Site Prep & Cleanup
Site prep and cleanup is the residential trade that gets a lot ready for what comes next — clean enough to walk through after a remodel, flat enough to set a shed, fenced enough to satisfy the erosion-control inspector before the rain returns — from $500 for small-lot work to $3,500 for a whole-yard reset. A kitchen remodel finished a week ago and the homeowner is still finding screws under the fridge. A new shed is sitting in the driveway, the delivery driver gone, and there is no flat pad to set it on. The city walked the property for the addition permit and flagged 80 feet of disturbed soil that needs silt fence before the rain. Handis covers four site prep and cleanup families in honest handyman scope — post-construction cleanup, lot and yard cleanup, gravel and pad prep, and silt-fence erosion control.
Services
What Does Site Prep & Cleanup Include?
A Handis site prep and cleanup visit is the residential service that takes a lot from disturbed-and-incomplete to ready-for-the-next-step — four service families, all within handyman scope, all sized to Pacific Northwest weather and disposal rules. Pricing starts at $500 for small-lot work (a single silt-fence run, a quarter-acre yard cleanup) and runs to $3,500 for a full half-acre reset with hauling. Each family has its own page below with detailed pricing and the work we route to a licensed Washington L&I contractor.
Post-Construction Cleanup
The walk-through after a remodel or addition closes out — single-room, whole-floor, or full-property cleanup. Fine-dust vacuum across every horizontal surface (drywall dust gets into HVAC vent boots, window tracks, light-fixture cans). Window-track and sill detail. Fixture and trim wipe. Debris haul to the right disposal streams (C&D, metal, e-waste sorted on site). Punch-list touch-up where the contractor left something behind. The cleanup runs after any contractor's rough-in and finish work, not in place of it. From $600.
Post-Construction Cleanup — single-room, whole-floor, full property
Lot & Yard Cleanup
Quarter-acre through half-acre lot resets — storm debris haul after a wind event, blackberry and brush clearance (we cut and haul; stump grinding routes to a contractor), leftover landscape rubble from a prior owner, demo and removal of old play structures and rotted yard items. Cedar Grove handles the yard waste; C&D rubble goes to a licensed transfer station; salvageable metal goes to a metal recycler. From $800.
Lot & Yard Cleanup — small lot, storm debris, half-acre reset
Gravel & Pad Prep
Flat, compacted gravel pads for sheds (10x10 through 12x16), trash and recycling enclosures, hot tubs, and small equipment pads. Sub-base graded by hand or with a small skid steer where access allows, geotextile filter fabric under the gravel (Puget Sound clay sub-base needs the fabric to keep mud from migrating up into the rock), 5/8-inch crushed minus or 1-1/4-inch base rock depending on load, compacted with a plate compactor in lifts. We do not engineer for footings that need a permit or for structural slabs — those route to a concrete or foundation contractor. From $800.
Gravel & Pad Prep — shed pads, hot tub bases, enclosure pads
Erosion Control — Silt Fence
WSDOT Standard Specification 9-14.5 silt fence on disturbed residential soil — woven geotextile filter fabric, trenched 6 inches into the ground at the bottom edge, attached to steel T-posts at 6-foot spacing, hardware-cloth backing where the slope demands it. Most King County jurisdictions require erosion control on disturbed soil over 7,000 sq ft; we install to pass on the first inspector walk. Straw wattles and inlet protection available as add-ons. We install and remove; engineered drainage and infiltration trenches route to a licensed contractor. From $500.
Erosion Control (silt fence) — single run, full lot, add-on wattles
Site Prep & Cleanup Pricing
Final pricing depends on lot size, the disposal-stream mix, sub-base condition, gravel volume, and silt-fence linear footage. Each service page lists detailed variant pricing. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us what the lot looks like — we will quote the prep, the haul, and the silt fence.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Site Prep & Cleanup
Most site prep calls we get are the work that has to happen between two other people's jobs — the cleanup after the remodeler, the pad before the shed delivery, the silt fence before the city walk. Each one is a small project on its own and a project-stopper when it does not happen. A homeowner discovers drywall dust in the HVAC return six months after the kitchen "wrapped". A shed delivery driver shows up to a muddy patch and refuses to drop. A general contractor gets a stop-work order from SDCI because nobody put fence up. We do the in-between work that keeps the larger project moving — within honest handyman scope, with a clear contractor handoff on anything structural, engineered, or permitted.
Geotextile under every gravel pad — Puget Sound clay does not forgive its absence
The clay sub-base under most Seattle-area lots holds water and pumps mud upward into anything you put on top of it. A gravel pad set straight on clay turns into a mud sandwich within one wet season. We lay a layer of nonwoven geotextile filter fabric under every gravel pad — the fabric keeps the clay and the gravel separated, the pad drains, the shed or hot tub sits flat for the long run instead of sinking into a soft spot inside a year.
Silt fence to WSDOT 9-14.5 — passes the inspector walk on the first try
Disturbed soil over a jurisdiction-set threshold (7,000 sq ft is the unincorporated King County trigger; most cities are similar) needs erosion and sediment control per the Stormwater Manual. Silt fence is the standard tool. We install woven geotextile filter fabric to WSDOT Standard Specification 9-14.5 — trenched 6 inches into the ground at the bottom edge so silt-laden runoff cannot undermine the fabric, attached to steel T-posts at 6-foot spacing for the structural load. The fence reads correct to an SDCI or county inspector on the first walk.
Sorted disposal — we never dump a mixed load
Every loadout gets sorted before disposal. C&D debris to a licensed C&D transfer station. Metal to a metal recycler (often paid back). Yard waste to Cedar Grove or a county yard-waste site. Mattresses to a mattress recycler where available. E-waste to an Ecology-licensed handler. Paint, chemicals, asbestos, and other household hazardous waste route to the King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program — never a regular load. Transfer-station receipts go on the invoice.
Honest weather scheduling on gravel pads and silt fence
Plate-compacting a gravel pad on wet clay sub-base will not work — the compactor sinks rather than densifying, and the pad re-ruts within a month. We watch the forecast for pad work and schedule against it; if a multi-day project needs a five-day dry window the forecast does not show, we say so on the booking call. Silt fence is the opposite — it goes up in the rain (that is what it is built for) and the urgency is real when the inspection deadline is short.
Honest scope — handyman labor, contractor handoff on structural and permitted work
Site prep and cleanup is handyman labor. Engineered drainage and infiltration trenches, permitted excavation, utility-line work, structural slabs, load-bearing demolition, and roof structure replacement route to a licensed Washington L&I contractor — we name the issue on the booking call and recommend a contractor when we know one. We come back for the cleanup and detail work after their rough-in if you want us in the loop.
30-day workmanship guarantee on the work that fits this trade
Every Handis crew member carries liability insurance and has cleared a background screening before the first job. The 30-day workmanship guarantee covers our work — a gravel pad that settles unevenly from our compaction, a silt fence that pulls a stake we drove, a cleanup that left something on the punch list. It does not cover damage from a storm event, sub-base failure unrelated to our compaction, normal weathering, or the consequences of leaving a site exposed longer than the maintenance schedule recommends.
Estimate
Tell us about the site — lot size, what is on it now, what needs to come off, what needs to go down (gravel pad dimensions, silt-fence linear footage), the access for a small truck or trailer, and any deadlines (inspector walk, shed delivery, weather window). We send a clear estimate for the full visit.
What Our Customers Say
Recent site prep and cleanup reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
New kitchen remodel "wrapped" three weeks before I called Handis. There was still drywall dust on every horizontal surface and screws in three drawers. The crew ran a HEPA vacuum across the whole first floor including the HVAC vent boots, detailed the new window tracks, wiped the trim. The house finally felt finished.
Bought a half-acre lot with blackberry through the back third and a pile of landscape rubble the prior owner had left behind. Handis cleared it in two days, dragged the rooted stumps to the front for the grinder rental, hauled the rubble and brush in two truckloads. They were upfront that grinding the stumps was outside their trade.
Hot tub delivery scheduled for a Friday, mud patch in the side yard where the old tub used to sit. Handis showed up Tuesday with geotextile fabric and 3 yards of compacted 1-1/4 minus base rock, plate compactor, finished a flat dry pad by end of day. Tub landed level and has not moved.
City inspector flagged us on erosion control before the addition could break ground. Handis put up 80 feet of silt fence to WSDOT spec the next day — trenched, T-posts at 6 feet, geotextile woven fabric. The inspector signed off on the re-walk without a comment. Fence held through two atmospheric river events.
Storm took down two big alder branches across our driveway and the back lawn. Handis came within 48 hours, cut to manageable lengths, hauled the wood to a chipper-recycler, raked the lawn clear of small debris. They were honest that the standing trees still needed an arborist for safety pruning and gave us a name.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis site prep and cleanup — pricing, scope, disposal, scheduling, permits, and what routes to a licensed Washington L&I contractor.