Connell Excavation

Two names run through nearly every review of Connell Excavation: Kaden and Rob. Across 51 Google ratings averaging five stars and reaching back to 2022, Haverhill-area homeowners describe the same family crew — Jake turns up in plenty of them too — showing up when they said they would, explaining the dig, and finishing what they started. The work is the heavy, dirty half of a project. Trenches for utilities, foundation holes for garages and sheds, French drains and yard drainage, sewer and water lines run from the street to the house, old pools taken out, sloped yards leveled and reseeded, retaining walls and granite steps built where a bank used to be. When a main sewer line backed up into one homeowner's basement this spring, they came after hours to assess it and completed the repair. A landlord with a collapsed sewer line on a rental wrote in April that they were there fast and held to budget despite an unforeseen complication. Communication is the other thing customers keep circling back to. A homeowner who had front granite steps and a retaining wall built in May described a clear timeline given upfront, quick replies to questions, and no surprises against the quote. In a 2024 review, a builder called their new-construction site work well organized and the pricing fair and transparent; another 2024 customer said the job landed under the quoted price. A 2025 review lays out the range in one job: fence and dog run removed, broken gutter drainage repaired, the yard leveled over a new French drain, a 120-foot retaining wall built against the wetlands, then the whole yard loamed and reseeded — done in four days, with the cleanup done properly. One thing to sort out before booking: how much of your job is theirs and how much passes to someone else. A 2025 customer whose driveway and walkways were excavated and prepped described Connell coordinating the asphalt itself with a separate hot-mix company. That's normal for an excavator, but it's worth asking who owns scheduling and the warranty on each piece. If your project starts with a machine — a hole, a trench, a slope that has to become a level yard — this is a deep and current history to hire on, and it runs through 2026 rather than trailing off years ago. Ask for a written scope and timeline, and confirm who handles the finish trades that follow the dig.