Land Clearing
Overgrown acreage, lots, pasture and cutover opened up with excavators, dozers, a tree shear and root rakes, or mulched in place. The debris goes out on our own trucks.
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You bought a wooded lot in Oak Grove, and the builder needs a house pad before anything else can start. Or the family land out toward Rawls Springs has grown up in sweetgum and privet. Most of the land around Hattiesburg is wooded. About half of Forrest and Lamar Counties is evergreen forest, by USDA's 2024 land cover data.
Presto Contractors is based in Waynesboro in Wayne County, and we come over on US 84 and I-59. Our main work here is land clearing, with the debris hauled off on our own trucks. We also do forestry mulching, site prep for a house pad, dirt work, underground utilities and demolition. Call or text (601) 410-5339, and we will look at the site and put the quote in writing.
Tell us about the land, the lot or the job. We look at the site and put the quote in writing.
The NRCS soil surveys for Forrest and Lamar Counties are led by well-drained sandy loams on ridges and hillsides. Some rolling ground also carries Susquehanna soils. The NRCS describes those as clay that drains very slowly and is wet during rainy stretches.
That matters on a house lot. Water sits on slow-draining clay, so a pad there has to be built up and shaped to drain.
The Leaf River runs southeast from Hattiesburg to meet the Chickasawhay, the river at Waynesboro, in George County. In Forrest County, the NRCS maps about one acre in six as flooding at least occasionally. Bottomland you will not build on can be mulched in place, with the roots left in. Ground that will carry a house or a pasture gets cleared and root raked down to clean dirt instead.
Hattiesburg is the Forrest County seat, and the city reaches west into Lamar County. Of its 48,730 people in the 2020 Census, 6,577 lived in the Lamar County part. Lamar County as a whole grew from 55,658 people in 2010 to 64,222 in 2020. Oak Grove and West Hattiesburg, both Census-designated places, sit west of the city limits.
A house lot gets cleared and grubbed first, with the stumps and roots out where the pad will go. Fill for the pad comes in on our own trucks. The driveway entrance is cut in on the same job, with a culvert if the road department calls for one. It is one company from the first cut to the finished pad.
Inside the city, the City of Hattiesburg runs water and sewer. Out in the county, water often comes from local systems like the Arnold Line Water Association. If the lot will be on septic, the Mississippi State Department of Health evaluates the soil and site first. Its rules say extensive grading can void that permit, so plan the pad around the evaluation.
Inside the city limits, check with the city's planning and building offices before the first tree comes down. The city says extensive grading or site preparation may need a separate grading plan and a Land Disturbance Permit. Commercial and multi-family projects start with a pre-application meeting with the planning staff.
In the city's local historic districts, removing a tree over 6 inches in diameter needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first. Disturbing an acre or more also brings in MDEQ's construction stormwater permits. The owner or builder gets these approvals, and we clear and grade to the approved plan. Outside the city limits, check with Forrest County or Lamar County.
The city says roughly 25 percent of property in Hattiesburg sits in a FEMA special flood hazard area. Most of that flood risk comes from the Leaf River and creeks such as Gordons Creek and Mixons Creek. In the floodplain, the city checks development against its Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. Floodplain development that raises the flood hazard is prohibited.
Tornadoes have crossed Hattiesburg more than once. NOAA storm records show an EF4 near Oak Grove High School on February 10, 2013. It crossed Hardy Street at the edge of the University of Southern Mississippi campus and went on into Petal. On January 21, 2017, an EF3 crossed Lamar and Forrest Counties into Hattiesburg.
NOAA's notes on both storms describe heavy timber damage along their paths. A tract of storm-broken pine and hardwood clears much like cutover ground. The broken tops and stumps come out and leave on our own trucks.
A house the storm ruined, or one that burned, is a house demolition job. We take it down and haul off the debris. Then the lot is cleared and graded for whatever comes next.
Communities and areas we serve around Hattiesburg: Oak Grove, West Hattiesburg, Arnold Line, Richburg, Bonhomie, Palmers Crossing, Glendale, Rawls Springs, Eatonville, Eastabuchie.
Hattiesburg ZIP codes served: 39401, 39402, 39406.
We come over from Waynesboro, look at the site and put the quote in writing.
(601) 410-5339 Overgrown acreage, lots, pasture and cutover opened up with excavators, dozers, a tree shear and root rakes, or mulched in place. The debris goes out on our own trucks.
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A mulching head grinds brush, saplings and small trees into mulch where they stand. The roots stay in the ground, and the mulch stays on top as cover.
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We take a raw lot to a site ready to build, with the pad built up and shaped to drain. Fill dirt and gravel come in on our own trucks.
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Excavators and dozers for cut and fill, digging, ditches, drainage and grading. Dirt comes in and goes out on our own trucks.
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We trench and lay water and sewer lines, storm pipe and culverts for houses and commercial sites. We also cut conduit trenches for your electrician and backfill them.
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We cut pasture, fields, overgrown lots and fence lines with a bush hog. Choose a one-time cleanup or seasonal mowing, with the quote in writing.
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We take down houses, mobile homes, barns and old slabs, and the debris leaves on our own trucks. Then we clear and grade the lot so it is ready for what comes next.
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Yard grading, drainage, pads, haul roads and site utilities for industrial plants and commercial sites. Our own trucks haul the rock and dirt on and off the job.
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Location pads and lease roads for oil and gas operators in the Wayne County and south Alabama fields. Rock and dirt go on and off location in our own trucks.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Hattiesburg. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Tell us about the land or the job, and text photos if you have them. Call or text (601) 410-5339 or use the form, and we will get back to you.
Tell us about the land, the lot or the job. We look at the site and put the quote in writing.