Landscaping for Love and Laughter: Designs and Ideas

When you are planning a yard renovation one of the unavoidable costs can come from the cost of excavation (that is unless you are a very enthusiastic shoveler!). Here are some tips on how the cost is calculated and some ways that you can control the cost: 

Equipment hire:; One of the largest costs of excavation is the cost of hiring the equipment. In general, equipment is hired for 1/2 or full days so it can be a good idea to ensure that you consolidate any jobs that need to same equipment to occur on the same day. You can also ask your neighbours if they need any jobs done to maximise the usage of your equipment. You can also compare costs between providers but it is always worth getting some advice from your landscaper on the best equipment for the job as often a cheaper piece of equipment can take longer to do the same job. 

Labour costs: the equipment needs to be operated by an experienced and qualified operator to prevent damage. Be sure to ask the operators if you can do anything that can speed up their work such as making sure that cars are moved out of the way to help with access or any other jobs that can make their life easier and let them get in and out of the job as quickly as possible. 

Tip costs: the material that is removed from your yard then needs to be sent to the tip or otherwise disposed of. Most areas have been dramatically increasing the cost of sending material to the tip in order to reduce landfill. This can be especially expensive where you have mixed building material that can include dangerous materials (such as lead piping or asbestos), as the entire material needs to treated as though it could be contaminated, and treated with extra care. You can help this process by removing some of the material beforehand and ensure that any hazardous materials are removed beforehand so that tip costs are minimised. This could include getting a specialist to remove asbestos sheeting and structures before the excavator comes in!

If you are planning a landscaping job it can be a good idea to review the excavation services that you need and work out how to optimise the costs. A professional excavation service can help to give you specific advice that suits your yard.