195501
Seventy-one years, not “over fifty”
Kelk Land Improvement has been in business since 1955, servicing the Northwoods of Wisconsin. That is seventy-one years of septic tanks and dirt in Oneida and Vilas counties — through every soil type, every high water table, every frost line and every county code the state has written since Eisenhower.
Almost nobody in this trade can say that. It is the strongest single sentence Kelk owns, and it is worth saying with the real number in it.
On the live site the banner across the top of every page says “over 50 years”, sitting directly above the line “since 1955”. Both are on screen at once. The first one is twenty-one years short. On this page the founding year appears once, and every other mention is counted from it.
New systems02
Septic tank installation
A new septic system is the job most Northwoods owners only buy once, usually under some pressure — a failed inspection, a sale that will not close, a cabin being turned into a year-round house. It is the single biggest thing Kelk sells.
Trained and experienced crews, working to precision and care on every install: tank set, risers to grade, laterals bedded, backfill and restoration. Kelk has been putting these in around Minocqua, Arbor Vitae, Woodruff and Lake Tomahawk for seventy-one years, which means the ground here holds very few surprises.
On the live site this page — the one that sells this job — opens with the words “Employment opportunities with Kelk” printed in white under its own headline. That line belongs to the jobs page. A homeowner who needs a system arrives and is offered work instead. It is the whole reason this rebuild exists, and hiring is further down where it does no harm.
Existing systems03
Septic maintenance and repair
Most of the year this is routine. In February it is not. A frozen lateral on a seasonal place off County K is not a job you can put off until spring, and it is not a job for a contractor who has never seen one.
- CleaningRoutine pump-out and cleaning
- RepairTanks, lids, risers, laterals and lines
- General maintenanceKeeping a working system working
- ExtractionPulling and removing old tanks
- Thawing & jettingFrozen and blocked lines, which is a Northwoods winter specialty and is currently one line of a bullet list
Thawing and jetting is on the live site as a single word in a list. In a county where a very large share of houses sit empty from November to May and come back to life at Christmas, it deserves a paragraph of its own.
Dirt work04
Excavation, site prep, grading and demolition
Kelk is a licensed contractor with the equipment to take a wooded Northwoods lot from standing timber to a pad a builder can work on, and to keep the water going where it should once the house is up.
- ExcavationResidential and commercial
- Site development & prepComplete site preparation
- Lot clearingClearing and tree removal
- DrivewaysInstallation, grading and stone
- Drainage workGetting water off the lot
- TrenchingService and utility runs
- DemolitionOld cabins, sheds and outbuildings
The record05
What people say
“I couldn’t recommend anyone more highly; I’ve always been very pleased.”
Dale B., Local Guide
That review is already published on Kelk’s own homepage. It is reproduced here word for word, attributed the way Kelk attributes it, and nothing has been added to it.
Get in touch06
Reaching the yard
One phone number, answered at the yard on Balsam Street in Woodruff. Serving Minocqua, Arbor Vitae, Woodruff, Lake Tomahawk, Rhinelander and the surrounding Northwoods.
- Phone
- 715-356-6112
- Yard
- 526 Balsam Street, Woodruff WI
- KELK Land Improvement
Hiring07
Employment opportunities with Kelk
Kelk hires operators and labourers out of the Woodruff yard. This is the one place on the page where that belongs — at the end, under its own heading, where it is easy to find and where it is not standing in front of a customer who came to buy a septic system.
Anyone interested can call 715-356-6112 or email info@kelkexcavation.com.