The dig is half the job. The restoration is the other half. Most homeowners’ frustration with sewer or excavation contractors comes from how the property looks when the contractor leaves. Big mound of dirt, no grass, a slab of fresh concrete that doesn’t match the rest. Or worse, a subcontractor scheduled to come back next month, and then the month after that, and then never.

Wahl does our own restoration. In-house crew, same company, same project, same accountability. We spell out exactly what we’re going to do on the proposal, in three tiers, so you pick the finish quality that matches your home and your budget.

The three restoration tiers

Every Wahl sewer or excavation proposal includes restoration as a line item, and you choose the tier. The three tiers:

Standard Backfill

The honest, plain finish. Includes:

• Trench backfilled in lifts (compacted soil, gravel where required for stability).
• Topsoil replaced over the trench, brought back to grade.
• Basic grass seed thrown.
• Cleanup of construction debris.

What it does NOT include:

• Sod or hydroseed (just seed).
• Follow-up visits to address settling.
• Restoration of concrete, asphalt, pavers, or landscape features.
• Replacement of plantings.

Best for: Open grass yards where appearance matters less, rentals, properties where the homeowner plans to landscape themselves later.

Standard + 1 Visit

Everything Standard Backfill includes, plus:

• A return visit 6 to 12 weeks after the initial dig.
• Top-off of any settling (we add topsoil where the trench has sunk).
• Reseed any bare or thin spots.
• Address minor follow-up items (a sunken section, a piece of debris that surfaced).

Best for: Most residential customers. The single follow-up visit catches the natural settling that happens after the initial backfill and gives the yard a real chance to recover.

Premier

Everything Standard + 1 Visit includes, plus:

• Sod or premium hydroseed instead of basic grass seed.
• Mulch around any preserved plantings.
• Restoration of any concrete, asphalt, pavers, or landscape feature disturbed during the dig.
• Multiple follow-up visits as needed until the restoration is right.
• Coordination with a landscape designer or installer if the project is significant.

Best for: Premium homes, properties with established landscaping, hardscape disruption, anything where the customer wants the yard to look like nothing ever happened.

The proposal will price all three tiers side by side. You pick.

What we restore, in detail

Concrete (sidewalk, driveway, patio)

We pour back what we cut. In-house. Specifics:

• Saw-cut the concrete at clean straight lines before excavation. No jagged broken edges.
• Match thickness. Most residential concrete is 4 inches. We pour to the same thickness.
• Match finish. Standard broom finish, smooth finish, or salt finish. We match what’s already there.
• Match color as closely as possible. Note: fresh concrete is always lighter than aged concrete; the new pour will weather and blend over 6 to 18 months.
• Control joints cut to match the existing pattern.
• Curing time. Walk in 24 hours, drive on it in 7 days. We tell you the timeline.

Wahl self-performs smaller concrete pours and patches in-house. For larger commercial-scale concrete work, or for stamped and decorative finishes (textured, colored, dyed) where the existing surface is high-end, we sub out to trusted local concrete contractors on a per-job basis. We do not partner exclusively with one stamped-concrete vendor. Discussed at proposal so you know exactly who is doing what.

Asphalt (driveway, parking area)

• Saw-cut clean edges before excavation.
• Base material restored to original specification before paving.
• Hot-mix asphalt patch poured and compacted to grade.
• Sealcoat option available where the patch is large enough to benefit from blending with the rest of the driveway.

Pavers (brick, concrete paver, stone)

• Carefully removed before excavation, set aside.
• Reinstalled after backfill, with base material restored to spec.
• Polymeric sand between pavers to lock the pattern.
• Replacement of any pavers damaged during removal. Sometimes the customer has a few spares; sometimes we source matches.

Lawn (grass)

• Sod: rolls cut to fit the trench area, laid over prepared topsoil, watered for the first 7 days. Best finish, fastest visible result.
• Hydroseed: sprayed seed and mulch slurry, ready to germinate. 2 to 4 weeks to visible growth, lower cost than sod.
• Basic seed: broadcast over topsoil and raked in. 4 to 8 weeks to visible growth, lowest cost.

We tell you what time of year is right for each (spring and fall are ideal; summer sod needs aggressive watering; winter is mostly seed-only).

Landscape features

• Plantings (shrubs, perennials, trees): when possible, we transplant established plants before the dig and reinstall after. Sometimes the dig path makes this impossible; we tell you up front and discuss replacement.
• Edging and bed borders: removed and reinstalled.
• Mulch beds: stripped, dug, and refreshed.
• Irrigation lines: marked, protected where possible, repaired if cut.
• Landscape lighting: disconnected and reconnected.

Trees

Mature trees are the hardest part of excavation. We protect them where possible (tunnel under the root zone, avoid major roots, route differently to avoid the tree). Where we can’t, we tell you in advance, in writing, before any work starts. We’re honest: some sewer routes can’t be excavated without damaging a major tree.

This is one of the reasons we recommend trenchless CIPP lining when a major tree is in the line’s path. Saving the tree is often worth the cost difference.

What’s NOT in restoration scope

We try to be honest about what we don’t cover:

• Pre-existing settling. If your driveway already had cracks, those cracks are still there after the patch.
• Plantings older than 5 years that can’t be transplanted. We can replace but not save.
• Landscape design changes. Restoration brings the yard back to where it was, not to a new design.
• Repairs to underground utilities Wahl didn’t disturb. If a different contractor’s irrigation line was already damaged when we got there, that’s not our scope.
• Long-term seasonal effects. A trench dug in November might need spring reseeding to look right, which is included in Standard + 1 Visit and Premier but not Standard Backfill.

We tell you all of this in writing before we start.

Why we keep restoration in-house

Most sewer contractors subcontract restoration. The cycle: they finish the excavation, hand off to a concrete sub, the concrete sub is booked out three weeks, the asphalt sub is booked out six weeks, the landscape sub is booked out two months, the homeowner spends two months looking at a half-finished property and calling the contractor for status updates.

Wahl runs the concrete, asphalt, landscape, and grass restoration in-house on the same project schedule. The crews talk to each other. The timeline is the timeline we gave you, not “as soon as the sub can get to it.”