Building pads on North Valley silt and clay
Valley soil digs easily and holds water stubbornly. A North Valley pad has to sit high enough, drain well enough and stay clear of ditches and old private lines.
Why a flat pad is a problem down here
Up on the mesas, a slightly low pad dries out quickly after a storm. On North Valley silt and clay, water that reaches the slab tends to sit there, and soil that stays wet next to a foundation causes trouble.
So the pad elevation and the grade around it get as much attention as the compaction. We work to the elevations on your builder's or engineer's plan and shape the surrounding ground so water moves toward a place that can take it, not toward the house or the neighbor.
What shapes the job on an older valley lot
Many lots here were farmed, fenced or built on decades ago. Each of these adds or removes work.
- Tree rows and old orchards
- Siberian elm, Russian olive and salt cedar have long root systems that need to come out of the footprint, not just the trunks.
- Wet ground
- After rain or irrigation the soil can be too soft to drive on. Waiting a few days can save the rest of the lot from ruts.
- Fill quantity
- Raising a pad above the surrounding yard takes imported fill, placed and compacted in lifts.
- Buried history
- Old pens, footings, trash pits or abandoned pipe sometimes turn up once the topsoil comes off.
- Access
- Narrow lanes and gates sized for a pickup can limit which trucks and machines reach the site.
City, county or village: who you check with
North Valley jurisdiction is a patchwork. Bernalillo County has an online tool that shows which one your parcel falls under.
| If your parcel is in | Who typically handles permits |
|---|---|
| Albuquerque city limits | City of Albuquerque |
| Unincorporated area | Bernalillo County |
| Village of Los Ranchos | The village, under its own zoning |
| Next to an MRGCD ditch | The jurisdiction above, plus MRGCD for anything in the ditch or easement |
Private lines that 811 won't mark
We request a New Mexico 811 locate before any digging, but that covers public utility lines. Older valley properties can have wells, septic tanks, leach fields and buried irrigation pipe that nobody marks. Show us everything you know about before we start, and we'll keep machines off of it. Larger disturbed sites may also need a fugitive dust control permit and federal NPDES Construction General Permit stormwater coverage; we check both with you.
Request a North Valley pad estimate
Tell us what you're building and roughly where on the lot.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (505) 578-0369.
Site prep & pads questions in North Valley
How high should my North Valley pad sit above the yard?
That's set by your builder's or engineer's plan, based on the site and what your jurisdiction requires. We build to those elevations and check them against the staking.
Can you take out an old orchard to make room for a house?
Yes. We remove the trees, roots and stumps from the building area and haul them off, and we can leave trees outside the footprint that you want to keep.
My lot floods along one side when the neighbor irrigates. Can site prep fix that?
Often the pad and surrounding grade can be set to keep that water away from the new building. If the water comes from a ditch or a neighbor's system, we'll point that out so you can raise it with them or MRGCD.
More services in North Valley
Site prep & pads nearby
Let's walk your property. The estimate is free.
We come out, look at the lot with you, and hand you a written quote. No pressure, no obligation.