This may be asked before, but I still want to know more about it. I have 3 acres of land, I have backhoe and excavator cleaned out most and going to burn next week. But the land isn’t 100% clean and level right now, especially after running the machine some place may be lower than others. My neighbor said add top soil to it. what should be the correct way to do it? Sloppy is ok, but want most of my land leveled.
Ok, I'll bite. This is pretty basic stuff here from the days when I used to work conventional clearing jobs and general dirt work. For typical "slash & burn" clearing, once the trees and brush are cleared, most contractors will grade out the job with a hoe and/or dozer to turn the water where you want it to go and to level the areas as required. Grading with a dozer should be easiest as you carry a load in the blade, it should normally fill in the low areas and cut off the high spots. Water control structures and grading should be done at this time to divert the run-off water where it is wanted and away from where you don't want it. Once all of that is done, then you should consider topsoil if your ground conditions won't allow vegetative growth. Leveling can also be done with a hoe. A dozer will normally be the fastest at this job. Bringing in loads of topsoil just to fill in a job that has not been graded out is a waste of money and effort, in my opinion. I like to work efficiently and save money where possible. After the grade is set proper, then you can decide if topsoil needs to be added.
And..... if you want to save money/topsoil.... then strip the existing topsoil first especially from the low areas, stockpile it in an area that is close to the grade you want to end up with so you won't be moving it constantly.
It’s quite messy land, won’t be 100% cleaned with equipment that’s why I need to buy extra topsoil I believe. I have the excavator and backhoe there cleaned some, but can see tracks over the time.
It should currently be "mud season" in New England if my calendar is correct, or near to it. Let the soil dry out and then work it. I remember riding motorcycles during the mud season and sinking in holes over 2' deep during the thaw and then having hard packed soil on the same spots of the trails in the summer. It's tough to make a finish grade with heavy equipment in soil that is the consistency of pudding. Adding topsoil now will only make it worse. Give it time to dry out to a workable media and the job will be easier.