DSL Excavating, LLC is a family owned and operated business in Brookfield, OH. The company was formed in November of 2015 to be a full service excavation and commercial landscaping company in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Our core values include integrity, commitment and excellence. Our goal is to provide our clients with a positive experience throughout every phase of their project and to not just meet but exceed their expectations.

As a woman owned and certified Woman Business Entity (WBE), DSL Excavating LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Drug Free Work Place business. Situated on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border we are within close proximity to all major highways providing easy access to service all major cities in the region including Cleveland, Ashtabula, Akron, Canton, Mansfield, Warren, Youngstown, and Columbus in Ohio and Pittsburgh, Erie, Meadville, Grove City, Warren, Clarion, New Castle and Butler in Pennsylvania.

The staff at DSL Excavating LLC is committed to excellence. It is our goal to get each project completed on time and on budget while superseding expectations. Our staff’s vast experience includes site work and landscape at municipal buildings, colleges, schools, libraries, retail establishments, recreation facilities, medical facilities, nursing home facilities, assisted living centers, industrial plants, churches, recycling plants, a golf course, multiple low income housing developments, mobile home parks, agricultural farming, and a 4×4 recreation park. In addition, our company has completed hundreds of residential jobs including basements, driveways, utilities, ponds, retaining walls and landscape throughout Trumbull, Mahoning, Mercer and Lawrence counties.


Daryl J. Dickson, Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer, Daryl oversees all projects and operations of DSL Excavating LLC. He is a highly skilled and experienced owner/operator with over 35 years of business management experience and heavy equipment operation within the commercial, industrial, agricultural and residential arena. Recognized as an expert in all things dirt, Daryl brings a very unique skill set to DSL Excavating LLC.

Daryl Dickson’s experience is vast. As President of D&D Landscaping & Excavating, Inc. from 1982 through 2015, Daryl managed all areas of business operations including strategic planning, management, financial management, administration, estimating, project management, operations, inventory and supply management, scheduling, human resource management, quality control and safety compliance, client, vendor and supplier relations, permits, licenses, bonding, etc. In addition to handling all areas of operations and oversight of the business, Daryl is a very experienced heavy equipment operator. He is an accomplished operator of all sizes and makes of bulldozers, excavators, backhoes, tractors, skid steers, power rakes, rock hounds, tree spades and hydro seed machines. Daryl also has a valid commercial driver’s license and operates semi-tractor trailers and lowboys for mobilization and demobilization as well as tri-axle tandem dump trucks.

Daryl and his team are experienced at all aspects of excavation and landscape. They are capable of clearing, grubbing and demolition, site work preparation, footing preparation, cutting grade, soil stripping, creating roads and parking lots, all utilities, storm sewers, above and below ground retention ponds, finish grade, finish grade for concrete sidewalks and curbs, seeding and heavy highway seeding. He and his team have even designed, created and managed a large scale 4×4 off road 4×4 course for off road vehicles that included a 2 mile trail through woods and hills, three mud pits, a rock crawl, jumps, swamp track, hill climbs and a tug-o-war site.

Mr. Dickson is an accomplished landscaper as well having installed ponds, fountains, trees, shrubs, stone, retaining walls, brick patios, courtyards, decorative planters and benches on hundreds of residential and commercial projects.

In addition to landscape and excavation experience, Daryl Dickson has vast agricultural experience. He has excavated and installed lakes and ponds varying in sizes up to three acres. He has dredged ponds and created wetlands as well as installed drainage tile for farm fields.

As owner of D&D Farms for over 25 years, Daryl is a successful grain farmer growing his operations from 150 acres to over 700 acres. He operates a grain drying and storage facility and is responsible for risk assessment and profit management, soil testing and balancing, strategic planning of seed rotation, as well as fertilizer and herbicide maintenance. He operates GPS driven 300 horse power tractors, vacuum planters and a variety of combines and buggies. He manages and completes all farming activities including moboard and chisel plowing, field preparation with disc and cultipacker tools, planting, harvesting and bailing of hay.


Lisa L. Dickson, Chief Executive Officer

Lisa Dickson created DSL Excavating LLC as a result of her husband Daryl Dickson deciding to leave D&D Landscaping & Excavating Inc. due to the sudden loss of his brother, the late Dennis Dickson. It was her desire to partner with her husband, Daryl Dickson, and create a full service excavation and landscape company that focuses on integrity, excellence and a commitment to its customers to achieve an overall experience that exceeds expectations for all.

Lisa’s vast business experience and network brings to DSL Excavating LLC a unique opportunity for success. Having been born into a family of entrepreneurs and raised in several family businesses on both sides, Lisa has a been a part of all facets of business throughout her entire life. Having worked for several companies in a variety of industries as well as owning her own successful design/staging firm, Lisa is aware of the challenges each organization faces and has the ability to think outside the box and turn challenges into opportunities.

Lisa’s education includes a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Finance. She also holds many interior design and staging certifications and was at one time a Master Gardener through the Pennsylvania State University Extension Office.

Having served as Chief Administrative Officer for D&D Landscaping & Excavating Inc., Ms. Dickson is well versed in the excavation and construction arena.

Lisa understands that for a business to succeed the community it is in must succeed. She is a strong proponent of the area in which she lives and works and is very actively involved in community affairs. She has served as a precinct committee person and a village councilwoman for the Village of Yankee Lake where she resides.

Lisa is very involved in the Youngstown Air Reserve Base Community Council and a huge proponent of the local air base and its role in the success of her community. She has been a member of the Youngstown Business & Professional Women for over ten years and has served as their President twice, Region 3 President for the Ohio Business & Professional Women organization and chair of the Dr. Anne McMahon Scholarship Award for ten years.

Charity is also very important to Lisa. She has a strong faith and deeply believes that if you give, you receive. She has served as treasurer of the YWCA of Warren. She was a founding member of the Trumbull County Community Foundation and the YARBCC Charitable Fund (now named Freedom Warrior Charitable Fund). She has served as chair of the YARBCC Charitable Fund’s Donor Advisory Board and chair of the Freedom Warrior Charitable Fund Advisory Committee from its inception through August of 2017 actively raising over $570,000 in funds for local veterans in need.

Through Lisa’s leadership and vision, DSL Excavating LLC will easily reach its goal as a premier excavation and commercial landscape provider throughout the mid-west.