PRECISION BLASTING, LLCRock Blasting and Drilling in Salmon, Idaho
Based in Salmon. Foundations, driveways, septic pits, trenching and boulder clearing throughout the Lemhi Valley.
If you have ever tried to dig anything around Salmon, you already know what is under the topsoil.
Lemhi County is hard country. Granite, quartzite and old volcanic rock sit close to the surface across most of the valley, and they do not care about your schedule. Foundations hit it. Driveways hit it. Septic systems hit it about two feet in. Utility trenches run straight into ledge and stop.
That is the whole reason Precision Blasting exists, and it is why we are based right here in Salmon rather than running jobs in from three hours away.
We drill the hole pattern, size the charge to your specific site, and break the rock down to a size a loader can actually pick up and haul. Then you keep building.
What we do around Salmon
Foundations and basements
House pads, footings, crawlspaces and full basements cut into ledge rock. If your excavator has stopped and the bucket is bouncing, that is our call.
Driveway and access road cuts
Benching a driveway into a hillside is one of the most common jobs we run in Lemhi County. Steep ground, solid rock, no room for a wide cut.
Septic pits and drain fields
Tanks, leach lines and drain fields through rock. Perc requirements do not go away because there is granite in the way.
Utility trenching in rock
Water, power, gas, fiber and irrigation. We drill and shoot the trench line so your excavator can clean it to grade.
Road cuts, culverts and drainage
New road cuttings, widenings, culvert installs and drainage lines for county work, ranch access and private roads.
Boulder and rock pile clearing
Pasture, fence lines, building sites and equipment access. Too big to move and too hard to break is the right size for us.
Serving the whole Lemhi Valley
Salmon · Challis · North Fork · Leadore · Carmen · Tendoy · Gibbonsville · May · Ellis · Shoup
If you are somewhere along Highway 93 or Highway 28 and you are not sure whether you are in our range, call and ask. We are usually closer than you think.
Blasting near buildings in town
The most common question we get from Salmon property owners is whether we can blast at all on a lot with neighbours on it.
Almost always, yes — and the reason is a concept called scaled distance.
Blasting near a structure is not about staying some fixed number of feet away. It is about the relationship between the charge weight fired per delay and the distance to the nearest building. Reduce the charge per delay and split the shot across a delay sequence, and you can move a lot of rock while keeping ground vibration well inside safe limits.
That is the difference between blasting and just setting off explosives. The engineering is the product. It is why controlled blasting works on a tight in-town lot in Salmon and not just on open ground out the valley.
We look at every site before we quote it, and if your job is genuinely a bad candidate for explosives we will tell you that and suggest something else — including our non-explosive expanding grout, which fractures rock with no vibration and no flyrock at all.
Why Salmon property owners call Dynamite Dan
You talk to Dan. Not a scheduler, not a call center, not a salesman who has never been on a shot. The person who quotes your job is the person who designs and fires it.
We are federally explosives licensed through the ATF, we carry insurance, and Dan has been drilling and blasting across the Northwest since 2013. We come out and look at your site before quoting, because you cannot price a rock job over the phone honestly and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- Federally Explosives Licensed (ATF)
- Fully insured
- Blasting experience since 2013
- Licensed across ID, MT, WA, OR, NV, UT and NM
- Free on-site assessment and quote
- Owner-operated — you talk to Dan, not a call center
Questions Salmon customers ask
How close to my house can you blast?
There is no single fixed distance — it depends on scaled distance, which relates the charge weight per delay to how far away the structure is. By reducing the charge per hole and splitting the shot across delays, we can work safely on tight residential lots in Salmon. We assess every site individually before designing the shot.
What does rock blasting cost around Salmon?
It depends on the volume of rock, how hard it is, how easily we can get a drill onto the site, and how close you are to structures. On solid rock, blasting is almost always cheaper than hammering — a hoe ram can burn days on what a single shot breaks in an afternoon. We give free on-site quotes so you get a real number instead of a guess.
Do I need a permit to blast rock on my property in Idaho?
In most cases, no — the blasting contractor holds the federal explosives license and handles the regulatory side. What you should do before any excavation is call 811 to have buried utility lines located. We handle the notification requirements and walk you through what happens on shot day.
How long does a job take?
Most residential shots are a one to two day operation: drilling the pattern, loading and stemming the holes, then the shot. Larger road and commercial jobs get staged across multiple shots. We give you a timeline with the quote.
Is blasting safe?
When it is engineered, yes. Every shot is designed with a specific hole pattern, charge weight and delay sequence, and covered with mats or stemming where flyrock is a concern. Ground vibration is kept inside established safe limits for nearby structures.
Do you do work that does not involve explosives?
Yes. We use expanding grout, a chemical demolition agent that fractures rock and concrete with no vibration, no flyrock and no explosives at all. It is a good fit for tight spaces, interior work and anywhere close to vibration-sensitive structures.
Too big to dig and too hard to break?
Text a few photos of the rock, boulder, trench or tree in your way. We will tell you what it takes to move it — free, and on site.