E D HUGHES EXCAVATING INC

They do great work. I'm am in awe of the skills of the workers. Any time I need excavation work done, I always contact E.D. Hughes.

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Operator arrived with too big an excavator for the job.  I inquired about it and he tried to put me at ease explaining that he knew how to operate it in tight spaces.  Proceeded with excavation of trench along the line determined to match the sewage line that connected to the city main line.  As he began to approach sidewalk with excavator in reverse he could not avoid trampling all the shrubs that I had around the line of trees that grew along the curve.  He damaged them very badly, but I only saw this when it was too late. Therefore, I realized that this man could not operate such large piece of equipment in tight spaces.  While excavating he broke the main water line to the house, so the trench and the side walk started to flood.  Had to cut water to the house, which took him a while because he could not locate it underneath the muddy waters that covered it.  I was the one who had to inform him where the shut off water valve was. After this was resolved and damaged water main line was repaired and the sewage pipe replaces he began filling in trench, but he did not separate from the dirt all the big roots he had cut during the excavation process instead he dumped them in the trench.  The end result was a trench cover with a mount of dirt that raised up to my knees.  When I complained about that and all the mess he had created on the front yard and called the main office, they sent a second employee to "water settle" the trench.  Well, with all the air pockets that had to be created in the process of dumping roots and branches into the trench, water settling was making very little effect if any.  By the time they left, I still had a pile of dirt running along the trench like a mountain range and no hope that the rain was going to take care of that in one or even two winters.  The following day, i got a supervisor to visit the side and he admitted that the operator had used too large an excavator (and his reason had been because he already had it loaded on the trailer the morning of the job), had been less than professional and agreed to have the debris on that pile hauled away and the remaining dirt compressed by another person.  They did that and the scene upon my return from work was much closer to what I would have expected on day one, except that the lawn area that had been impacted was now way larger than a simple trench and all the bushes by the side walk were damaged beyond anyone's expectations.  It will take a couple of growing seasons for the scars this operator left on my front yard to go away.

unknown

They were very responsive. They came in and brought the right equipment. They did their job and were right on time.

See above.
Basically, if you're doing some digging and feel comfy running an excavator or other implement and REALLY want to do it yourself, then go for it...but you won't save yourself any money. We tried. After rental fees, fuel and transportation, we spent almost exactly what Jim/Hughes bid for some of the work done on our project.

Next time, I'll save myself the effort and hire Jim...unless, of course, I just want to rent an excavator and play...err, I mean, dig for a while. ;-)

I'm very pleased with him. He did a good job. It was a good experience. He was very knowledgeable, and he knew what he was doing.