Lot clearing, forestry mulching, new septic installs and complete site work for landowners and builders across the county, from Charleston on the Hiwassee River down through Hopewell and McDonald to the farm country of the Chatata Valley, with crews coming in from Birchwood on Highway 60.
Our shop in Birchwood sits just up Highway 60 from the Bradley County line, so the north and west sides of the county are a short haul for our trucks and trailers. Hopewell is about 20 minutes away and Charleston is closer to 40. Shorter drives mean we can show up when we said we would and get back to your site fast once the ground dries out.
Josiah Sims first ran heavy equipment at nine, when his father rented a Cat 977L to clear land for a new family home and Josiah ended up doing the finish grading inside of a few days. Since then he's managed crews, worked as a welder and fabricator building transit buses, and taken on additions, remodels and concrete. He still runs the site work himself, and he holds every job to consistent service, on-time work and staying on budget.
Site sketches, construction entrances, silt fence, 14-day stabilization and the line between county and state permits. We plan around all of it from the start, from ridge lots near White Oak Mountain to creek-side parcels in the Chatata Valley, so your estimate covers what the inspector will actually expect to see.
Clearing and forestry mulching run on one crew with its own machines, and new septic installs run on another, so your project doesn't wait on someone else's. We'll walk your land and give you an honest, free estimate, with financing available through our quoting platform if you'd like to spread out the cost.
Our full service list is available everywhere in Bradley County, from the Georgetown end closest to our shop out to Charleston, Tasso and the farms south of Wildwood Lake. A single home site off Eureka Road or a whole tract that needs opening up gets the same thing: one crew to clear it, prep it and finish it.
Some of the best farm ground in the county, around Tasso and up the Chatata Valley, has edges that have been creeping back toward woods for years. We open up overgrown pasture and hayfields, cut back fence rows that have grown into tree lines, and clear wooded home sites on the ridges above Eureka Road and Lower River Road. Brush and small timber get mulched in place or hauled out, and you end up with workable ground ready for a survey, a soil evaluation or a builder.
A forestry mulcher chews brush, cedar and saplings down to a layer of mulch on the spot, so you don't end up with a burn pile or a line of dump trucks. That cover protects bare soil on ridge slopes and on ground running down to creeks like Little Chatata Creek, which helps when the county is watching for runoff. Selective thinning is a good fit for wooded acreage around McDonald and Prospect, where owners want a usable yard or trail but would rather keep the best hardwoods standing.
Once you get past the sewer lines, homes in places like Hopewell, Tasso, Black Fox and the Chatata Valley run on septic. Since Bradley County isn't one of Tennessee's contract counties, the state handles those permits through TDEC's Chattanooga Environmental Field Office, which evaluates the soils and approves the system layout. New septic system installation for homes and commercial buildings is the heart of our septic work here, along with full replacement of failed systems, and each tank and drain field is built to match the approved permit.
We take a lot from raw ground to finished grade: clearing, rough grade, concrete footings and slab, backfill, retaining walls and final dressing. Outside city limits the Bradley County Stormwater Department wants an approved site sketch for most house lots under an acre, and a full site plan once you disturb an acre, move grade more than 2 feet or build a retaining wall. We set the silt fence and the stone construction entrance before the first cut, then stabilize the ground on the county's timeline, whether the lot is a hillside off Harrison Pike or a flat pad near Waterville.
Country home sites around Tasso and Charleston often sit well back from the road, which means a long trench for the water line and electrical conduit. We dig it, lay the lines from the meter or road to the foundation and backfill, routing everything around the septic tank and drain field. Every job starts with an 811 call, and driveway and drain tile questions go to the Bradley County Road Department before we cross the right-of-way.
Bradley County ranks second in Tennessee for poultry, and the farms across its southern half are dotted with old chicken houses, barns, sheds and tired farmhouses. We tear down the structure, break up and haul off the concrete, clear the debris and leave the site graded for whatever comes next. The county requires a separate Land Disturbance Permit alongside every demolition permit, so we plan the erosion control along with the teardown, from McDonald to the back roads near Red Clay.
Maybe it's a wooded home site off Eureka Road, an old pasture near Tasso or a few acres outside Charleston. Whatever you've got, we'll come out and walk it with you, and estimates are always free anywhere in Bradley County and the surrounding area. Tell us a little about your property, and one crew will take it from the first cut all the way to final grade.
Bradley County spreads across about 331 square miles of ridge-and-valley ground in the southeast corner of the state. Long, narrow ridges run north-northeast, Candies Creek Ridge the tallest of them, and the land tops out on White Oak Mountain along the Hamilton County line. The Hiwassee River makes up the whole northern border at Charleston, Chatata Creek winds north through its valley to meet it, and the county's southeastern third drains the opposite direction toward the Conasauga River. Out here a wooded ridge parcel, a creek-bottom hayfield and an open poultry farm can all share the same back road.
The county has grown roughly 6% since 2020, to an estimated 115,465 people, and builders pulled permits for 788 new housing structures in 2025. A good share of that ground sits outside the city: wooded home sites along Georgetown Road near Hopewell, farm acreage off Eureka Road and in the Chatata Valley, and new lots south toward Wildwood Lake and Black Fox. Each of those parcels has to be cleared and graded, and the ones past the sewer lines need a new septic system as well. Our land clearing services in Bradley County, TN are built for exactly that kind of rural and edge-of-town lot.
Boundless Excavation & Contracting is based in Birchwood, and the Bradley County side of Georgetown is just down the road. Hopewell is under 10 miles away on Highway 60, Charleston is about 22 miles, and even the far south end near Red Clay State Historic Park is only around 32. Most of our finished jobs so far are on the Hamilton County side around Chattanooga, and the same crews and equipment run across the line into the county seat of Cleveland and the communities around it.
Ground conditions swing hard from one end of the county to the other. The ridges, Candies Creek Ridge and up toward White Oak Mountain, bring slope, rock and thin soil, while the valley floors around Tasso and the Chatata Valley hold deep farm soil that turns to mud after a soaking rain. Hopewell sits on some of the lowest land in the county, McDonald is known for its mineral springs, and down at Red Clay the Blue Hole Spring feeds Coahulla Creek on its way to the Conasauga River. The county's own stormwater policy singles out lots with karst features, slopes over 15%, streams or floodplains, so we look for sinkholes and soft spots before we price a job.
Getting around is second nature to us. From Birchwood we drop down Highway 60 through Georgetown to Hopewell, then pick our route: Eureka Road (SR-306) north through the farmland to Lower River Road and Lauderdale Memorial Highway into Charleston, Freewill Road and Harrison Pike over to Prospect, or I-75 south to South Lee Highway for McDonald and Blackfox Road for Black Fox. For the northeast side it's North Lee Highway to Tasso Lane and Dry Valley Road, and down south we run Dalton Pike and Spring Place Road toward Wildwood Lake, Waterville and Red Clay.
The jobs vary as much as the ground does. In Charleston, with Wacker's roughly 550-acre polysilicon site, Olin and the Amazon fulfillment center nearby, there's commercial and industrial site prep. Around McDonald, home to the Tri-State Exhibition Center and the 4,000-acre Bendabout Farm, it's horse property, fence lines and pasture. Through the south half of the county it's poultry farms and farm buildings, and in Hopewell, Prospect and Black Fox it's new houses on an acre or a few, part of the steady stream of new homes permitted across the county each year.
We know the paperwork as well as the dirt. Outside Cleveland, the Bradley County Stormwater Department issues the Land Disturbance/Grading Permit, no building permit is released until it's in hand, and sites of an acre or more get a pre-construction meeting with county staff. Disturbed ground has to be stabilized within 14 days of work stopping, or 7 days on slopes of 35% or steeper, and streams keep a permanent buffer. An acre or more, or any work near a stream, also brings in TDEC, and new septic systems go through TDEC's Chattanooga Environmental Field Office. We also keep our work well clear of public land like Red Clay State Historic Park, the Chickamauga Wildlife Management Area tracts along Eureka Road and the Charlotte Ann Finnell Neal WMA on the Polk County line.
Josiah or a member of the team walks your property in person, discusses your goals, and provides a free, no-obligation estimate — with financing available through our quoting platform if you need it.
We map out the scope of work — clearing boundaries, grading plan, septic or utility placement — and handle any permitting needs before equipment ever moves.
A dedicated crew and the right equipment for the job — mulchers, excavators, grading equipment — are dispatched to your property.
Our specialized crews get to work — clearing and mulching, installing your new septic system, or handling grading, retaining walls, and concrete as part of full site work.
We clear out debris, restore the site, and walk the finished property with you to make sure everything meets your expectations before we call the job done.
Our land clearing services cover every part of Bradley County, from the Hiwassee River at Charleston down through the Chatata Valley and Hopewell to Black Fox, Wildwood Lake and the farms near Red Clay. We also serve the neighboring Tennessee communities in Hamilton, McMinn, Polk and Meigs counties, all within easy driving distance of our Birchwood base.
The price comes down to the land itself. Acreage, how thick the brush and timber are, slope, rock, wet ground and whether the debris is mulched or hauled all play a part. Opening up a few flat, brushy acres in the Chatata Valley is a very different job from clearing a steep wooded lot on Candies Creek Ridge. We come walk the property and give you a free, itemized estimate based on what we actually see.
Forestry mulching is clearing with a single machine that has a mulching head on the front. It grinds brush, cedar and small trees into mulch where they stand, so nothing is burned or hauled, and the mulch blankets the soil on slopes and creek banks. It works well for grown-over pasture around Tasso and McDonald and for thinning wooded home sites without stripping them bare. The cost depends on acreage, density and terrain, so we look at your land in person, for free, before we quote it.
Likely, yes. Outside Cleveland city limits, the Bradley County Stormwater Department issues a Land Disturbance/Grading Permit, and a house lot under an acre generally needs an approved site sketch. The county can ask for a full erosion control and stormwater plan on any residential lot with karst features, a stream or lake, slopes over 15% or floodplain. Disturbing an acre or more, crossing a stream or working near one also requires TDEC approval, and we'll go over which of these apply to your lot during the estimate.
Yes, and new septic system installation is one of our main services. Bradley County doesn't run its own septic program, so permits come from the state through TDEC's Chattanooga Environmental Field Office. The state reviews your soils and site and approves where the tank and drain field go. With the permit issued, we dig, set the tank, lay the field lines and grade the area back, on home sites from Hopewell to Tasso and Black Fox.
We do. We cover the whole county, including Charleston, Hopewell, McDonald, Tasso, Prospect, Black Fox, Wildwood Lake, Waterville and the Bradley County side of Georgetown, plus Cleveland itself. Coming from Birchwood on Highway 60, the north and west parts of the county are the quickest for us to reach. The far south end near Red Clay takes a bit longer to get to, but it's still part of our regular service area.
Yes. The industrial ground around Charleston, near Lauderdale Memorial Highway and the I-75 exit, brings commercial work along with the homes. We clear the site, rough grade the pad, cut in access, trench utilities and set footers, and we keep erosion control in place for the county inspections. Commercial sites usually go over an acre, so the state's construction stormwater coverage and a pre-construction meeting with the county come first, and we plan the schedule around both.
We like late fall and winter for clearing. With the leaves down and the undergrowth dead back, it's easier to read the ground, and you're ready to build when spring comes. Valley soils around the Chatata Valley and the low ground near Hopewell get soft after a heavy rain, so we save the grading for dry spells. Winter is our slower season too, so off-season jobs can often get on the calendar sooner.
