Where the Money GoesOld Slabs, Sheds and Footings
A cracked slab, a collapsing shed, an old carport footing. All of it is demolition before it is excavation, the spoil is heavier, and it has to be out before we cut.
Plant & Site
Concrete Excavation and Site Cuts in Launceston
We dig the ground that concrete is going on across Launceston, and then we pour it. Launceston is built on hills, so most jobs here start by taking ground away. Get the cut and the compaction right and the concrete lasts. Get them wrong and no amount of steel saves it.
- Site cuts and pads
- Tight suburban access
- Same crew pours after
The Reason This Matters
Everything Concrete Does Wrong Starts Underneath It
A cracked slab is almost never a concrete failure. It is a ground failure that the concrete reported. Which is why we would rather spend a day on the base than a morning arguing about the mix.
Topsoil Has to Come off, All of It
It is organic, it holds water and it keeps compressing for years. Concrete poured on topsoil settles, and it does so unevenly, which is what cracks it.
Fill Is Worse Than What It Replaced
Ground that has been filled at some point in the past, an old pool, a levelled yard, a filled gully, is the single most common cause of slab movement here.
Clay Moves with the Seasons
Northern Tasmanian clay swells wet and shrinks dry. That movement is why slabs are designed to a site classification rather than a standard recipe.
Rock Is Good News and a Cost
Solid rock is the best thing you can build on and the most expensive thing to dig through. Finding it changes the quote in both directions at once.
Compaction Is the Whole Trick
Crushed rock placed in layers and compacted each time, not tipped in and raked level. It is invisible, it is where corners get cut, and it is the difference.
The Honest Version
What You Are Actually Paying For
A site cut quote looks like a number for moving dirt. It is mostly not. Knowing where the money goes is what makes two concrete quotes comparable.
Where the Money Goes
- Getting rid of the spoilOften the biggest single line. Every cubic metre cut has to be trucked away and tipped, and tipping is charged by weight. Wet clay is heavy.
- Access, againA machine that can drive in works fast. One that has to come through a side gate is smaller, slower and sometimes hand-fed, and that is real hours.
- Compaction and imported materialCrushed rock costs money, and putting it down in proper layers takes time. This is the line to check when one quote is much cheaper than another.
- Rock, if you find itRock breaking is slow and hard on machines. It is usually a variation rather than a fixed price, because nobody knows until the bucket hits it.
- What is already buried out thereOld clay stormwater lines, poly water pipes and unrecorded services turn up in Launceston back yards constantly. Located before the bucket moves, they are a detour. Found with it, they are somebody's whole afternoon.
- Protecting what staysFences, trees, the neighbour's shed, a retaining wall you want to keep. Working carefully around things costs more than working freely.
Where It Does Not
- The dig itself, mostlyThe hours a machine spends actually cutting are a smaller part of the bill than people expect. Moving the material is the expensive half.
- A bigger machine, automaticallyBigger is faster only where it fits. On a tight suburban block an oversized machine costs float fees and then cannot reach the corners.
- Digging deeper than the job needsOver-excavating means more spoil out and more crushed rock back in. The depth comes off the engineering, not off enthusiasm.
- Cutting ground no concrete is going onIt is tempting to have the machine level the whole yard while it is there. That is not part of the slab and it is not priced as if it were, so we will tell you what it adds before it happens.
The Work
Three Jobs, and One We Will Send You Elsewhere For
We do the excavation that has concrete going on it afterwards. That is a narrower trade than general earthmoving and it is worth being clear about which is which.
01
Site Cut for a Slab or a Shed
Cutting into a slope to make a level pad, with a batter or a retaining edge on the high side. This is the standard Launceston job, because very little of this city is flat. The cut has to be big enough for formwork and someone to work in, which is always further out than the slab itself.
02
Driveway and Path Excavation
Stripping to depth along the run, boxing out and getting a compacted base in. The depth comes off what is going on top, a car is not a mower and the base changes accordingly.
03
Clearing What Is in the Way
Stumps, an old slab or a collapsing shed taken out and carted away, so there is bare ground to work from. Covered in full further down the page.
✕
Trenching, Service Runs and Bulk Earthmoving
Stormwater and sewer connections, deep service trenching, dam work, rural earthmoving and large-scale reshaping are not what we do. Launceston has good dedicated excavation firms for that and we would rather point you at one than take the job and learn on it.
So the honest boundary is this: if concrete is going on it, the dig is ours. If it is a trench for a pipe or a paddock being reshaped, it is not, and we will say so on the phone rather than at the quote.
Tell us what is going on the ground afterwards and we will tell you whether the dig is ours.
Before the Machine Can Cut Anything
What Has to Come Out Before the Concrete Goes In
Most jobs we quote need something taken away before a level can even be measured. It is not a separate business, it is the first hour of yours.
Stumps, Because of What They Leave
A stump left in the ground rots, and the void it leaves settles under whatever you put on top. They come out or get ground below base level, never covered over.
Buried Rubbish, Which Is Common Here
Older Launceston blocks routinely have builders' rubble, bottles or an old fill pit under the lawn. Found early it is a line on a quote; found late it is a hold-up, and it is the most common reason a slab is not level a year later.
The Machine Has to Fit Before Anything Else Matters
The first question on a Launceston back yard is not how much has to come out, it is what can get in. A standard side gate is around 900mm, which rules out most machines and leaves a mini excavator, a narrow-track loader, or people with shovels. Sometimes the answer is lifting a machine in over the fence, and occasionally it is taking a fence panel out for a day and putting it back. We work that out at the quote, because finding it out on the morning is how a job loses a day before it starts.
What Sets the Depth
How Far Down We Go, and Why
The depth is not a preference, it comes off what is going on top. Rough guidance for residential work. Read across.
Depth is decided on site, not on a price list. The measure is free either way.
How It Runs
Locate, Cut, Compact, Hand Over
A residential site cut is one to three days. The first hour and the last are the two that decide whether the pour after it goes smoothly.
01
Look at the Access First
What can get in, where the spoil goes, and what has to be protected. This sets the machine, and the machine sets the price.
02
Locate the Services
Stormwater, sewer, water, power and comms found before the bucket moves. We do not connect them and we absolutely do not want to hit one. Plans are a starting point and old Launceston suburbs are full of surprises.
03
Strip and Cut to Level
Topsoil off and stockpiled or carted, then cut to the design level with the batter or edge the high side needs.
04
Base and Compact in Layers
Crushed rock in, compacted, tested by eye and by feel, and another layer. Not tipped in and raked, which is the shortcut that shows up later.
05
Set Out and Hand Over
Levels checked, string lines set and the pad left ready for formwork, usually for our own crew, which is the point of doing both.
The Cost
What Changes the Price of a Site Cut
Excavation is priced on the machine, the hours and the material going out, and the third of those is usually the largest.
01
How Much Material Comes Out
Cubic metres cut, and then trucked and tipped. Tipping is charged by weight, so wet clay costs more to remove than the same volume of dry soil.
02
What Can Get Onto the Site
A machine that drives in works several times faster than one that has to be lifted over a fence or fed through a side gate.
03
What You Find When You Start
Rock, old fill, buried rubble, a slab nobody mentioned, an unrecorded service. Handled as a variation, discussed before it is done.
04
How Much Crushed Rock Goes Back
Imported material and the labour to place and compact it properly in layers. The quiet line that separates a base that lasts from one that does not.
05
How Precise It Has to Be
A rough level for a lawn and a pad to an engineer's detail are different jobs with the same machine.
06
And Whether We Are Pouring Afterwards
When the same crew digs and pours it is one mobilisation, one set of levels and nobody blaming the other trade. That is usually cheaper as well as easier.
If you already have an excavation quote, the two lines worth comparing are what it says about spoil removal and what it says about compaction. Those are where quotes for the same job diverge.
Common Questions
Concrete Excavation Questions We Get Asked in Launceston
How much does excavation cost in Launceston?
There is no honest rate per cubic metre, because the price is driven by what can get onto the site, how much material has to be trucked away and tipped, how much crushed rock goes back in, and what you find once the topsoil is off. Spoil removal is often the biggest single line. We quote after looking at the access and the levels.
What is a site cut?
Cutting into a slope to create a level pad for a slab, a shed or a driveway, with a batter or a retaining edge on the high side to hold the ground back. It is the most common concrete excavation job in Launceston because very little of this city is flat, and the cut always has to be wider than the slab so there is room for formwork.
Can you get machinery into my back yard?
Usually. A standard side gate is about 900 millimetres, which rules out most machines and leaves a mini excavator or a narrow-track loader. Where nothing fits, the options are lifting a machine over the fence or taking out a fence panel for the day. We work this out at the quote rather than on the morning.
What happens if you hit rock?
We tell you, and it is handled as a variation rather than absorbed silently. Rock is good news structurally. It is the best thing to build on, and it is slow and hard on machines to break through. Nobody can price it accurately before the bucket reaches it, which is why honest quotes treat it separately.
Why does the topsoil have to come off?
Because it is organic, it holds water and it keeps compressing for years. Concrete poured over topsoil settles unevenly, and uneven settlement is what cracks a slab. The same applies, more so, to old fill. Ground that was filled at some point is the most common cause of slab movement we see.
Do you do the concrete as well, or just the excavation?
Both, and doing both is the point. When the same crew cuts the pad and pours the slab there is one mobilisation, one set of levels, and no gap between two trades where the base was signed off by one and blamed by the other. We will also do the excavation on its own if that is what you need.
One Crew for the Dig and the Pour
Tell us what is going on the ground afterwards and how much fall there is across the site. Those two answers decide almost everything about the excavation, and we can usually price it from a photo and a few measurements.
- Excavation and concrete quoted as one job
- Nobody arguing between two trades about levels
- Machines sized to the access, not the other way round
- Spoil removed, and we say what that costs up front
Free Measure, Fixed Price
Find Out What Your Job Costs
One call and we come out, measure the real thing and put a price in writing. It costs nothing and there is no salesman in it.
One call. We measure it and put a fixed price in writing. Costs nothing.
- We come and measure itOn site, tape out, so the price is for your job and not a guess off a photo.
- A fixed written priceOne number you can hold us to. Not a range, not a rate, not an estimate.
- The crew who quotes it pours itThe bloke standing in your driveway is the bloke who does the work. Who you are dealing with.
- Measured on site, not guessed
- Fixed written price, not a range
- The crew who quotes it pours it
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