Excavation Melbourne: Site Cuts, Bulk Excavation & Earthworks

A site cut typically levels a residential block to the correct height and fall for a house slab, while bulk excavation involves removing larger volumes of soil for basements, commercial foundations or multi-unit developments.

Excavation depth depends on your slab type, soil classification and engineering requirements, but typically ranges from 100mm to 300mm below natural ground level for standard residential slabs.

Yes. A soil test determines your site's soil classification, which affects the excavation depth, slab design and foundation type required. We can arrange this as part of your quote.

Most residential site cuts are completed within 1-3 days, depending on site size, soil conditions and access. Larger commercial excavation projects take longer.

Excavated soil is either reused on-site for fill and landscaping where suitable, or removed and disposed of at a licensed facility.

Yes. Sloping sites are common across Melbourne's growth corridors and established suburbs. We assess the fall of your site and recommend the right site cut and retaining wall approach.

Yes. We complete trenching for stormwater, sewer, electrical and other services as part of a broader excavation package or as a standalone job.

Commercial excavation is often larger in scale and may involve additional engineering, traffic management and staged works, but follows the same core process of assessment, excavation, compaction and inspection.

Yes. We excavate and prepare footings for both concrete sleeper and timber sleeper retaining walls, ensuring a stable base for the wall structure.

We provide excavation services throughout Melbourne and surrounding growth corridors, including the western, northern, eastern and south-eastern suburbs.

Yes. We provide free, no-obligation quotes for all excavation projects, based on your site conditions and project scope.

Yes. Our free online excavation and site cut calculators can give you an early estimate before you request a formal quote.

Yes. We regularly coordinate with builders, engineers and other trades to make sure excavation happens at the right point in the project timeline, without holding up the stages that follow.

Permit requirements vary by council and project scope. Most residential slab excavation is covered under your building permit, while larger commercial excavation may require additional council approval, which we can advise on during your quote.

It can, particularly on boundary work or deeper excavations, which is why we assess site conditions carefully and take appropriate precautions such as shoring or retaining where needed to protect neighbouring structures.

The finished floor level (FFL) comes from your site survey, soil report and slab design. We compare that FFL against your block's existing ground level (NGL) to work out exactly how much needs to be cut -- or, on some blocks, filled -- before the slab can be built.

AS 2870 is the Australian Standard covering residential slabs and footings. It classifies a site's soil reactivity, from Class A through to Class H1/H2 and Class E, and that classification -- together with your engineer's finished floor level -- determines how deep the cut needs to go and how the base needs to be compacted.

Yes. A waffle slab sits on a shallower excavated and compacted platform than a raft slab or a reinforced slab tied into deeper footings, so the depth and finish of the site cut needs to match the specific slab design, not a generic depth.

On most new home builds, yes -- the site cut establishes the level everything else is built from, so it normally happens before under-slab plumbing, formwork, reinforcement and the pour.

It has to be corrected before the next trade can safely proceed. An inaccurate cut can throw out slab depth, drainage falls, and even door and step heights, which is why we check the cut against the design before handover, not after the slab is poured.

We compact the excavated base to the specification required for your slab type and check finished levels against the survey or engineering design before handover. Where a project calls for it, compaction testing can be arranged as part of the broader slab and footing sign-off.

A cut-only site only needs material removed to reach the finished floor level. A cut-and-fill site needs material removed in one area and placed and compacted in another to balance the block to the design level -- common on sloping or uneven blocks.

Yes. Because the site cut sets the level the rest of the home is built from, we coordinate directly with your soil engineer, slab designer and registered building surveyor rather than treating the cut as a standalone task.

Fill placement, compaction and testing on a site cut follow the principles in AS 3798, the Australian Standard for earthworks for commercial and residential construction, alongside the slab-specific requirements of AS 2870.

Once the cut is compacted and checked against the design level, the site is generally ready for the next trades -- plumbing, formwork and reinforcement -- to begin. Timing depends on your builder's program and any inspections required before the pour.

Yes. Many of our clients have us carry out the site cut and the house slab together, which keeps the finished floor level, compaction and slab design consistent from one trade straight through to the next.

A standard residential site cut is generally carried out with mini or standard excavators sized to the block and access, rather than the larger excavators and dump trucks used for bulk excavation on subdivisions or basements -- we match the machinery to the scale of your project.