Groundworks is the part of a build that is hardest to price from a photo, because most of the cost is in the ground you cannot see. Here is an honest look at what shapes the bill on a typical Chorley job, so you know what a fair quote looks like before you commit.
On most jobs the headline figures are plant and haulage, labour, the muck away, and the stone brought back in. A digger and operator, a wagon to cart spoil off site, and clean stone to bring the ground up to a firm formation are the four costs that move the total more than anything else.
Because we run our own plant and haulage, you are not paying a hire margin on top of an operator on top of a separate muck away firm. One outfit prices the whole job from the strip out to the finished base, which usually works out keener and is far easier to hold to account if anything changes.
Two jobs that look identical on paper can be hundreds of pounds apart once the ground is opened up. The things that move the figure most are:
The cheapest number on the page is rarely the cheapest job by the end. A quote that leaves the muck away or the sub base vague is the one that grows once the digger is on site, so look for a price that spells out who carts the spoil, how deep the dig is and what stone is included.
Ask whether the quote is for the formation only or includes drainage, ducting and the concrete on top. Getting everything from one outfit means the levels handed to your builder are accurate and there is one number responsible for the ground, rather than three trades pointing at each other.
We can give a rough steer over the phone, but groundworks prices live in the ground, so a quick free visit to see the access, the levels and what is likely to come out is what turns a guess into a firm quote you can rely on.
Yes. We cart the spoil off under our own plant and haulage and bring clean stone back in to bring the site up to formation, so you are not left with heaps of dig on the plot or a surprise tipping bill.
We do. We set out and dig to the depths and falls on the drawings so your foundations, drainage and slabs all land where the engineer wants them, and the building inspector is happy first time.