John Keene Excavation

John Keene Excavation has run out of West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard since 1987, working septic system installs, land clearing, demolition, driveway prep, utility trenching and dirt-road repair — and, unusually for an excavation outfit, its own materials yard, selling and delivering mulch, soil, gravel, sand, stone and sod, with off-island trucking to bring supplies onto and off the Vineyard. That materials side is what most of its public reviews actually talk about. Across ten Google reviews written between 2021 and 2026 — nine of them five stars, one four — the recurring theme is a fast truck rather than a finished septic field: same-day delivery in a 2026 review, fast delivery again in 2024, and being able to drop brush at the dump when the family wanted. The one review that describes an actual project, from 2022, credits the office manager with keeping the job on track through changing schedules and calling the pricing reasonable. Google puts the overall average at 4.9 stars from 40 ratings, and the Better Business Bureau grades the company A+, though it has never sought BBB accreditation. Worth asking about before booking: nearly everything on the public record is about the delivery counter and materials yard, not the septic or heavy-excavation work the company is hired to do, so it's worth asking for references specific to a septic install or site job rather than assuming the yard's reputation carries straight over. For islanders who need gravel, soil or stone moved to a site, or brush hauled away, the track record is long and consistently well-reviewed; for a full septic system or a larger sitework project, ask to see recent, comparable jobs before signing on.