Excavation
Site excavation, foundation and pad excavation, cut and fill, trenching and mass excavation for homes, commercial sites and development tracts across the San Antonio area, with excavators, dump trucks and skid steers.
Learn More
Most lots in Helotes are rock. Edwards limestone comes to the surface across this side of Bexar County. A pad, a footing or a pool hole turns into rock work fast. Cedar and live oak crowd the slopes above Helotes Creek. Older places off Old Bandera Road sit on big lots. The house, the barn and the pool have all aged out. The ground that makes this town pretty is the ground that makes the digging slow.
Global Contractors LLC is an excavation and demolition contractor based at our yard in Pleasanton, south of San Antonio. We have done this since 2006, with decades of commercial and government sitework behind us. We run excavators, dump trucks, skid steers and a forestry mulcher. In Helotes we cut and fill in rock, dig footings and ponds, and clear cedar. We take houses and pools out, build pads for builders and run water and sewer lines. Call (253) 606-9497 and we will look at the site and put an estimate in writing.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.
The U.S. Geological Survey maps northern Bexar County in quadrangles, and Helotes is one of them. Edwards Group limestone and the Glen Rose Limestone beneath it are exposed at the surface here. Soil over that rock is often thin. A footing trench can hit solid stone in the first foot.
This is karst country. USGS describes the recharge zone as intensely faulted and fractured karstic limestone outcrop. Sinkholes, voids and caves come with that. On a Helotes site an excavator can open a hole nobody expected, and the rock does not break the same way twice.
Rock changes how the job runs. Spoil from a rock cut will not compact back like dirt, so select fill usually comes in by truck. We tell you what we can see in the rock and what we cannot see yet. Then we price the dig on that.
Often yes, and the aquifer is the reason. The City of Helotes publishes its own Edwards Aquifer map, and all three zones cross the city. The contributing zone sits north, the recharge zone runs through the middle, and the transition zone covers the south end.
TCEQ runs the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program in Bexar County. A Water Pollution Abatement Plan is required for any regulated activity proposed on the recharge zone. TCEQ counts clearing and excavation as regulated activity, and the plan has to be approved before work starts. A separate TCEQ stormwater permit applies once a site disturbs one acre or more.
Helotes also has a city arborist and a tree preservation and removal permit. Those rules reach past the city limits into the extraterritorial jurisdiction. Smaller single-family lots in residential zoning are exempt, so one call to the arborist settles it. We file with Texas 811 before we dig, and the law gives the utilities two working days to mark.
Ashe juniper, the cedar, is the tree that takes Helotes land over. It is a non-sprouting species, so cutting every green limb kills the plant. That is why shearing and mulching work on cedar and why it will not come back from the stump. Mesquite and huisache on the flatter ground do come back from the root.
We clear two ways here. The mulcher grinds cedar and brush where it stands and leaves the ground covered. That mulch holds soil on a limestone slope, which matters on a hillside lot. Where a pad or a driveway is going in, we pull stumps and roots with the excavator and haul the debris off.
Forestry mulching fits acreage, fence lines and hunting lanes. Land clearing with the excavator fits a building site. There is a wildlife question on this side of town. Texas Parks and Wildlife says the golden-cheeked warbler nests only in mixed Ashe juniper and oak woodland. Bexar County is in its breeding range, and Government Canyon State Natural Area sits against the west edge of town.
Helotes has grown the whole way through. The Census counted 7,341 people in 2010 and 9,030 in 2020. The 2024 estimate is 10,223. The far west side of Bexar County kept building through all of it.
Inside the city limits there is not much raw land left. The city's 2017 growth management plan put Helotes at 4,556 acres, about 86 percent developed, with roughly 302 vacant acres. The extraterritorial jurisdiction is a different story, with over 2,300 vacant acres out toward Galm Road, Shaenfield Road and FM 1560. So the work splits two ways here. Rebuild lots inside town, raw Hill Country outside it.
On a built-out lot the job is usually a teardown, a pool that is finished, or a slab to break out. Pool removal and house demolition both end the same way, with the debris hauled off and the lot graded flat. We come up from Pleasanton on I-37 to Loop 1604, then west on Bandera Road.
Communities and areas we serve around Helotes: Old Town Helotes, Los Reyes Canyon, Iron Horse, Triana, Helotes Creek, Old Bandera Road, Scenic Loop Road, FM 1560, Galm Road, Shaenfield Road, Government Canyon State Natural Area, Grey Forest.
Helotes ZIP codes served: 78023, 78254.
Free estimates throughout Bexar County and the surrounding area.
(253) 606-9497 Site excavation, foundation and pad excavation, cut and fill, trenching and mass excavation for homes, commercial sites and development tracts across the San Antonio area, with excavators, dump trucks and skid steers.
Learn More
Mechanical demolition for houses, garages, barns, commercial buildings, slabs and pools. We take the structure down, haul the debris off and grade the lot.
Learn More
Residential demolition for houses, mobile homes, garages, barns and sheds. We take it down, load the debris out and leave the lot graded.
Learn More
Commercial and industrial demolition for retail buildings, warehouses, metal buildings, restaurants and strip centers. We take the structure down, haul the debris off and leave the site graded.
Learn More
Swimming pool demolition in San Antonio, partial fill in or full removal. We take out the shell, the deck and the equipment, then backfill the hole and grade the yard.
Learn More
Concrete removal for driveways, slabs, patios, sidewalks, parking lots and old foundations. We break it out with the excavator, haul it off and level the ground back.
Learn More
Land clearing services for lots, acreage and ranch land around San Antonio. We clear brush, mesquite, cedar, trees and stumps with excavators, skid steers and a forestry mulcher.
Learn More
Forestry mulching grinds cedar, mesquite and brush into mulch right where it stands. The chips stay on the ground as cover, so nothing leaves the property.
Learn More
Site preparation for builders, developers and commercial property owners around San Antonio. We clear and grub, cut and fill to the plan, build pads and set the final grade.
Learn More
Dirt work across San Antonio and about 50 miles around the city. We level and grade land, bring in fill dirt, build pads and fix low spots that hold water.
Learn More
Underground utility installation around San Antonio: water mains, water lines, sanitary sewer lines, storm drains and culverts. We trench, bed the pipe, backfill in lifts and leave the ground at grade.
Learn More
Pond construction across San Antonio and the ranch country around it. We dig stock tanks, ranch ponds and detention ponds, build the dam and cut the spillway.
Learn More
Dump truck services across San Antonio and about 50 miles around the city. We haul spoils and debris off jobs and deliver fill dirt, caliche, base and gravel by the load.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Helotes. If yours is not here, call and ask.
Tell us where the property is and what needs to happen: a lot cleared, a slab out, a pad built. Call (253) 606-9497 or send the form, and we will line up a time to come look.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.