Clearing The Backyard For An ADU
Before the ADU plans reach a framer, something has to leave the yard. Sheds, slabs, stumps, a pool, and a grade that drains the wrong way.
Backyard cottages are the busiest thing happening on East Bay residential lots right now, and almost every one of them starts with a backyard that is already full. A shed, a patio slab, a hot tub, two mature stumps and a grade that sends water at the main house. All of that is our work, and it happens before anyone pours anything.
Legacy Demolition is a licensed local crew based in El Sobrante, working across Contra Costa and Alameda County with one fixed written number per job, permits and disposal included.
The Yard Is Never Empty
On a typical Richmond or El Sobrante lot the ADU footprint lands exactly where the previous owner put the shed, the concrete patio and the raised planter. Those come out as one mobilization. Doing them separately, months apart, means paying to bring a machine through the side yard three times, and side yard access is the whole ballgame on these lots.
What Usually Has To Go
- Sheds and detached structures. Wood, metal and prefab all come apart differently. Anything on a slab means the slab goes too.
- Patio and walkway concrete. Old patios are often thicker than they look and sit on top of nothing, which is why they crack.
- Pools and spas. A pool in the footprint is the single biggest line item, and partial removal is rarely allowed under a new structure.
- Trees and stumps. The stump has to come out, not just get ground flush, if a foundation is going over it.
- Bad grade. Water running toward the main house is a problem now and a bigger one once the yard has two roofs draining into it.
Planning A Project In The East Bay?
Free on-site estimate anywhere in Contra Costa or Alameda County. One fixed written number, permits included.
Get My Free EstimateAccess Decides Everything
The question we ask on the first walk is how wide the gate is. A compact track loader needs about thirty six to forty eight inches of clear path with a firm surface and no low branches. If it fits, the job is machine work and it moves fast. If it does not, the material is carried out by hand or lifted over the house, and that is a different estimate.
Where access is tight we use small equipment and stage material in the driveway rather than the yard, so the neighbors keep their street and the crew keeps its footing. That approach is laid out on our bobcat and excavator services page, and on bobcat work in tight backyards.
Grading The Pad
An ADU pad is not a flat yard. It needs cut and fill to a plan, compacted subgrade, and drainage that carries water away from both buildings and off the property the way the site plan says. Guessing at the grade and fixing it after the forms are set is expensive, and it is the most common place a backyard project loses two weeks.
We grade to the engineer numbers, compact in lifts and leave the pad ready for forms. Where the lot already has a drainage problem, that gets corrected in the same pass instead of being inherited by the new structure. See yard drainage problems fixed with grading for what that looks like on a finished lot.
Utility Trenching In The Same Pass
An ADU needs water, sewer, power and often gas run from the main house or the street. Those trenches cross the same yard the machine is already standing in. Cutting them while the equipment is on site, before the pad is finished and before landscaping goes back, saves a mobilization and saves the new grade.
Trench depth, bedding and backfill compaction all get inspected, so this is not a shovel and a Saturday. Our excavation crew runs the trenching, and the same machine backfills and re-grades once the lines pass.
Every ADU we prep, the owner tells us the yard looked empty. It never is.
Legacy Demolition site leadCommon Questions
Do I need a permit to remove a shed or a patio slab?
Detached structures usually need a demolition permit. A patio slab often does not, but the debris still has to be documented for diversion.
Can the pool stay if the ADU is somewhere else in the yard?
Yes, but a pool next to a new foundation changes the soils report and the setbacks. Confirm it with the designer before assuming.
How long does backyard site prep take?
Most lots are three to six days from first machine to finished pad, not counting permit and utility lead times.
Will the machine wreck the driveway or the lawn?
We mat the access route and use track equipment that spreads the load. Some lawn damage is unavoidable, driveway damage is not.
Every project starts with a free on-site walk-through. Call (510) 804-1333 or request your free estimate.
Cleared, graded, ready for forms.
Legacy Demolition clears backyards for accessory dwelling units across Contra Costa and Alameda County, removing sheds, slabs, stumps and pools, grading the pad to plan and trenching the utilities in the same mobilization.
Residential Demolition
Commercial Demolition
Pool Removal
Excavation
Concrete Removal
Driveway Removal
Land Clearing
Dirt & Grading
Bobcat & Excavator