Assess & quote
Site visit, plan review and Dial Before You Dig. One clear quote covering dig, cartage and cleanup.
Vaucluse is a clifftop-and-harbour mansion suburb on sandstone, deep basement and pool work cut into rock with sea and harbour views. The regular jobs here are basement digs, pool digs and retaining walls. 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.
Vaucluse sits about 9 kilometres east of the city. Locals place it by Vaucluse House, Nielsen Park, Diamond Bay and The Gap nearby. It's ringed by Rose Bay, Watsons Bay and Dover Heights. What's changing: knock-down rebuilds, pools and basement garages cut into the cliff rock, and retaining on the steep blocks.
Most of Vaucluse is interwar and mid-century homes with newer luxury rebuilds on the cliff blocks, over by Vaucluse House. Near Vaucluse House, the older brick and fibro is renovate-or-rebuild ground. Day to day around Rose Bay that's basement digs, pool digs and retaining walls.
Vaucluse sits on Hawkesbury sandstone with rock close to the surface on cliffs and harbour slopes, out toward Vaucluse House. Toward Nielsen Park the sandstone starts early, so Vaucluse digs are planned around rock from day one and sawn on the lines. Around Watsons Bay, the sandstone is sawn at the boundaries and carted out as rock.
In Woollahra Municipal Council, Vaucluse around Vaucluse House sits under coastal hazard, heritage and tree protection controls, so the dig follows the approved plans. Access to Vaucluse is off Old South Head Road or New South Head Road; the slope is worked in benches with retaining, near Rose Bay.
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.
Vaucluse and the streets around it, from the older estates to the new blocks.
From the older streets to the newer blocks, Vaucluse and the suburbs around it. If you're anywhere in the Vaucluse area, we can get to you.
See the whole Eastern Suburbs →It depends on the volume of material, the ground (hawkesbury sandstone with rock close to the surface on cliffs and harbour slopes), 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.
Yes. Hawkesbury sandstone with rock close to the surface on cliffs and harbour slopes. On the headlands and the harbour slopes sandstone is at or near the surface, so pools, basements and garage cuts are rock jobs from the start: sawn at the boundaries, broken in the middle, carted as rock. It’s in the quote from the site look.
Yes, it’s a common harbour-slope job. The rock is sawn at the house footing line and the boundaries and broken out in stages to the engineer’s underpinning and shoring sequence, so the house above and the neighbour’s house stay where they are.
Yes. Mini machines are craned over the house or walked through it, and spoil comes out the same way in bins or by conveyor. Slower than a side-gate job and priced for it, but it’s how most Eastern Suburbs backyards get dug.
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. Hawkesbury sandstone with rock close to the surface on cliffs and harbour slopes. The pool builder’s engineer will usually want the base checked, which is standard, and the machine is sized to the side access.
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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