North Idaho Excavation & Site Development

Timber Ridge Industries LLC is a family-owned residential excavation and site-work contractor based in Hayden, Idaho, owned and operated by Brian Giffen. We are licensed and insured in Idaho.

We handle septic systems, land clearing, test holes and perc testing, foundation excavation, demolition, retaining walls, gravel driveways, skid steer work and utility trenching — one local crew from the first cut of dirt to the final grade.

We are open seven days a week, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The fastest way to reach us is to call or text (208) 254-1020 — you get Brian, not a call center.

You can also email timberridgeind@gmail.com or fill out the estimate form on this page, and we'll get back to you.

We cover Kootenai and Bonner counties and the communities around them — Hayden, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Sandpoint, plus Athol, Spirit Lake, Hauser, Bayview, Ponderay and Priest River. Most of our work sits within about a 1-hour drive of Hayden, which keeps our equipment costs down and yours with them.

If you're a little outside that circle, still call. On bigger jobs the drive is a rounding error, and we'd rather tell you yes or no than have you guess.

Yes on all three. Timber Ridge Industries LLC is licensed and carries liability insurance, and we'll provide it to you upon request. Ask any contractor for that. The ones who hesitate are telling you something.

The estimate is free and it's a real number, not a range designed to creep. We walk the site, talk through what you're after, and put it in writing.

It depends on the work. Septic systems in North Idaho are permitted through Panhandle Health District, which covers Kootenai, Bonner, Boundary, Benewah and Shoshone counties. Foundations, some grading and most structural retaining walls go through your county or city building department. Simple land clearing on your own lot often needs nothing at all.

We handle the permitting on the work we do, and we'll tell you up front what your job needs before you're committed to anything.

Before a septic system can be designed or permitted, somebody has to find out what your dirt actually does with water. We dig test holes so the soil profile can be evaluated — how deep the good soil runs, where you hit rock or clay, and how fast water moves through it.

That evaluation determines your drainfield size, your tank size, and sometimes whether a standard system will work at all. It is the cheapest step in the whole process and the one that keeps the expensive steps from going wrong.

Test holes and soil evaluation, a design based on those results, the permit, then installation — tank set, drainfield built, lines run, backfilled and graded back out. Most residential installs are a matter of days on site once the permit is in hand.

Cost swings on things we can see when we walk it: how far the tank sits from the house, whether we're in sand or fighting granite, the size of drainfield your soil requires, and whether the site needs a standard or a pressurized system. Call and we'll get you a real number instead of a guess.

That's most of what North Idaho is. We clear timber, brush and stumps, and we deal with the rock instead of pretending it isn't there. You decide what happens to the material: piled for firewood, chipped, burned where it's legal and the season allows, buried in an approved spot, or hauled off.

Both. We excavate for foundations, basements, crawl spaces and shops, cut to your builder's prints, and we handle the demolition when there's an old structure, slab or foundation in the way. That includes breaking it out and hauling it off.

Foundation excavation is a job where being an inch off costs real money down the line, so we shoot grade and hold it.

Drainage and base. Almost every driveway that fails here failed for one of two reasons: water had nowhere to go, or the base was too thin for what drove on it. Freeze-thaw finds both problems and makes them worse every year.

We build in the crown and the ditching so water sheds off, set culverts where they're needed, and put down a proper compacted base before surfacing. It costs more the first time and less every year after.

We build them — block, boulder and rock walls for grade changes, driveways cut into a slope, and usable yard where there wasn't any. Shorter walls are usually straightforward. Once a wall gets tall enough it needs engineering and a permit, and that threshold varies by jurisdiction, so we check before we quote.

The part nobody sees is the part that matters: proper base, drain rock and backfill behind the wall. A wall that leans is almost always a wall that had water trapped behind it.

We trench for power, water, sewer, septic lines, gas and conduit, backfill and compact, then grade the surface back. Depth and bedding vary by utility, and we run it to the spec the inspector is going to hold it to.

And yes — 811 gets called before anybody digs, us included. In Idaho that's a minimum of two business days' notice, the locate is free, and the marks are good for about four weeks. We handle the locate request on our jobs. If someone offers to skip it, that's your sign to hire somebody else.