Excavation & Grading Handbook Revised. This new trusted reference has been completely updated to keep excavation contractors, operating engineers, and those learning the trade current with state-of-the-art equipment usage and the most efficient excavating and grading techniques.

You'll learn how to read topo maps, set crows feet, install water drain and sewer pipes, lay or remove asphaltic concrete, use a laser level, cut drainage channels, and use GPS and sonar for absolute precision.

Filled with hundreds of tips, pictures, and diagrams and tables every excavation contractor can use.

This new edition of a trusted reference has been completely updated to keep excavating contractors, operating engineers, and those learning the trade current with state-of-the-art equipment usage and the most efficient excavating and grading techniques.

You can purchase it new or professionally Highlighted & Tabbed for your exam. 

Why Most Highlighted & Tabbed Books Fall Short?

Many contractor exam prep schools sell highlighted and tabbed books. Only one created the system—and perfected it through real-world use. That system was created by Rob Estell, a licensed contractor, President, and Founder. 

Open-book contractor exams don’t test how much you know. They test how quickly you can locate the correct answer inside dense reference manuals. Rob learned this firsthand by taking exams himself and later confirmed it through years of feedback from thousands of exam candidates.

While other schools offer highlighted and tabbed books, most:

• Use minimal or generic highlights
• Rely heavily on the existing Table of Contents and Index
• Miss exam-tested material that isn’t clearly referenced
• Provide tabs that point to broad sections, not precise answers

The result? Students still waste time searching.

Rob decided that “good enough” wasn’t good enough.

Why The Exam Pros ORIGINAL, detailed-driven highlighted and tabbed books? Thousands of contractors have passed their exams using Rob Estell’s highlighted and tabbed books because they solve the real problem:

• Knowing the answer
• But not being able to find it fast enough

Built from Contractor Experience & Student Feedback

Rob Estell’s system is built using:

• His own experience as a licensed contractor
• Personal exam feedback from real testing environments
• Thousands of data points from exam students nationwide

A Proven, Detail-Oriented Navigation System

Each book follows Rob’s proven 3-step method:

1. Table of Contents – Identify the general section
2. Precision Tabs – Jump directly to the exact topic
3. Strategic, Detailed Highlights – Land on the answer instantly

Our highlights are thorough and detail-oriented, guiding your eye exactly where exam answers are located—not just coloring pages for appearance.

• Every highlight is intentional.
• Every tab exists because the book failed to guide the reader quickly enough.
• If a topic cannot be found efficiently through the Table of Contents or Index, it gets a custom tab and targeted highlight.

These books are designed to help you outperform the clock, not just prepare!

Whether you're already in the business, or planning to take the leap, this book borrows from years of down-in-the dirt experiences of trusted authority, Nick Capachi. It's an encyclopedia of excavating and grading knowledge, including photographs and diagrams that illustrate just how the work should be done.

Co-written with his son, John, Nick combines their nearly 70 years on the job to teach you -- in simple terms -- just what you need to know to reach and stay at the top of your game.

In these pages you'll learn how to read topo maps, set crows feet, install water, drain, and sewer pipes, lay or remove asphaltic concrete, use a laser level, cut drainage channels, pressure-test sewer pipes, and use GPS and sonar for absolute precision.

No jobsite is without problems. Knowing how to deal with these problems, or how to prevent them, can save you hours -- even days. In this practical manual, the authors guide you through just about every difficulty you'll find on a job site. You'll find essential job-sequencing techniques that can make or break a job, plus pointers for tough situations that other earthwork instruction manuals don't want to tackle.

NEW in this edition: GPS -- Global Positioning System -- a time-saving survey and grade-control tool installed on much of the heavy equipment you'll be using. Also includes use of sonar technologies. Using these two technologies will save you time and money on most of your jobs.