McCormick County calls itself the Freshwater Coast, with more lake shoreline than the state's ocean beaches.
McCormick County's story starts along Long Cane Creek, where Patrick Calhoun led Scots-Irish settlers in February 1756, and not long after nearly two hundred French Huguenot refugees founded the New Bordeaux colony nearby. The land is older still in its history: Hernando de Soto crossed the Savannah River near Modoc in 1540, one of the earliest documented European entries into the state. The town took shape after William Burkhalter Dorn struck a major gold vein in 1852, and the land later passed to Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, who gave the planned town his name. McCormick incorporated in 1882 as South Carolina's first dry town, and in 1916 the county was formed with the town as its seat. That history still gathers downtown, at the September Gold Rush Festival with its parade and gold panning, and on Art Trots nights when the shops along Mine Street stay open late.
Custom Cut Land Works is a family company, and that shapes how we work across McCormick County. We clear land, grade, excavate, lay gravel driveways, bush hog, and handle storm and tree cleanup across McCormick County. Decades in heavy civil construction stand behind the work, but what we run on is respect for the land, honesty, and plain hard effort; when we are on your property, we treat it the way we would treat our own. We like working in a county this green and this proud of its past. If you have ground that needs clearing, grading, or simply a plan, reach out and we will walk it with you.
The Long Cane Ranger District of Sumter National Forest covers roughly 120,000 acres and is the dominant land cover across McCormick County's interior. When woods like these meet a new home site or a pasture, clearing means protecting the soil and leaving the lot ready to build on. We clear land across McCormick County with that balance in mind.
Downtown McCormick keeps its early-1900s cottages and bungalows near Mine Street, with brick ranch houses, Colonial Revival homes, and Minimal Traditional dwellings out toward the edges. Good grading sets those slopes and swales before trouble starts. McCormick County requires a building permit for new buildings, additions, and alterations, submitted to the county Building Department.
Savannah Lakes Village is a master-planned lakefront community in McCormick County, with single-family homes and attached homes built as duplexes. South Carolina also requires a stormwater permit from DHEC on any job that disturbs an acre or more through clearing, grading, or excavating. We excavate across McCormick County, where soil and the water table shape every dig.
McCormick County runs on a handful of good roads: U.S. Route 378 crosses east to west from the Georgia line through the town, and SC 28 comes through downtown as Mine Street before meeting 378 on the west side. A gravel driveway is the last stretch between one of those roads and your door, carrying daily traffic in all weather. We build gravel driveways across McCormick County to hold up and drain.
Farm and fishing ponds with a compacted-clay dam that holds water.
Modoc, Plum Branch, and Parksville are small communities in McCormick County with older frame farmhouses and railroad-era cottages. Bush hogging knocks down brush, saplings, and tall grass before a field turns into young woods, and it keeps fence lines, pastures, and lot edges clear. We bush hog across McCormick County to keep that open land open.
After a storm in McCormick County, the first job is reading the site before any cutting starts, since a leaning trunk or a limb under tension can shift the moment it is cut. Clearing what fell, lowering the hazards still standing, and hauling the debris off leaves the ground safe again.
We meet you on the property, hear the plan, and flag the problems that cost money before they cost you any.
A written scope and a real number. No surprises, no upsells.
The right machine for the job, and the owner in the seat.
Graded and tidy, ready for whatever comes next.
Custom Cut Land Works
Based on 6 Google reviews
Chris Graham
October 2026
Excellent experience from start to finish! They were quick to respond, got the job done in a timely manner, and were professional throughout the entire process.… Read more
Greg Brescia
October 2026
Outcome was great! Brian has done multiple jobs for us with the best results! Highly recommend
Adele Secoy
October 2026
Brian is brilliant. He is punctual and carries out his work with such professionalism. We had trees cut and a little grading. His prices were very competitive… Read more
Brad Dumpling
September 2026
We hired Brian to redo our 950-foot gravel driveway and clear about an acre behind the house. He did a great job. Brian was the only one who looked at the real… Read more
Katie Coleman
September 2026
I had a great experience with Custom Cut Landworks! Brian was professional, reliable, and did an excellent job from start to finish. He brought in the necessary… Read more
Kelsey Kissner
September 2026
I hired Brian to remove about 6000 sq ft of fully mature two-story tall bamboo from my backyard. From start to finish he was great: friendly, professional, expl… Read more
Family-owned, and the owner runs the machine on your property. You deal with Brian from the first stake to the final grade.
Cleared material is mulched, hauled off, or burned legally. Buried debris settles into sunken driveways and cracked slabs years later.
More than twenty years in heavy civil construction, from the Ravenel Bridge to the I-385 Gateway, brought home to driveways, home sites, and pastures.
We walk the land and quote what your property actually needs. A real number, not a guess over the phone.
Fully licensed and insured. The SC811 locates, county rules, and erosion controls are ours to handle, never your fines.
We cover all of McCormick County, from the Town of McCormick and Mine Street downtown to Clarks Hill, Modoc, Plum Branch, and Parksville, and out to the communities along Lake Strom Thurmond.
Land clearing in McCormick County can happen year-round, but the calendar is worth watching, because the county averages about 46 inches of rain a year, measured at the Clarks Hill station. Wet ground is slow to work and easily rutted, so the drier, firmer stretches are usually kindest to the soil and fastest on the machines. Winter, with the leaves down, also makes it easier to read the shape of a wooded lot and plan which trees to save. That said, good drainage and a sensible plan matter more than the month, and a site that sheds water well can be cleared and graded in most conditions.
Older homes in McCormick County can carry extra rules: the county's local historic property ordinance set up a design-review step for work on locally designated properties, and places like the Mount Carmel Historic District have long been recognized for their history. Older houses often sit on settled ground, where drainage and footing deserve a careful read before any machine moves in. On an older site, the goal is ground that carries water away and keeps the structure on solid footing.
Yes, lakefront land is common in McCormick County, and it has its own demands. Hickory Knob State Resort Park, the only resort park in the South Carolina state system, sits on the water here and shows how close building and shoreline can run. On a lake lot, the work is as much about protecting the bank and controlling runoff as it is about clearing a view: you want the ground to drain without carrying soil down toward the water, and you want trees kept where they hold the slope. We clear, grade, and shape lakefront ground in McCormick County with the shoreline in mind.
Getting equipment to a site in McCormick County can be half the job, since this is the most forested county in South Carolina, at 88 percent. SC 10 begins near the town at SC 28 and runs north toward the forested parts of the county, and SC 283 stretches almost eighteen miles to connect Plum Branch with the rural country around it. From roads like those, the last leg is often a rough track or none at all, so part of planning any clearing or grading job is working out how the machines get in and how the material gets hauled out without tearing up the ground along the way.
Yes, we prepare brand-new home sites across McCormick County. U.S. Route 221 comes up from Georgia over the J. Strom Thurmond Dam and runs north into the town, and a raw site generally needs clearing and rough grading before anything gets built. The order matters: clear only what the plan calls for, set the drainage and the pad first, and keep the good soil on site rather than hauling it off. Done that way, a raw lot turns into buildable ground that stays put when the rain comes.
Free written estimate. See the price before any work begins.
