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Excavator and skid steer on an open utility trench at a Fort Wayne, Indiana job site
Now booking · Fort Wayne & 120 miles

Excavation done the Short way.

Forestry mulching, drainage, site prep, demolition and utilities, with the owner on the controls and accountable for every grade from first cut to final.

Free, no pressure

Get your number.

Tell the owner what you’re working on. He’ll get back to you with a real price.

Or call the owner direct: (260) 216-9073

Owner-Operated

The person you call is the person running your job.

After a decade of running equipment for other people, Short Excavating got started to do excavation a better way. One owner watches every grade, every slope, and every backfill, instead of handing your property off to a crew that never met you and never had to answer for the result.

That is the whole difference. On a Short Excavating job the owner is on site, the work gets checked as it goes in the ground, and it gets done right the first time so you are not calling anyone back to fix it next season. Homeowners hire us because they want someone who treats their property like his own. General contractors and commercial clients hire us because the grade comes out where the plans say, the utilities go in clean, and the schedule holds.

It is also why the work stays coordinated when a job runs through more than one service. A property that needs clearing, then a driveway, then drainage does not get split across three companies that each blame the others when something does not line up. The owner sequences it, runs it, and answers for the whole result, from the first cut to the final grade. That is rare in this trade, and it is the reason so much of our work comes from referrals and repeat customers across Fort Wayne and the surrounding counties.

More about Short Excavating

Compact track loader mulching brush in the woods near Fort Wayne, IN
Signature · Forestry mulching
Signature work

Forestry mulching that clears the brush and leaves the ground.

One machine grinds the undergrowth, saplings and brush right back into the soil. No burn piles, no hauling, no torn-up earth from a dozer and a chipper working a property over. You get a clean, usable lot and a layer of mulch that protects the ground instead of a field of stumps and ruts. It is faster, cleaner, and easier on your land, whether you are opening up a building site, reclaiming an overgrown back acre, or cutting a trail.

Forestry mulching
Gasketed drainage pipe bedded in stone on a Fort Wayne, IN drainage project
Signature · Drainage
Signature work

Drainage you never have to think about again.

Drainage either lasts for decades or fails in a season, and the difference is in the parts nobody sees. The owner is particular about all of them: the right slope so water actually moves, stone bedding so nothing settles, gasketed pipe that holds up to roots far better than glued joints, animal guards, and cleanouts every hundred feet so the system stays serviceable for the life of the property. From a single yard drain to seven downspouts and a sump line tied into a ditch, it gets installed the way it should be the first time.

French drains & drainage
Why Short

Attention to detail is the whole job.

Anyone can move dirt. The difference shows up in the parts you do not see, and those are exactly the parts the owner checks himself.

1
The right slope, every timeWater only behaves if the grade is right. We set it and we check it.
2
Bedded in stonePipe and structures bedded in stone so nothing settles or shifts later.
3
Gasketed, not gluedGasketed pipe holds up to roots far better than glued joints.
4
Built to be servicedCleanouts and access where you would actually need them, not where it is easy.
How a job goes

No surprises, start to finish.

01

You call the owner

Tell him what you are working on. You talk to the person who will actually run the machine.

02

We walk the site

The owner looks at the ground, access and drainage before quoting, so the number is real and the plan fits.

03

We do the work

Clean, careful work with the right equipment, checked as it goes in, not after the trucks leave.

04

Final grade, cleaned up

We leave the site graded, tidy and ready for what is next, and we stand behind the work.

Where we work

Fort Wayne and a 120-mile reach.

Short Excavating works out of Fort Wayne and runs jobs across northern Indiana and into Ohio and Michigan. If your site is within about two hours of the shop, give the owner a call.

See every area we serve

Google review
“I know that I will never have drainage problems again.”

Short Excavating just finished an extensive drainage project for me: seven downspouts, a yard drain and a sump line tied into two six-inch runs, about 700 feet of pipe, tunneling under a sidewalk and around utilities. What stood out was the attention to detail: the owner was particular about the perfect slope, connections that would be easy to clean, bedding in stone to prevent settling, animal guards, and cleanouts every hundred feet. He used all gasketed pipe. I appreciate you taking care of my property as though it was your own.

Drainage customer · Fort Wayne
French drain and downspout drainage project on a Fort Wayne, Indiana home
The job · 700 ft of gasketed drainage
Straight answers

Questions, answered.

If yours isn’t here, just call the owner and ask.

Do you handle both residential and commercial work?

Yes. Short Excavating works for homeowners on driveways, drainage, land clearing and yard grading, and for general contractors and commercial clients on site development, building pads, utilities and demolition. The same owner runs both, so the standard does not change with the size of the job.

What areas do you serve?

We are based in Fort Wayne, Indiana and work within roughly a 120-mile radius. That covers northern Indiana plus parts of Ohio and Michigan, including Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks, Hancock, Porter and LaGrange counties in Indiana, Delaware County in Ohio, and Livingston and Oakland counties in Michigan.

Is the owner actually on the job?

Yes, and that is the whole point of the company. The owner is on site running and overseeing the work, watching the grade and the details himself rather than handing your property to a crew. It is why our customers say the work is meticulous and that we treat their property as our own.

How fast can you respond to an emergency water or sewer problem?

A broken water line or failing sewer is not something that waits. We offer emergency water and emergency sewer services and move quickly to get the dig open, the problem found and the line back in service. Call the owner directly and tell him it is an emergency.

Do you pull permits and handle utility locates?

We make sure the work is done right and safely, which includes calling in utility locates before we dig and coordinating the permits a job requires. Tell us about your project and we will walk you through what it needs before any machine touches the ground.

Why forestry mulching instead of clearing the old way?

Forestry mulching grinds brush, saplings and undergrowth back into the soil in a single pass. There are no burn piles, no hauling fees and no torn-up earth from a dozer and a chipper. You get a clean, usable property and mulch that protects the ground instead of a field of stumps and ruts.

Free, no pressure

Tell the owner what you’re working on.

One call, straight answers, and a real number for the job.

Ready to Get Started?

Contact Short Excavating Inc today for a real number on your project, no pressure. We look forward to working with you.