Services / Excavation & Site Clearing
Excavation & Site Clearing
From overgrown block to clean, level, compacted pad
Priced per trailer load — book and pay online, price locked before we arrive.
Every good outdoor project starts with a clean site. Whether it's an overgrown backyard, a demolition strip-out or bulk excavation for a new slab, the difference between a cheap dig and a professional one is what you're left standing on when the machines leave.
We run modern tight-access excavators and positrack loaders sized for Adelaide suburban blocks, with tip trucks and trailers for spoil removal. Vegetation, old structures, concrete, soil and rubble are stripped, loaded and legally disposed of, then the site is levelled by laser and compacted ready for what comes next.
Excavation and site clearing is one of our instantly bookable services — priced per trailer load, with the price locked before we arrive. The loads you book are the scope; anything extra found on site is quoted and approved before it's touched.
Tight access is the Adelaide problem
Most suburban digs here aren't limited by the size of the job — they're limited by a side gate, a carport roof and a neighbour's fence. We run machines sized for that reality: excavators that walk through a single gate opening, positracks that load fast in a driveway, and ground protection down before a track touches paving. Where the gate genuinely won't do, dropping a fence panel and reinstating it is nearly always cheaper than hand digging.
The other half of the discipline is what leaves the site. Loads are counted openly against your booking, sorted so clean fill, green waste and concrete each go to the right facility, and tipped at licensed sites — because a cheap dig that ends in a dumped load is your liability, not the operator's.
You're not buying a hole — you're buying the pad
The last hour of an excavation job matters more than the first day. A pad left rough and uncompacted moves under whatever gets built on it, and Adelaide's clays punish that within a winter. We finish to laser levels with falls set deliberately — flat where a slab is coming, graded where water needs to leave — and plate-compact so the next trade starts on ground that holds a string line. When we hand over, the site is ready for turf, paving or concrete without another machine visit.
The build — real job, real stages
How your excavation & site clearing goes together.
What moves the price
What changes the cost of excavation & site clearing in Adelaide.
Every job is quoted from what we see on site, not a phone guess — but the same factors decide the number on every Adelaide property. Here is what we look at, and why it moves the quote.
Volume of material
The cubic metres cut and carted away is the biggest single line on an excavation quote.
Site access
Wide street frontage takes a truck and machine easily; narrow access means smaller equipment and more trips.
What is underground
Services, old footings and rock are only certain once digging starts, and each changes the work.
Spoil disposal
Carting spoil to a licensed facility is charged by the load.
Levels and tolerances
A rough cut and a laser-levelled pad to the drawings are different jobs.
Straight answers
Excavation & Site Clearing — FAQs
How much is excavation per trailer load in Adelaide?
Our published rate is per standard trailer load removed from site, including the operator, machine time, cartage and tip fees. You book and pay for a set number of loads online — that number is the scope of the job. If more spoil is uncovered on site than you booked, the extra loads are quoted at the same published rate and only proceed once you approve them.
Can your machines get through my gate?
Our smallest excavator, a Kubota U10-5, needs 720 mm of clear width — narrower than a standard single gate opening. For anything tighter we can often remove a fence panel and reinstate it after. Overhead clearance (carports, verandahs, low branches) matters too; the booking form asks for access details so we arrive with the right machine.
What can't go in the loads?
Asbestos and contaminated soil are excluded from standard bookings and require a licensed removalist — if we identify suspect material we stop and advise before disturbing it. Clean fill, green waste, concrete, brick and general demolition waste are all fine, though mixed loads attract the general-waste tip rate.
Do you locate underground services before digging?
We require a current Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) report for any excavation deeper than 300 mm, and we pothole to confirm services where plans are unreliable. Private services (garden lighting, irrigation, unmarked stormwater) remain the owner's responsibility to declare — the booking form covers this.
All landscaping & construction FAQs → What landscaping costs in Adelaide →
Guides
Before you book: excavation & site clearing in Adelaide, explained.
The questions we hear most often before quoting, answered in full on the journal.
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Talk to us about your excavation project.
Site visits across Adelaide metro and the Hills. Fixed quotes, no obligation.