New Caney is the fastest-changing corner of Montgomery County and the wettest ground we work on. Both of those shape every job out here.
The Grand Parkway interchange turned a rural stretch of US 59 / I-69 into a development corridor, and the land it’s being built on is low, flat and heavily mapped for floodplain. Demolition and mobile home removal are a bigger share of the work here than anywhere else in the county, because a lot of these parcels are worth more empty than with what’s sitting on them.
What makes land in New Caney different
Everything drains toward the East Fork San Jacinto. The East Fork, Caney Creek, Peach Creek and their tributaries carry wide mapped flood zones across this side of the county. The terrain has very little relief, so a modest rise in water covers a lot of ground. Harvey in 2017 and Imelda in 2019 both hit this corridor hard, and a meaningful share of the lots we clear here have had water on them within living memory.
Flat, poorly drained clay. It holds water a long time after rain, which means more lost weather days than in Willis and more rutting risk if a contractor works a site he shouldn’t. It also makes drainage a bigger share of the job here — on ground this flat, water gets moved across the surface deliberately, because it isn’t soaking in.
Chinese tallow is worse here than anywhere else we work. Tallow thrives in wet bottomland and these creek systems are full of it. Cut one and you get a thicket. Tallow-heavy ground is slower than the acreage suggests and needs a method that kills the root rather than the stem — mulching to adequate depth plus a follow-up pass.
Loblolly over yaupon on the higher ground, hardwood bottom as you drop. Sweetgum, water oak and elm toward the creeks — bigger trunks, softer footing, and equipment that sinks if you get it wrong.
Old fill and buried debris turn up. This corridor has been lived on informally for a long time, and clearing regularly uncovers old slabs, abandoned septic tanks, wells and household debris under the brush. We stop and call before we touch anything we find rather than absorb it and surprise you later.
Floodplain is the first question here, not the last
Everywhere else in the county, floodplain is a footnote on a minority of properties. In New Caney, Porter and Splendora it is a main-line concern, and a quote that never mentions it is an incomplete quote.
Moving dirt in a mapped 100-year floodplain requires a floodplain development permit from Montgomery County — digging, grading and filling, not just building. It applies to unincorporated ground, which is most of this area.
Fill is the part people get wrong. The instinct on a low lot is to truck in dirt and build it up. In a regulated floodplain that’s exactly the activity that gets permitted and conditioned, because raising your lot pushes water onto somebody else’s. Get the determination before you buy fill, not after it’s dumped.
Clearing alone is usually the easier case, but persistently wet low ground can meet federal wetland criteria — a separate question from the county map, and a separate agency. If your property has a creek, a slough, or ground that stays wet weeks after rain, confirm before a machine starts.
New Caney and Porter are unincorporated — census-designated places, not cities. No city hall, no zoning, no municipal clearing permit. Splendora, Patton Village, Woodbranch and Roman Forest are incorporated and set their own rules, so the first thing to establish is which of those two answers your address gets.
On unincorporated ground the county is the whole permitting picture: development permits, OSSF/septic including proper abandonment during a demolition, 911 addressing, and driveway culverts through your Commissioner’s precinct.
Burning is mostly a dead end here regardless. Commissioners Court adopts the ban; the Fire Marshal writes the citation. And with subdivisions scattered all through this corridor, the standing state bar on household refuse burning — lots under five acres, or anything in a platted subdivision or within 300 feet of one, either on its own — catches a lot of parcels on a day with no ban at all. See the Montgomery County page.
What we do in New Caney
Demolition — mobile homes, houses, barns, slabs, outbuildings. The largest share of our work on this side of the county.
Lot clearing — residential lots and small acreage, including overgrown parcels going back to market.
Land clearing — homesites and commercial pads along the 59/99 corridor.
Forestry mulching — the right answer on tallow-heavy ground and anywhere burning is off the table.
Site prep and grading — pads, and drainage on flat ground, which out here is most of the value.
Excavation — swales, culverts, cut and fill, detention.
Brush clearing and underbrush clearing — reclaiming parcels that have been sitting.
What’s on the lot, and what that means
| What’s standing now | What the job involves |
|---|---|
| 1970s–80s mobile home on small acreage, common off FM 1485, FM 1314 and FM 2090 | Removal and disposal, plus piers, skirting, decks and steps. Abandoning the old septic properly is its own step |
| House that took water in Harvey or Imelda and never came back | Full teardown, slab out, haul to a permitted facility. If the county has declared it substantially damaged, that shapes the rebuild elevation |
| Old barn, shed or carport on a parcel being sold | Structure down, debris out, pad or slab removed if it’s in scope |
| Overgrown lot nobody has touched in a decade | Mulching first. Expect tallow, and expect to find something buried |
| Raw acreage along the 59/99 corridor | Clearing plus drainage. On flat ground the grading matters more than the clearing |
Utility disconnects are the schedule, not the machine. Electric, gas and water disconnects have to be scheduled and confirmed before anything comes down. On most demolition jobs that’s the long lead item.
Common questions
How do I find out if my lot is in the floodplain? Start with the FEMA map for the parcel, then confirm with the Montgomery County permit department, since they’re the ones who issue or refuse the permit. Give us the address and we’ll tell you whether it looks like a question worth asking.
Can I just haul in dirt and raise my lot? Not without checking first. In a regulated floodplain, fill is permitted and conditioned precisely because it moves water onto neighbors. Outside the floodplain it’s usually straightforward. This is the most common expensive mistake made on this side of the county.
What’s involved in getting an old mobile home off my property? Size, condition, single or double wide, and whether a truck can physically reach it. Piers, skirting, decks and proper abandonment of the old septic are separate items, and we show you each one rather than bury them.
Will the tallow come back after clearing? If the roots survive, yes — that’s what tallow does, and on this ground the roots are in wet soil that favors them. The method is described in the section above; the part to plan for is the calendar. Budget the follow-up pass into the next growing season when you budget the first one, and treat anyone who tells you the first pass is the last one as someone who has not worked this bottomland.
Do you work in Porter and Splendora? Yes, same crews and the same floodplain considerations. Porter is unincorporated like New Caney. Splendora is incorporated, so city rules can apply there.
Nearby areas we serve
New Caney · Porter · Porter Heights · Splendora · Patton Village · Woodbranch · Roman Forest · Grangerland · Kingwood · Humble · Huffman · Cleveland · Conroe
Out here two things set the number before anyone counts acres: whether the parcel sits in mapped floodplain, which decides what you can do with dirt, and where the debris ends up, because burning is largely off the table and the ground is often too soft to run loaded trucks across. How this work gets priced takes both apart.
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