Pine River is Cass County acreage country north of Brainerd — farms, hobby farms, and wooded lots where room is rarely the problem. Brainerd Lakes Dirt Works digs, grades, and surfaces it: excavation, grading and drainage, gravel driveways, and site prep, with the estimate free and in writing.
Pine River is Cass County acreage country north of Brainerd — farms, hobby farms, and wooded lots where a pond is a reasonable thing to want and room is rarely the problem.
Around Pine River the signature jobs are ponds and pads: a farm pond dug where the water sits right, a pad for the barn or the shop, and long gravel drives maintained a section at a time. The digging, grading, and surfaces below are how those jobs price.
Around Pine River the signature jobs are ponds and pads: a farm pond dug where the water sits right, a pad for the barn or the shop, and long gravel drives maintained a section at a time. Spoil almost always stays on site out here — there's always a low spot that wants it.
Every Pine River job starts with a look. Pine River's a north run, so we plan looks out here ahead and tell you the day straight — then we walk the ground with you and put the scope and the price in writing before any work starts.
Digging prices off one rate card for the whole lakes area — $50–$150 per cubic yard, $1,500 floor — whether it's a foundation, a basement, a pond, or a trench line. What changes in Pine River is where the dirt goes: spoil almost always stays on site out here — there's always a low spot that wants it — which keeps haul-off off most bills. Footings go below frost depth — 42 to 60 inches up here — and if spoil does have to leave, it's $300–$600 a load.
Grading sets the shape and the drainage: finish grading at $0.50–$1.25 per sq ft, rough grading at $1.00–$2.25, with a $750 floor. Long farm drives are the Pine River regular — built new at $1.75–$4.50 per sq ft on a compacted base, or refreshed a section at a time at $0.75–$1.50, worst stretches first, so the money lands where the mud is.
Pads price by the job: $1,500–$3,500 for a small garage or shed pad, $2,500–$5,600 for a house pad, $3,800–$6,700 for a large pad or full site prep with the driveway roughed in. Out here that's barn and shop ground, usually with the pond spoil shaped into the same plan. Topsoil stripped, fill compacted in lifts, rough grade set around it — ready for your builder.
You call (612) 260-8779 or send the form and tell us about the Pine River place — the pond you've been picturing, the barn pad, the drive — and where the water sits on it now.
We come out and walk the ground in person — Pine River's a north run, so we plan looks out here ahead and tell you the day straight. A pond especially can't be priced honest off a photo — soil and water table decide it.
You get the scope and the price in writing, with the unit math shown, off the one lakes-area rate card. The price we write is the price you pay unless the scope changes — and if it does, we talk first.
Machines show up on the day we set. Spoil gets shaped as we go — berm, low-spot fill, pad ground — so the place looks more finished every pass, not less.
When the last pass is done, we walk the lot with you and check the grades together — pond banks included — before we call it finished.
We also serve the towns around Pine River — see excavation in Aitkin and excavation in Crosby.
Dug a farm pond on acreage — about 120 cu yd of cut, banks sloped so they hold, spoil shaped into a low berm and the ground left ready.
"I'd wanted a pond on the back of the place for years. They talked through where the water would sit before they ever started the machine, dug it with banks that won't slump, and shaped the spoil into a berm instead of leaving me a dirt pile. The grandkids are already asking about fish." — Gary, Pine River
Final price: $9,500.
In Pine River and ready to move some dirt? Call (612) 260-8779 — we'll come look and put it in writing.