From breaking ground on a new build to digging a farm pond or tearing out an old structure, MB General Contracting brings the machines and the hands-on experience to move dirt the right way across Phelps County. Owner-operated, licensed, and used to Ozark chert and rock — call or text (573) 728-2550 for a free on-site estimate.
Excavating is the foundation of nearly every project on a rural property — before a house, shop, barn, driveway or pond can exist, the ground has to be dug, shaped and prepped correctly. Do it right and everything that follows goes smoothly. Cut corners and you fight settling, drainage problems and cracked concrete for years. That is why owner-operator Matthew Buhlinger runs the machines himself on most jobs and treats site work as the part of the project that matters most.
MB General Contracting has spent 15+ years running excavation equipment across south-central Missouri. Whether you're a homeowner clearing space for a garage, a builder who needs a pad and footings dug to plan, or a landowner shaping acreage and digging a pond, we handle the digging, earthmoving and site work that gets your project off the ground. We own our dozers, excavators and skid steers — plus a forestry mulcher for the clearing that often comes first — so we show up with the right iron for the job instead of renting whatever is available and hoping it fits.
Because we're based right here in St. James and pour our own concrete in-house, your excavation isn't a standalone job that hands off to a stranger. It flows straight into footings and flatwork, driveway grading or drainage without waiting on outside subs to line their schedules up. One crew, one point of contact, one set of tire tracks in your yard.
We take on excavating work of almost any size, from a single-day skid-steer job in a tight backyard to multi-day site prep and pond digs on open acreage. The core services we're called for most often across Phelps County:
Phelps County ground can go from soft topsoil to solid chert and sandstone in the space of a shovel. We've dug it for years and know when a job calls for a bigger bucket, ripper teeth or a different approach so your site is prepped solid — no surprises when the concrete or building goes in.
Because we also handle drainage, driveways, retaining walls and concrete in-house, your excavation feeds straight into the rest of the project. No gaps in the schedule and no finger-pointing between trades when something needs to line up.
Excavating in this part of Missouri is not the same as digging in flat, deep-soil farm country. We're on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau, where the topsoil is often thin and chert gravel, sandstone and dolomite rock sit close to the surface. A dig that looks simple from the driveway can hit hard rock two feet down, and a good excavator has to read the ground and adjust rather than force it. This is exactly the kind of rock we work in every week, which is why local landowners call us instead of a company hauling equipment down from the city that has never touched Ozark chert.
The terrain matters just as much. Around St. James, our home base, the ground rolls between small farms, wooded acreage and vineyard country near the Meramec headwaters — plenty of building pads and pond sites, but also plenty of slope that has to be cut and shaped so a structure sits level and water drains away. Over in Rolla, the county seat and largest town in the area, we work both older in-town lots and newer subdivisions pushing out onto hilly chert ground where footing excavation and grading take real know-how. And in rural spots like Newburg, down on the Little Piney with its creek bottoms, long driveways and steep slopes, site prep and pond work often come with access challenges that a local crew plans for from the start.
Weather is part of the plan too. Our clay-and-chert soils hold water and turn greasy after a hard Missouri rain, and spring can string wet days together. We time excavation and hauling around the ground conditions so we're not rutting up your property or compacting mud that will never drain right. Rural properties also bring their own realities — septic fields, wells, buried lines, gravel lanes and long distances from the road — and we account for all of it before the first bucket of dirt comes out.
Sometimes the need is obvious — you're building and you need a hole. Other times the ground is telling you something. Common situations we're called out for:
A new home, shop, garage, barn or addition all start with a properly dug and compacted pad, footings or basement. Getting this right is what keeps the structure level and the concrete from cracking.
If runoff pools against a foundation, floods a low spot or washes out a lane, the fix usually starts with re-grading and often ties into drainage work to move water away for good.
Dry old ponds, ponds full of muck and cattails, or a bare spot where you've always wanted water. We dig new ponds and clean out and rebuild tired ones, dam and spillway included.
An old house, mobile home, barn or crumbling foundation taking up space or posing a hazard. We demolish it, break out the concrete, and haul the debris off so you're left with usable ground.
Straightforward and local. You talk to the person doing the work, not a call center.
Tell us what you're planning — a pad, a pond, a demo, a trench. We talk through the basics and set a time to come look.
We walk the property in person, check access, soil and slope, and give you a clear, no-pressure estimate for the actual job.
We bring the right machines and do the work — digging, shaping, hauling and compacting to plan, working around wells, lines and septic.
We grade the site tidy, haul off spoil and debris, and leave the ground ready for the next step or ready to seed.
Every site is different, so there's no flat price for excavation — the honest answer is that cost depends on the job in front of us. When we come out for your free estimate, these are the factors we're weighing:
We'll always explain what's driving the number so you understand exactly what you're paying for. No surprises added later.
There are bigger outfits and there are cheaper day-labor guys with a rented machine. What we offer is the middle that most rural property owners actually want — a licensed, established local contractor who owns his equipment and does the work himself.
We're based in St. James and Matthew runs the machines. When you call, you talk to the person accountable for the job — not a dispatcher three states away.
Licensed general contractor with 15+ years digging this exact ground. We've seen what Phelps County chert and clay do and we plan for it.
We own dozers, excavators, skid steers and a forestry mulcher, sized from mini to full-size, so we bring the machine that fits your job instead of forcing the wrong one.
Both. We size the equipment to the job — a mini excavator and skid steer for tight backyard work or a single trench, or dozers and full-size excavators for site pads and pond digs. No job is too small to call about.
Yes. We build new farm and recreational ponds and clean out, deepen or expand existing ones, including rebuilding the dam and shaping a spillway that won't wash out. We'll walk the site with you to find the best location, size and depth for how the ground and water sit on your place.
Around here, we usually expect it. Phelps County ground often has chert and rock close to the surface, so we plan for it up front and bring equipment that can handle it. If a dig turns out to be far more rock than anyone could see from the surface, we'll stop and talk it through with you before doing anything that changes the estimate.
Yes. We tear down old houses, mobile homes, barns and sheds, break out failed concrete and foundations, and haul off the debris so you're left with clean, usable ground ready for whatever comes next.
Absolutely — it's routine on rural properties. We locate and account for wells, septic fields, tanks and any buried lines before we dig, and work carefully around them so nothing gets damaged.
It depends on the season and how much weather we've had, since wet ground can push jobs back a few days. Give us a call or text and we'll give you an honest timeline for your project and get you on the schedule.
Always. We come out, look at the site in person, check the access and the ground, and give you a clear estimate with no pressure. Call or text (573) 728-2550.
Grading, digging and demolition around St. James, Rolla and Phelps County.
Free estimates on any excavating project, big or small — site prep, ponds, demolition, grading and trenching across St. James, Rolla and beyond.
