Frequently asked questions

We work about 100 miles out from Marquette, which covers Marquette and Alger counties, down to Escanaba and Iron Mountain, and west into the Copper Country — Outside that we still take work anywhere in the U.P. when the job is big enough to be worth the travel. If you’re not sure, call and ask.

No. Estimates are free and there’s no obligation. For most jobs we come and look at the site first. A number quoted over the phone without seeing the ground tends to change once we get there, which helps nobody.

By what the job takes: how much material has to move, how far it travels, how hard the site is to work and what the permit requires. You get it in writing with the scope spelled out, so you can see what’s included and what isn’t.

Yes. Parker and Sons Contracting LLC is licensed and insured, and we can provide a certificate of insurance for your job file or your lender. Ask the office and we’ll send it over.

It depends on the season and what’s already on the schedule. Spring and early summer are the busiest, and winter work is weather-dependent. Call early rather than late — especially for septic work, which has a permit process in front of it.

Some excavating work can be done in winter; frozen ground and deep snow make other jobs slower and more expensive. Plowing and hauling run all season. We’ll tell you honestly whether your job should wait for spring.

It depends on the work and where you are. Septic systems are permitted through the county health department, new driveways onto county roads generally need a road commission permit, and townships have their own rules. We’ll tell you what your job needs before it starts.

Call the office right away. A backup can be a full tank, a plugged line or a failed drainfield, and those are very different repairs. We’ll ask what you’re seeing and tell you what’s likely, and what it takes to fix it.

Both. We deliver single loads to homeowners and run ongoing material for builders and commercial sites. Small loads go out on the F-550 where a semi can’t get in or turn around.

Give us the length, width and how deep you want it and we’ll work out the yardage with you. It takes two minutes on the phone and saves ordering two loads when one would have done.

Yes. A half-day of machine time is still a job. Some very small work isn’t worth the cost of moving equipment out to it — if that’s the case we’ll say so up front rather than quote you a number that makes no sense.

Call in the fall, before the first storm. Routes are built geographically and they fill up. You can choose a seasonal contract or per-push service.

Yes. Garages, barns, old houses, mobile homes, foundations, concrete and interior tear-outs, with the debris hauled out on our own trucks. The waiting on a demolition is usually the utility disconnects and the permit rather than the work, so start those early. More on demolition.

Yes, 24 hours a day, on a separate line: (906) 273-2410. Cars, SUVs and light trucks, plus winch-outs and recovery, anywhere in the Upper Peninsula. It is the one service that is not limited to our 100-mile radius. More on towing.

Regularly. On new construction we schedule around the builder’s sequence so the excavating and the septic happen at the right point instead of holding up the rest of the job.