Category: Uncategorized
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Grading Your Property: What It Means, Why It Matters, and What It Costs
If you’ve ever stood on your lot after a heavy rain and watched water run the wrong direction — toward the foundation, across the driveway, into the crawl space — you’ve seen what happens when a property isn’t graded right. Grading is one of the least glamorous line items in any construction project, and one…
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Bay Area Soil Types and Why They Cause Drainage Problems
If you’ve lived in the Bay Area for more than one rainy season, you already know the drill. The first big atmospheric river rolls through, and by morning your side yard looks like a koi pond, water is sheeting off your hillside, and there’s a damp smell creeping up from the crawl space. The culprit…
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The End-of-Winter Property Walk
As the winter season ends and we move into spring, it’s the perfect time to take a walk around your property and look for signs that rain or snow is doing damage to your property. Right now is when drainage problems, erosion, and soil instability are easy to spot without getting soaked by the rain…
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Defensible Space 101: What California Law Requires and How to Get Free Help Doing It
What Is Defensible Space? If you live in a fire-prone area of California — and much of the Bay Area and surrounding hills qualifies — defensible space isn’t optional. It’s the law. But beyond the legal requirement, it’s one of the most evidence-backed things a homeowner can do to improve their home’s odds of surviving…
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Hydrovac Truck In Action
This might just be one of our favorite pieces of equipment at Harris Excavation. The hydrovac truck is a shop vac and pressure washer on wheels, allowing us to excavate through soil without the risk of damaging underground utilities With the congested underground environment across most cities in the Bay Area, including Cupertino, San Mateo,…
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Cupertino Hydroexcavation
Harris Excavation was contracted to excavated a trench for new electrical service in a congested environment. We had to navigate around the existing electrical, gas, and telecommunications services that were present in the trench alignment. For this project, we brought out a hydrovac truck which is a combination of a pressure washer with a super…
