Bobcat and mini excavator work in Temecula costs $150 per hour with a 4-hour minimum, operator and fuel included, plus a flat travel charge we quote before you book. We are twenty-five minutes away in Fallbrook and in Temecula most weeks. Backyard leveling, ADU pads, trenching, pool deck and patio removal, and wine country lot clearing are the common calls.
Temecula is the biggest market next to Fallbrook and the one we drive to most. Half the work is in the tract neighborhoods, Redhawk, Wolf Creek, Harveston, Paloma del Sol, Vail Ranch, Temeku Hills and Morgan Hill, where a backyard that was left as a dirt slope by the builder needs leveling for turf, pavers or a pool, and a side yard needs a trench for a pool equipment line or an ADU. The other half is on the acreage: De Luz, the wine country along Rancho California Road, Los Ranchitos and the horse properties off Santiago Road.
Tract backyards in Temecula have a pattern. The pad is flat, the slope at the back is steep and uncompacted, there is a drainage swale at the toe that the builder cut and the homeowner filled, and the side yard gate is exactly as wide as the plans required and no wider. We know the pattern. We measure the gate before the trailer leaves Fallbrook, protect the stamped concrete in the side yard, and grade the yard so the swale works again.
On the acreage the work is the same as Fallbrook: pads, grove and vineyard prep, long trenches, dirt road grading and fire clearance. De Luz straddles the county line and is closer to our yard than most of Temecula, so De Luz jobs are quoted at the Fallbrook rate.
The ground in Temecula
The Temecula valley floor is alluvial sand and silt, easy digging and fast draining, laid over the clay and granite that come up in the hills. The tract pads were mass graded and compacted, so the yards are hard, flat and dead level until the slope at the back. The wine country and the hills toward De Luz and Rainbow are decomposed granite and clay loam, the same ground we grade in Fallbrook.
Temecula's winter problem is the same as Fallbrook's, water off a slope into a yard, with one addition: the tract swales. Every tract lot has a concrete or earthen swale at the base of its rear slope designed to carry runoff to the street. When it is filled, planted over or buried under a patio, the water goes into the house instead. Restoring that swale, or building drainage that replaces it, is a Temecula job we do often.
What we do most in Temecula
Backyard leveling in the tracts
Taking a builder-grade dirt yard in Redhawk, Wolf Creek, Harveston or Paloma del Sol to a level, draining grade for turf, pavers, a pool or a play area.
ADU and casita pads
Rough grading to the plan on the larger lots in Los Ranchitos, Meadowview, Santiago Estates and the wine country, with cut and fill where the lot slopes.
Trenching for pools, ADUs and gates
Pool equipment lines, electrical to a casita or a driveway gate, irrigation mainlines, and water to a horse barn, cut to the depth your trade specifies.
Pool deck, patio and slab removal
Breaking and loading old decks and patios ahead of a pool remodel or a new paver patio, with the concrete going to a Riverside County recycler.
Wine country and De Luz lot clearing
Brush clearing for vineyards, groves and building pads, fire clearance on the hillside lots, and dirt road grading on the private ranch roads.
Drainage and slope repair
Restoring tract swales, French drains along foundations, and rebuilding rear slopes that slid in a wet winter.
Roads and places we know
If your property is on or near one of these, we have probably been on it.
- Rancho California Road
- De Luz Road
- Temecula Parkway (Highway 79 South)
- Winchester Road
- Pechanga Parkway
- Santiago Road
- Butterfield Stage Road
- Jefferson Avenue
- Old Town Front Street
- Interstate 15
- Old Town Temecula
- Temecula Valley Wine Country
- Pechanga Resort
- Lake Skinner
- Temecula Duck Pond
- Ronald Reagan Sports Park
- the De Luz hills
- Santa Rosa Plateau to the north
Permits in Temecula
Inside Temecula city limits, grading and demolition permits come from the City of Temecula's Public Works and Building departments. Backyard leveling, trenching, drainage on your own lot and patio removal need none; anything that changes the engineered drainage of a tract lot, moves significant volume or involves a retaining wall over a few feet can. In De Luz and the unincorporated wine country, Riverside County Building and Safety is the authority. HOA rules apply in most tracts and your HOA may want to approve the yard plan before we grade it.