About Nanaimo Excavators

How we work

We file locates before we dig, shore or bench anything past 1.2 metres, and haul spoil to the right facility. If your site needs an engineer or a permit before we can start, we tell you before we quote.

We work across Nanaimo, Lantzville, Cedar, South Wellington and Extension, and the ground changes from one community to the next, so we set the approach to what each site gives us.

What Class 4–8 actually means for your job

We pick the machine when we see the site. A mini gets into a back yard and works around services; a standard machine moves several times the material in an hour, and once there is enough volume that is the cheaper way to do it. We run Class 4 to Class 8, and that covers most residential and small commercial work — foundation digs, driveways, drainage runs and lot clearing. If your job needs something bigger or smaller than what we run, we will tell you at the site walk and tell you what it will take.

Where does the spoil sit while we work?

We put the spoil pile somewhere safe on site, set back from the edge of any excavation. On a working site we're fitting that setback in around the machine's swing, the truck's turning circle, the route to the back of the property, and whatever you still need to get at while we are there.

So we plan the staging before the first bucket comes out. We work out what is coming out, what is going back in and what has to leave, then place each of those separately. Topsoil that is going back on the finished grade gets its own stockpile away from the cut. Topsoil mixed in with subsoil or fill is no good for spreading back at the end, so we keep it on its own from the moment it comes off. Material returning as backfill sits where the machine can reach it without tracking back and forth. Anything leaving goes closest to where the truck can get to it, and we keep the route to it clear so we're not handling the same pile twice.

If your property has not got room for all three, we tell you at the walk and price the haul in. Staging is a real part of what a week on site costs, so we work it out with you at the start.

What you get in writing

Your quote names the machine class, the estimated hours, the disposal and haul costs, and anything the site itself adds — slope, access, rock, a high water table. We keep those on separate lines so if one of them changes you can see exactly what moved. We confirm the price before we start, and if we hit something the locate couldn't show us, we stop and talk it through with you before we keep digging.