Sub-compact equipment services for residential, light commercial and municipal projects.
San Juan Dirtworks is fully insured and offers excavation, landshaping and grading, drainage solutions, trail construction and maintenance, vegetation removal, snow removal, and metal detection service.
Offered Services
We love digging in the dirt!
Excavation
Small scale excavation projects such as utility trenching, French drains, landscape clean-up and pad leveling.
Landshaping and Grading
Regrading around foundations, modifying slopes in yards and leveling areas for outdoor seating areas, fire pits and utility sheds.
Drainage Solutions
French drains, underground downspout drains, dry wells and swales.
Vegetation Removal
Removal of shrubs and small trees, like Juniper and Oak that are receptive to fire brands and are fire hazards that threaten your home and property when a wildfire happens.
Trail Construction and Maintenance
Trail layout, construction and maintenance. Tread repair, realignment and rehabilitation. Water management, signage and restriction devices.
Snow Removal
Call-When-Needed snow removal with tractor based plowing and snowblowing for berm removal and challenging driveways where trucks get stuck.
About Us
San Juan Dirtworks is a fully insured and owner-operated small business based in the heart of the San Juan Mountains, Pagosa Springs, Colorado. From trail construction and maintenance to residential drainage systems and vegetation removal, we take pride in doing difficult jobs correctly for reasonable rates.
Sub-compact Equipment
Our primary machine is the highly versatile Kubota BX23S, a purpose-built “all-in-one” sub-compact tractor-loader-backhoe designed for property maintenance and working in confined spaces that larger machines either cannot operate in or create significant impact. At 2800 lbs, this machine exerts very little ground pressure and yet is a powerful and capable digger with a max digging depth of 6′ 1″.
For projects that require the specific capabilities of a mini-excavator, we operate the Kubota U-17, a 3700 lbs and 3.8 psi zero tail swing machine with variable track width from 39″ to 51″ and a max digging depth of 7′ 7″.
Casey Bristow
Casey has over twenty-five years of experience in land management and has been operating equipment in a wide range of environments for over forty years. He worked for the San Juan National Forest as a wildland firefighter, trail builder, and equipment operator for seventeen years and has operated alpine and nordic snowcats in northern Colorado, heavy dirtwork equipment in the Sierra, tractors, and other farm equipment along the west slope of the Appalachians, and has hundreds of hours with backhoes and mini-excavators here at home in the San Juans.
Casey, his wife, and son live downtown Pagosa Springs and enjoy all that the amazing San Juan Mountains offer. When not digging in the dirt, Casey and his family are usually fishing, hiking, biking, traveling, or working on their town ranch. During the winter months, he can usually be found on the snow on Wolf Creek Pass skiing with his son at the ski area, or working in the backcountry with Wolf Creek Backcountry’s Pass Creek Yurt and the Wolf Creek Avalanche School.
Contact Us
Use this form to send us an email and we will get back with you promptly, usually within 24 hrs. If you require a more urgent response please send a text message to the phone number shown above and we will text you back as soon as we can. You can also call and leave a voicemail and we will call you back when we get out of the machine.
The Dirtworks Blog
- A Hidden Problem at the Drip Line
If you own a home in Archuleta County, you live on soils that can move more than you might expect. Certain local clays swell when they get wet and shrink when they dry out. That constant movement shows up as cracks in slabs, sticky doors, and bowed or leaning foundation walls. The most active area… Read more: A Hidden Problem at the Drip Line - Expansive Soils: A Hidden Hazard Beneath Archuleta County Homes
If you own a home in Archuleta County, there may be a risk below the surface that is easy to miss: expansive soils, which swell when wet and shrink when dry. In Colorado, expansive soils and rock are recognized geologic hazards because repeated movement can crack foundations, distort structures, damage slabs, walls, and utilities. What… Read more: Expansive Soils: A Hidden Hazard Beneath Archuleta County Homes - Juniper Shrubs and Fire Risk: What Southwest Colorado Property Owners Need to Know
If you live in Southwest Colorado, you’ve probably seen juniper shrubs used in landscaping around homes, cabins, and outbuildings. They’re hardy, drought-tolerant, and low maintenance. But there’s a serious downside that often gets overlooked: juniper is highly flammable, especially when planted close to structures. As wildfire risk continues to increase across our region, understanding how… Read more: Juniper Shrubs and Fire Risk: What Southwest Colorado Property Owners Need to Know - Why French Drains Matter for Pagosa‑Area Homes
In Archuleta County, a lot of drainage trouble for homeowners comes from three main sources: roof runoff, snowmelt, and poor grading around the house. When roof shed or gutters dump water right at the foundation, snow piles melt along walls, or the yard slopes toward the home instead of away from it, water soaks into… Read more: Why French Drains Matter for Pagosa‑Area Homes
San Juan Dirtworks
Call us for all your property improvement needs! We are a fully insured and owner operated Pagosa Springs company performing sub-compact equipment services including excavation, grading, landshaping, trail construction, snow removal and metal detection.
This client needed some water diversion structures constructed to shunt rain water off of an old two track that was channeling lots of it toward their home. I constructed several swales that cut across the old roadbed and direct the water away to lower ground where it no longer threats the home. Three large structures were machine built and hand finished, and two smaller structures were hand built.
#sanjuandirtworks #pagosasprings #drainagework #backslopetools
This client had some long established Buffalo Juniper in front of their home that was posing a fire hazard. My root ripper attachment made short work of removing them roots and all without creating a large hole that needed backfilling. The surface was left smooth and ready for a little grass seed. This home is a lot safer from a wildfire now that these little green gas cans have been removed.
I also did a little culvert and ditch maintenance before I loaded the tractor up and it came out looking nice and ready for the monsoons.
#sanjuandirtworks #pagosasprings
May was a busy month for Dirtworks. Here are some shots of another French drain that was completed. This home needed some help shunting water away from this shaded north side and engineers recommended a French drain. The aspen tree had established some substantial roots up against the foundation as it chased the moisture, and after excavating the trench for the drain the home owner decided to have it removed. We excavated the rootball and regraded the surface of the area while completing the drain. A new 20 mil visqueen vapor barrier covered in river rock now protects the foundation and deposits all roof shed water directly into the drain structure.
#sanjuandirtworks #pagosasprings #drainagework
