Chatata Valley runs through the northeast of Bradley County along Chatata Creek toward Charleston, and if you own land in it, you already know the theme of this page before reading it: water. Managing it, routing it, holding it where you want it and keeping it away from where you don’t. That’s most of what Pullen’s Land Works does, and we do it across this valley regularly. Call (423) 716-4143 for a free walk-through and a written quote that holds. The name is Cherokee in origin, and people have been organizing their lives around this valley’s water for a very long time. The homeowners and farmers who do well here are the ones who work with that reality. The ones who fight it fund our repair business.

Drainage that makes everything else possible

On valley ground, drainage isn’t one project on the list. It’s the project that decides whether the other projects work. We install French drains, surface drainage, culverts, and diversion for properties where the valley floor stays wet into May, and we handle erosion control where ridge runoff cuts channels through fields and yards. The valley collects everything its ridges shed, and we make it deliberate. See our drainage services.

Ponds where ponds belong

Chatata Valley is some of the best pond country in Bradley County: clay bottoms, reliable water, and acreage that can use a pond for stock, fishing, or just the look of water on the land. We excavate ponds with banks graded to hold and overflow paths that send a big storm out through the spillway instead of over the dam. The difference between a pond and a liability is the spillway math, and we do that math before we cut. See our pond excavation.

Pads and drives above the wet line

The skill in valley construction is elevation. We cut house and barn pads high enough to stay dry in the wettest month, grade so ridge water routes around rather than through, and build drives with enough base and crown to cross low ground without becoming part of the creek system every winter. If you’re picking a building spot on the valley floor, walk it with us in February if you can. See our excavation services.

Clearing and field reclamation

Valley farms pass between generations, and each handoff comes with a few acres that got away, fence lines swallowed by cedar, bottoms grown up in brush. We clear with root balls out, leave ground ready for pasture or building, and keep the creek buffers intact, because bare creek banks in this valley trade soil for regret one storm at a time. See our land clearing.

Local ground, local knowledge

The valley has its own fire hall on Chatata Valley Road serving the farms and homes between Cleveland and Charleston, and the community it protects is exactly the kind we like working for: people who know their land’s history and expect a contractor to add to it carefully. We know this valley’s habits from the equipment seat, which bottoms pump water up from below long after the rain stops, and which ridge cuts bleed runoff onto the fields below.

How hiring us works

Free walk-through, timed to wet ground when the question is water. A written quote for the full scope; the number holds, and surprises underground get discussed before we proceed. Our own equipment, the crew that walked your land, and a final walkthrough together

Frequently Asked Questions

My bottom field stays wet too long to work. Can it be fixed?

Often, yes, with a combination of surface drainage and outlet work, and sometimes the honest answer is that a corner of it wants to be a pond instead. We walk it, find where the water sits and why, and give you options with numbers.

What makes a pond hold water here?

Clay that seals, a watershed big enough to feed it, and a spillway that handles the storm the county gets every few years. Chatata Valley usually has all three, and we confirm all three on your site before recommending the dig.

Can you build a drive across low ground that floods?

Yes, with enough base, the right culverts, and realistic expectations. A drive built for the water outlasts everything around it. Put the valley’s water to work or get it out of the way: (423) 716-4143.

Excavation in Chatata Valley, TN