Big Boys' Toys: The Thrill Of Heavy Construction Equipment

Here are two tips you should follow when using an earthmoving service.

Calculate the width, length and depth of the soil you want to move

Before you engage the services of an earthmoving company, you should calculate the width, length and depth of the soil you'll be asking them to excavate for you. If you're excavating a large area in preparation for a complex structure like a house building, you may need to consult a builder to find out how deep the excavation will need to be.

Estimating these figures accurately will make it easier for the earthmoving company to determine how large the excavator will need to be (generally speaking, the more earth you need to dig up, the bigger the excavator will need to be to get this excavation work done quickly). This, in turn, will mean you won't end up booking, for example, a large and expensive excavator when you only need a cheaper, compact one, or find yourself with a small excavator that will take far too long to remove the large amount of earth you need to have the operator dig up.

Providing the company with these figures will also enable the company to accurately determine how long the earthmoving work will take, which will then help you to manage your project schedule better.

Decide what you'll do with the excavated soil

You'll also need to think about what you'd like to do with the excavated soil. You should make this decision before the earthmoving company sends over their equipment and their operator so that they can start the process of digging up and transporting the soil as soon as they arrive.

If you're excavating deeply into a large patch of earth, then you'll be left with a lot of soil. In this situation, you might want to offer the soil for free or for a fee to local gardeners if they're willing to come and collect it. This would save you the effort of having to use a disposal service. If you decide to do this, you should instruct the equipment operator to drop the soil off near the entrance to your property so those who wish to collect bags of soil can do so without having to wander through the property looking for it.

Alternatively, if there won't be a huge amount of soil and you have a relatively large amount of undeveloped land on your property, you could have the equipment operator sprinkle the collected soil evenly across this land so that there won't be any large, obtrusive mounds of it in any one spot.