it, and the policy sets a 15 inch minimum diameter and a 20 foot minimum length. Lots being developed for sale and commercial sites have the pipe installed at the property owner's expense, with NCDOT inspection. We tell you which case applies before any dirt moves.
Most of our driveway culvert installation falls outside that state program. That means farm lane crossings on private land and culvert replacement where an old pipe has crushed or silted shut. NCDOT's pipe selection guide calls for at least one foot of cover over a driveway pipe. We set the pipe on a firm bed at ditch grade and pack the fill over it in layers. Published cost data from HomeAdvisor puts culvert drainage for a driveway at about $1,500 to $5,000 installed. Once the pipe is in, our gravel driveway work builds the crossing and the drive on top.
Ditching is the oldest drainage tool on the coastal plain, and the Pender County soil survey shows why. The Cape Fear, Northeast Cape Fear and Black Rivers drain nearly all of the county. Most of the flood plain along them goes under at high tide. The survey notes that land grading and open ditches are how wet ground here gets drained. A ditch gives flat ground the fall it does not have. When an old ditch has grown shut, re-cutting it to a clean grade often fixes the problem by itself.
Drainage swales do the same job in a yard, in a shape a mower can cross. We cut a wide, shallow channel that falls toward a ditch or a pond. The tracked skid steer dresses the sides so they hold. Where a lot sits low with no outlet, drainage regrading lifts the low ground and tips it toward one. Anywhere water leaves a pipe or drops into a channel, rip-rap makes the flow land on rock. That rip-rap outlet work is the same detail we build into spillways for farm ponds and retention ponds.
In September 2018, Hurricane Florence pushed the Northeast Cape Fear River at Burgaw to 25.58 feet. That was more than three feet above the Hurricane Floyd crest, and I-40 closed for several days. Pender County counted 3,882 flood-damaged structures, per the National Weather Service in Wilmington. Our ditches and culverts handle everyday rains and give storm water a way out. Erosion control is part of every job. Silt fence goes up on the downhill side before we dig, and matting goes down on fresh slopes. Our guide to when land work in coastal North Carolina needs a permit covers the county and state rules.
The state's erosion rule sets the line at one acre. Disturb more than an acre and NCDEQ requires an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan. The plan goes in at least 30 days before work starts. Smaller jobs still have to keep sediment on site, which is what silt fence and matting do. A new ditch or swale is bare sand for a while, so matting holds the slopes until cover comes back. Call (910) 512-9578 and we will come look at the ground.
From the first walk of the property to the last pass of the blade, here is exactly how it goes.
Call (910) 512-9578 or send the form. Describe the land, what is on it, and what you want it to become. Photos help.
We meet you on the property, look at the growth, the ground and the access, and talk through the right way to do the job.
The estimate is free and comes from seeing the land. You know the price and the plan before any machine shows up.
The machines show up when the ground is ready, the work gets finished, and the property is left clean and usable.
Common questions about drainage & culverts across Burgaw & Southeastern NC. Don't see yours? Give us a call — we're happy to help.
Rotary cutting for overgrown fields, pastures, vacant lots and fence lines across southeastern North Carolina.
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Excavation for building pads, trenches, culverts and drainage cuts. We dig it, load it out, and leave the ground at the grade your plan calls for.
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Houses, mobile homes, sheds, barns and old slabs taken down and hauled away, with the ground left clean and level.
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Land grading, house pads, gravel driveways and drainage swales across Pender County. We cut and fill the ground so water runs off it and away from the house.
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We grind underbrush and small trees into mulch on site, so the wood stays as ground cover.
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We dig and shape ponds on residential and rural land across Pender, New Hanover, Onslow, Brunswick and Duplin counties. That covers farm ponds on private land and retention ponds on commercial sites.
View DetailsExcavators, a tracked skid steer and a dump truck, run by Coastal Brush Mowing. You explain the job once, the estimate comes from seeing the ground, and the company that quotes the work does the work.
Excavators, a tracked skid steer and a dump truck under one name. Clearing, dirt work, demolition and the haul-off get done as one job with one estimate.
Sandy soil, wet low spots, a high water table and brush that never quits. This is the only ground we have worked since 2013, and the work is planned for what it does.
We look at the property, talk through what it needs, and hand you a real number. The estimate costs nothing and the price comes from seeing the ground.
Land to clear, an old structure to take down, brush that's won too many summers, or a pond you've been thinking about for years? Call or send the form. We come look at the property with you and the estimate is free, from a company that has worked this ground since 2013.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.