Acreage clearing, forestry mulching, new septic installs and complete site work for landowners and builders along US-411, off Old Federal Road and Ladd Springs Road, and out to the edge of the Cherokee National Forest.
At age 9, Josiah Sims was already running a Cat 977L that his father had rented to clear the family's homesite. A few days in, every bit of the finish grading was his. In the years after, he managed crews, built transit buses as a welder and fabricator, put up home additions and poured concrete. Today he's still the one running the site work personally.
Long driveways, sloped homesites, rocky ground near the Cherokee National Forest and creek bottoms that drain to the Conasauga River. We walk your land before we price it, so your estimate accounts for what's actually there and for the state permits rural work out here can trigger.
One team with its own machines handles clearing and forestry mulching, while a separate operator with his own equipment handles new septic installs. Almost every new home in Old Fort needs both, so we can clear the homesite and set the septic system without your project waiting behind someone else's.
We'll make the drive to Old Fort, walk your property and give you a straight, free estimate. Financing is available through our quoting platform for landowners who'd rather spread out the cost.
Every service on our menu is available in Old Fort and across southern Polk County. Whether it's a two-acre homesite on Old Federal Road or a wooded tract out toward Ball Play, one call gets you a crew that can clear it, prep it and finish it.
A lot of land around Old Fort was farmed once and then left to grow back, so old pastures and fence rows along US-411 and Harris Road fill in with brush, briars and saplings. We clear underbrush and small timber, take back overgrown fields and open up homesites, then mulch or haul the debris so you're left with workable ground. Your land ends up ready for the surveyor, the soil scientist or the builder, whether it's a single acre or a long tract running back from the road.
Forestry mulching grinds brush and saplings where they stand, so there are no burn piles to manage and no debris to truck down US-411. The mulch layer left behind holds soil on sloped ground, which matters on land draining toward Cookson Creek and the Conasauga River. Selective thinning opens up a wooded tract near the Cherokee National Forest for a cabin, a trail or a homesite while keeping the hardwoods you want to save.
Old Fort is unincorporated, rural ground, so nearly every new home here needs its own septic system. In Polk County, new systems are permitted by the state through the TDEC Chattanooga Environmental Field Office, based on a site sketch and the soils on your lot. Sloped ground, rock and wet creek-bottom areas all affect where a drain field can go. From a new house off Ladd Springs Road to a commercial building on US-411, our septic work centers on new installs and complete system replacements, and each one follows the layout the permit approved.
Building out in the country means more dirt work than a city lot: a long driveway from the road, a level pad on rolling ground, footers, backfill and a final grade that sheds water away from the house. On sloped homesites off Ladd Springs Road and Sand Mountain Road, retaining walls and cut-and-fill grading are often what make the site buildable. If your project disturbs an acre or more, it needs TDEC construction stormwater coverage, and we grade and stabilize with that in mind.
On acreage, the house usually sits well back from the road, so the utility runs are long. We trench and lay water lines, electrical conduit and the line out to your septic tank, from the road or meter all the way to the foundation. On homesites back off Old Federal Road or Harris Road, we plan the trench routes alongside the driveway and grading so nothing gets dug twice.
Family land along US-411 and Old Federal Road often comes with an old farmhouse, a falling-down barn, sheds or cracked concrete that have to go before anything new can go up. Our crew brings the building down, breaks up the old concrete and trucks it away, cleans up what's left and grades the ground so your next build starts on a clean site. It's often the first step on inherited or newly bought acreage around Old Fort.
Whether your property is a homesite off Old Federal Road, an overgrown pasture along US-411 or a wooded tract out toward the Cherokee National Forest, we're ready to make the drive and walk it with you. Estimates are always free across Old Fort and southern Polk County. Give us a call about your plans, and one crew will carry the job from raw land all the way to a finished grade.
Old Fort sits on US-411 in the far southern end of Polk County, a few miles above the state line, where the open valley ground of the Ridge-and-Valley runs up against the wooded slopes of the Cherokee National Forest. The Conasauga River winds through the hills to the south and east, and creeks like Cookson Creek cut through the farm and timber land in between. It's unincorporated country made up of pastures, fence rows, family land and wooded tracts, with the Marr's Fort historical marker standing beside the highway near Old Federal Road.
Polk County has grown by roughly 10.8 percent over the last decade, and around Old Fort that growth shows up as new homes on rural acreage, not subdivisions. Land listings here average about 11 acres, and most of that ground is overgrown, sloped or both before anyone can build on it. Every homesite off Ladd Springs Road or Sand Mountain Road needs clearing, a graded pad, a driveway and, with no city sewer to tie into, a new septic system. That's the work our land clearing services in Old Fort are built around.
Boundless Excavation & Contracting is based in Birchwood, about 30 miles away and under an hour's drive: SR-60 through Georgetown into Cleveland, US-64 east to Ocoee, then US-411 south. Our home base is Hamilton County, where we've taken lots in Chattanooga's Southside and St. Elmo from overgrown ground to graded, utility-ready sites. We bring that same one-crew approach to Old Fort, with the trailer loaded for rural acreage.
Old Fort sits on the western strip of Polk County, the Ridge-and-Valley side, where most of the county's people live. East of town, the land climbs into the Cherokee National Forest, which covers about 80 percent of the county and rises to Big Frog Mountain. That means a single property can hold flat valley ground, a rocky slope and a wet creek bottom along something like Cookson Creek. Down the hill, the Conasauga River is a Class I Tennessee Scenic River above the US-411 bridge, so we treat the ground that drains to it carefully.
Our crews come in from Birchwood on SR-60 through Georgetown, across Cleveland, east on US-64 (Waterlevel Highway) to Ocoee and then south on US-411. From there, the work spreads out along Old Federal Road past South Polk Elementary, west on Ladd Springs Road (SR-313) toward Wildwood Lake, east toward Ball Play on Sand Mountain Road and Brewer Road, and south to Conasauga. Cell service fades fast once you leave the highway toward the forest, so we confirm access and gate details before the trailer rolls.
The jobs here are rural jobs. Most are new homes on acreage: clearing a homesite, cutting a driveway in from the road, grading a pad and putting in a septic system. Others are old pastures that need to be taken back, family land with an old barn or farmhouse to clear, and wooded recreational tracts near the forest or a short drive from Parksville Lake. With Polk County up about 10.8 percent in population since 2015, more of that land is being built on every year.
The rules matter out here too. New septic systems in Polk County are permitted by the state through the TDEC Chattanooga Environmental Field Office. Disturbing an acre or more needs TDEC construction stormwater coverage. Any work in or across a creek can need a state Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit, which is a real concern on streams feeding the Conasauga, home to federally listed mussels and fish. From October 15 to May 15, burning brush piles takes a state burn permit, and that's one more reason forestry mulching makes sense on Old Fort land.
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 all of Old Fort, from the homesites along US-411 and Old Federal Road out to the edge of the Cherokee National Forest, plus the rest of southern Polk County and the Bradley County line. We come down from Birchwood, so the whole stretch between Cleveland, Ocoee and Old Fort is on our regular route, and we stay on the Tennessee side of the state line.
It depends on the land. Acreage, how thick the brush and timber are, slope, rock, how far the work sits from the road and whether the debris is mulched in place or hauled off all change the number. A flat, brushy pasture along US-411 prices very differently from a steep wooded tract out toward the Cherokee National Forest. Rather than guess at a number over the phone, we come out to your Old Fort land, walk it with you and hand you a free estimate broken down line by line.
It's a one-machine process: a mulching head chews up the brush, vines and small trees on your Old Fort land and spreads them back over the ground as mulch, right where they grew. There's no burning and no hauling, and the mulch helps hold soil on slopes and near creeks like Cookson Creek. It also sidesteps the state's October 15 to May 15 burn permit season for brush piles. The price comes down to how many acres you have, how thick the growth is and how the ground lies, which is why we only put a number on it after a free visit to your Old Fort property.
Yes. New septic system installation is one of our core services, and most new homes in Old Fort need one. Polk County isn't one of Tennessee's contract counties, so septic permits come straight from the state through the TDEC Chattanooga Environmental Field Office. The application includes a site sketch, plus soil maps by a soil scientist if they're required. With the state's approval and layout in hand, our crew digs the site, sets the tank, lays in the drain field and restores the grade over it.
Sometimes. If your project disturbs an acre or more, it needs TDEC construction stormwater coverage before work starts. Crossing or working in a creek can also need a state Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit, and the streams that feed the Conasauga River hold federally listed mussels and fish. Burning brush piles between October 15 and May 15 takes a burn permit too. We'll talk through what your property needs during the free estimate.
Yes. Wooded, sloping tracts on the forest side of US-411 are common around Old Fort. We clear carefully to control erosion, cut and fill to create a usable homesite and driveway, and build retaining walls where the grade calls for them. On a hillside, mulching is usually our first pick, because the layer it leaves behind shields the soil from washing out. We also check access ahead of time, since gravel roads and cell service get thin toward the forest.
We do. Our crews cover Old Fort and the surrounding Tennessee communities, including Ball Play, Conasauga, Ocoee, Parksville and Benton, plus Wildwood Lake over the Bradley County line on Ladd Springs Road. We come down from Birchwood through Cleveland, so Old Fort is under an hour from our base. We work the Tennessee side of the state line only.
Clearing in Old Fort tends to go best after the leaves drop in late fall and on through the winter months. The undergrowth dies back, so we can see the lay of the land, and your homesite is ready to build on by spring. Winter is also the burn permit season, which makes forestry mulching an easy choice over burning brush piles. We watch the weather and schedule grading for drier stretches, and booking in the off-season usually means a faster start date.
