Excavation & Earthworks Denistone West

It depends on the volume of material, the ground (shale over clay on the plateau), access for the machine and how far spoil has to be carted. Every job gets a written quote after a site look, with the dig, cartage and cleanup spelled out, so you know what’s included before anything starts.

Usually, if the excavation is part of a build. Cut and fill beyond set limits, work near boundaries and anything on a lot with a flood, bushfire or heritage overlay needs approval as part of the DA or CDC. We work to the approved plans; check with your certifier before the dig is booked.

A trench, pool dig or single pad is a day or two; a knock-down site cut or a basement runs longer and depends on volume, ground and weather. Dates come with the quote, not after.

On the ridge street, usually not in the first metre. Shale over clay on the plateau. Shale is ripped rather than broken. Walk to the back of a block that drops to a gully, though, and sandstone often starts, which is why the site look checks both ends.

That’s the most common ground in this region and it’s priced as two jobs: clay cut and compacted fill on the ridge side, saw and breaker where the block drops into rock. The site look finds where the change is so it’s in the quote from the start.

Reactive clay. It swells in wet winters and shrinks in dry summers, and anything poured on loose or uncompacted fill moves with it. A pad cut and filled in compacted layers to the engineer’s spec is what stops the new slab doing the same thing.

Yes. The old house down, slab and footings out, the block stripped and the new pad cut and compacted, as one run if you want the demolition handled too.

Yes. One house down, the block stripped, and two pads cut and compacted to the engineer’s spec, with the basement dug if the design has one.