Detailed excavation is the dig that happens after the demolition and before the concreter. Taking the site down to level, cutting the footing trenches and pads, working around services and boundaries, and leaving a site the builder can set out and pour on.
On a lot of our jobs it follows straight on from a house demolition or a half house demolition. The house comes down, the slab comes out, and rather than hand the site to someone else we keep going and dig it out ready for the new build.
Most of this work is on good homes in good suburbs, where access is tight, the neighbours are close, and the finish level matters. Sydney, Brisbane and South East Queensland, and along the East Coast.
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Bulk dig and detail dig are not the same thing
Bulk excavation is moving volume. Take the site down to a general level, load out, gone.
Detailed excavation is the accurate part. Footing trenches, pad footings, pier holes, lift pits, service trenches, stepped levels, batters and edges, all cut to the engineer's drawing and to tolerance.
Most residential jobs need both, and the reason they go wrong is that the bulk dig is priced and the detail dig is assumed. We price both and we say which is which on the quote.
Tight sites are the normal case, not the exception
The jobs we do are usually on established streets. Narrow frontage, a driveway you can just fit a truck down, a pool next door and a heritage tree on the verge.
That drives the plant. Small excavators that fit through a side gate, rubber tracks where the driveway is staying, dingo and mini loaders for inside a footprint, and tippers sized to the street rather than to the volume. We would rather do more truck movements than damage a kerb or block a road.
We also sequence for the neighbours. Trucks off the street at school pick up time, no idling at seven in the morning, and someone on site who will actually answer the door and talk to people.
Services, boundaries and the things that stop a job
Before anything digs we want the service plans and a scan. Water, sewer, gas, power, comms and any private services that nobody drew. Hitting a main is a bad day, a big bill and usually a week lost.
Boundary work needs the survey. If the dig comes near a neighbouring footing, the answer is propping or underpinning first, not a hopeful batter. We do both, so the conversation is one conversation.
Rock is the other one. We will tell you honestly if we think you are going to hit sandstone, and we carry rock breakers rather than downing tools and repricing halfway through.
Spoil, and what happens when the ground is contaminated
Spoil has to be classified before it can go anywhere. On an old residential site you can find fill, ash, buried asbestos sheeting, old fuel tanks and lead affected soil around the drip line of a painted house. It is more common than people think.
This is where being part of Perfect Group matters. Contaminated ground, hazardous material and asbestos in soil are handled in house under our own licences rather than handed to a specialist at your cost and on their timeframe. Testing, classification, removal, validation, dockets.
Clean spoil goes out on our own tippers. We run the trucks, so the dig is not waiting on somebody else's booking.
Frequently asked
Can you do the demolition and the excavation together? Yes, and that is how most of our house jobs run. One contractor, one program, no gap between trades.
Do you set out the footings? We dig to the surveyor's or engineer's set out. We can arrange the surveyor if you would rather we ran it.
What if you find asbestos in the soil? We stop, test, and price it properly as licensed removal. We hold the licences, so you are not looking for another contractor mid job.
How accurate is the dig? To the tolerance on the drawing. If the drawing does not state one we will ask, rather than pick one and hope.
Do you work outside Sydney and Brisbane? Yes. We travel for the right job and we move plant up and down the East Coast regularly.
Send us the site plan
The site plan, the footing drawing and a photo of the access will get you a real price. Tell us whether the house is still standing, because if it is we can quote the whole thing as one job.
Sydney 02 7908 4944. Brisbane and South East Queensland 07 2145 6581.
Perfect Stripout & Demolition acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.