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Site visit, plan review and Dial Before You Dig. One clear quote covering dig, cartage and cleanup.
Summer Hill is a Federation village on shale, basement, pool and underpinning work on leafy heritage streets. The regular jobs here are basement digs, underpinning and pool digs. Services located first, sites left level and clean.
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From a knock-down rebuild to a new estate pad, each service has its own page with the detail.
Summer Hill sits about 8 kilometres west of the city. You'll recognise it by Summer Hill shops, Summer Hill station and Federation homes. It's ringed by Lewisham, Ashfield, Dulwich Hill and Haberfield. What's changing: basement digs and underpinning under terraces, and granny flats and rear pools on the small lots.
Around Summer Hill, near Summer Hill shops, you're mostly on victorian and Federation terraces and semis, with heritage conservation areas throughout. Near Summer Hill shops, the terraces are dug through the house or over the back fence. Day to day around Lewisham that's basement digs, underpinning and pool digs.
Out toward Summer Hill shops, Summer Hill sits on Wianamatta shale over reactive clay on the inner-west ridge. The Summer Hill blocks near Summer Hill station are flat, so the fall is built into the pad and the trenches, and the fill goes in compacted. Around Ashfield, the clay is reactive, so fill goes in in compacted layers.
Summer Hill is Inner West Council ground; near Summer Hill shops, heritage and tree protection controls apply and we dig to the approved plans. The Summer Hill crew comes in off Old Canterbury Road or Carlton Crescent, where it's tight to get a truck down the inner streets.
Every job follows the same sequence, whether it's a single trench or a full site cut.
A trench can be a day, a basement can be weeks. Dates come with the quote, not after.
Summer Hill and the streets around it, from the older estates to the new blocks.
From the older streets to the newer blocks, Summer Hill and the suburbs around it. If you're anywhere in the Summer Hill area, we can get to you.
See the whole Inner West →It depends on the volume of material, the ground (wianamatta shale over reactive clay on the inner), 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.
Not usually in the first metre on the flat streets. Wianamatta shale over reactive clay on the inner-west ridge. Shale under clay is ripped rather than broken, and old fill is the more common surprise than rock.
Yes, and it’s one of the most common Inner West jobs. The house is supported to the engineer’s underpinning design, the ground under it is dug in stages through the front or rear, and rock is sawn at the party walls so the neighbours’ footings stay put. Spoil goes out by conveyor.
Through the house on boards with the floor protected, or over the back fence by crane. Spoil comes out the same way or by conveyor into a skip in the lane. Slower than a side gate and priced for it, but it’s how most Inner West yards get dug.
Conditions on the approval, usually about keeping the front of the house, protecting the neighbours’ walls, and sometimes an archaeologist watching the dig on the oldest streets. Haberfield and the older parts of Balmain, Glebe and Marrickville are the strictest. We dig to what’s approved.
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.
Tell us about the job. We'll look at the site before quoting, so you know what's included before anything starts.
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