Excavation in Truckee.

The Town of Truckee sets minimum foundation depth for frost protection at 18 inches below finished grade for sites under 7,000 feet of elevation, and 24 inches for sites above 7,000 feet. Town limits sit roughly between 5,800 and 7,200 feet, so most in-town lots fall under the 18-inch rule and only the higher subdivisions trigger 24. The requirement comes from the Town's Design Guidelines and Criteria under Municipal Code Section 15.03.110. Confirm your specific parcel with Building and Safety at 530-582-7821 before you dig — elevation is per site, not per town.

The Town of Truckee issues grading permits between May 1 and September 30, as weather permits. Submittals outside that window are reviewed case by case by the Building Department rather than refused outright. Once your plans are approved, work has to start within 30 days. That five-month window is the single biggest scheduling constraint on Sierra dirt work, and it is why local excavation calendars fill by March.

Yes. USA North 811 covers Northern California including Nevada County, and notice is mandatory under California Government Code Section 4216. You must give two full working days' notice, not counting the day you call. Utility owners then have those two working days to mark the site or give an all-clear. The ticket is valid for 28 calendar days. The service is free. Genuine emergencies are exempt. A grading permit does not authorize utility installation on its own — you need approval from the utility district as well.

Mostly decomposed granite over glacial till, with granite boulders that do not appear on any plan. Digging here is less about volume than about what you hit at four feet. Near the Truckee River and in the meadow subdivisions the water table comes up fast and a clean trench turns into a dewatering job. Budget contingency for rock and water on any Truckee excavation — the estimate that assumes clean dirt is the estimate that goes over.

Dig versus move. A John Deere 35G mini excavator is the right machine for trenching, footings, drainage, utility installs and anything with tight access — 16 feet 7 inches of reach and 9 feet 8 inches of dig depth on a 7,710-pound machine. A CAT 299D XHP compact track loader is the right machine for moving material, demo, brush clearing, pad work and snow — 110 horsepower, vertical-lift arms, aux hydraulics for grapples, brooms, mulchers and breakers. Most real jobs want both, staged: excavator opens the hole, loader handles the spoil.

E Kerr LLC machine-only rates are 40 dollars an hour, 320 dollars a day or 1,500 dollars a week for the John Deere 35G, and 65 dollars an hour, 520 dollars a day or 2,400 dollars a week for the CAT 299D XHP. Day rates include fuel. There is a four-hour minimum on the first day. Machines are customer pickup at the Truckee yard — E Kerr LLC does not deliver — so bring a tow vehicle and trailer rated for the machine plus attachment.

If the work is permitted, hire a licensed general contractor. E Kerr LLC rents equipment and provides operator services; it is not the permit holder on your project, and Errol Kerr is happy to refer permitted work to Ruppert Inc. in Truckee. Unpermitted owner work — landscape grading, drainage, brush, snow, pad prep on your own parcel — is exactly what a machine-only rental is for.

Yes. Published rates are machine-only, meaning the renter supplies the operator. Operator services with Errol Kerr running the machine are quoted separately by the job. Errol is a certified structural welder, a licensed A/B contractor, and runs Trimble GPS machine control day to day as an excavation foreman — worth it on anything with grade tolerance.