Land & Lot Clearing
Typical NJ range: $1,400 - $6,000+ per acre
Clearing overgrown or wooded ground in New Jersey usually costs $1,400 to $6,000+ per acre, and a homeowner clearing just part of a lot tends to spend somewhere between $1,500 and $6,000 all in. The range is wide because 'clearing' can mean cutting back light brush or it can mean dropping mature trees, grubbing out roots, and hauling everything away.
The things that move it: how thick the growth is, how big the trees are, the slope, and most of all where the debris ends up. Chipping brush on site is inexpensive; loading whole trees and stumps into a truck is not. Gate width counts as well. A back lot a mini excavator can drive into costs less than one that needs hand work. One walk around the property shows which end of the range applies, and that number goes on paper.
French Drain Installation
Typical NJ range: $10 - $50 per linear foot (deep systems $30 - $90)
Yard french drains in New Jersey generally run $10 to $50 per linear foot. Shallow curtain drains sit at the low end, and deeper drains that catch water near a foundation run $30 to $90 per foot. A typical 50 to 100 foot run across a wet side yard ends up in the low to middle thousands.
Depth drives the cost. Each extra foot means more soil out, more stone in, and more to haul. The heavy clay found around Edison slows the digging, a high water table makes it messier, and a narrow side yard can mean a smaller machine and extra trips. Once someone has walked the yard and seen where the water really goes, none of that is a guess, and the written price is the price.
Yard Regrading & Leveling
Typical NJ range: $1,000 - $5,000 for a typical backyard
Regrading a typical New Jersey backyard costs $1,000 to $5,000, or about $0.50 to $2.00 per square foot. Small fixes, such as filling a low spot or pitching soil away from the foundation, fall at the bottom. Reshaping an entire sloped yard with trucked-in fill falls at the top.
Most of the price is dirt math: how many yards have to move, whether fill comes in or spoil goes out, and how steep the current slope is. Wet clay takes more passes to shape and compact than sandy loam does. Measuring the fall and the yardage on site turns that into one fixed number instead of an hourly estimate.
Driveway Excavation & Gravel Driveways
Typical NJ range: $4 - $10 per square foot installed
A new gravel driveway in New Jersey usually costs $4 to $10 per square foot installed, which works out to roughly $4,000 to $10,000 for a 100 by 10 foot drive. If an old driveway has to be dug out and hauled away first, that excavation and prep step alone often runs $1,000 to $2,500.
The excavation is what decides whether a driveway lasts or ruts in its first year, and it is also where the money goes: stripping topsoil or old asphalt, cutting to depth, compacting the subgrade, and pitching it so water runs off. Soft or clay subsoil may need extra stone or fabric, and haul-off is billed by the truckload. All of that is visible on a site walk, so the written quote covers it without surprise change orders.
Inground Pool Excavation
Typical NJ range: $1,500 - $6,000+ for the dig
Digging the hole for an inground pool typically costs $1,500 to $6,000 in New Jersey, with most digs near the middle. Rock, or a backyard the machine cannot reach directly, can push it well past that, since rock work and long material runs add machine hours fast.
Three things set the number: how many cubic yards come out, what the soil is like (sand digs quickly, wet clay and rock do not), and where the 100+ yards of spoil end up. A yard behind a 6-foot gate needs a different machine and more trips than an open one. This is a job where a general range means little and a site walk means a lot, so the quote comes after the look and holds once it is given.
Stump Removal
Typical NJ range: $150 - $500 per stump
Stump removal in New Jersey generally runs $150 to $500 per stump, with grinding priced around $2 to $6 per inch of diameter and most companies setting a minimum charge. Doing several stumps in one visit brings the per-stump price down a lot, because the machine is already there.
Pulling the whole stump with an excavator, roots included, costs more than grinding but leaves nothing behind to rot and settle, which matters if you plan to build or grade over the spot. Size, root spread, soil, and whether the debris is hauled off or buried all change the figure. Count the stumps, and one written price covers the batch.
Utility Trenching
Typical NJ range: $5 - $25 per linear foot in open ground
Simple residential trenching for water, electric, gas, or drain lines costs roughly $5 to $25 per linear foot in New Jersey through open lawn. Cutting through asphalt or concrete roughly doubles that, and deeper trenches for water lines below frost depth price toward the top.
Depth and surface are the main drivers. A shallow conduit trench across a lawn is a different job from a 42-inch water service under a driveway. Soil that caves or holds water needs a wider cut, and utility markouts sometimes mean hand digging near existing lines. Say what is going in the ground, and the run gets walked, the complications get named up front, and a fixed number goes on paper.
Demolition: Garages, Houses, Sheds & Pool Fill-Ins
Typical NJ range: $4 - $10 per sq ft garages & houses · $500 - $2,500 sheds · $4,000 - $16,000 pool fill-in
Tearing down a detached garage in New Jersey usually costs $4 to $10 per square foot, around $2,300 to $3,500 for a standard two-car garage. Whole houses run about $4 to $10 per square foot, roughly $6,000 to $25,000 before any asbestos or lead abatement. Removing a shed typically costs $500 to $2,500 depending on size, construction, and whether a slab sits underneath. Pool fill-ins are a bigger job: partial fill-ins often run $4,000 to $8,000 and full removals $4,000 to $16,000, mostly because a typical pool takes 60 to 90 truckloads of fill.
Either way, disposal is most of the bill: debris going out by dumpster or truck, and for pools, clean structural fill coming in. Backyard access, how much concrete has to be broken, and the township's rules on how a pool is broken up and compacted all shift the total. Counting the loads on a site walk is what makes a fixed written price possible instead of an open-ended estimate.
Gravel Shed Pads
Typical NJ range: $5 - $9 per square foot
A well-built gravel shed pad in New Jersey usually costs $5 to $9 per square foot on fairly flat ground, or roughly $1,000 to $2,000 for a common 10x12 to 12x16 pad. Sloped sites or pads that need a retaining edge cost more.
The money is in the prep, not the stone: stripping topsoil, cutting the area level, laying fabric, setting timber or steel edging, and compacting gravel in lifts so the shed stays square. A sloped yard that needs a cut-and-fill bench, or a backyard the dump truck cannot reach so stone moves by skid steer, costs more than a flat spot next to the driveway. Most pads can be sized and priced in one short visit, in writing.