Excavation Estimate Template
Machine time, mobilisation, haul-off and a rock clause — a dig priced before anyone breaks ground. Free PDF.
Excavation is priced against a soil report, a survey and whatever the last job on that street turned up. None of it tells you where the bedrock starts, how high the water table is in March, or which unmarked line the previous owner buried in the side yard. So an excavation estimate is a unit-price document: machine hours, loads hauled, cubic yards moved, each with a rate beside it, so that the day the ground disagrees with the plan there is already a way to price the difference.
|
ESTIMATE
Issued
|
|
Issued by
Granite Hollow Earthworks
2140 South Cole Road 83705 Boise, ID United States dispatch@granitehollow.example |
Bill to
Fairweather Homes LLC
1450 Ridgeline Parkway 83642 Meridian, ID United States site@fairweatherhomes.example |
| Description | Qty | Rate | Tax | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mobilisation and demobilisation Lowbed both ways for excavator and skid steer | 1 | $1,450.00 | — | $1,450.00 |
Basement excavation — 22 ton excavator with operator Estimated 38 machine hours; billed by the hour | 38 | $215.00 | — | $8,170.00 |
Spoil haul-off Estimated 44 loads to the clean-fill site, 12 miles | 44 | $168.00 | — | $7,392.00 |
Rock allowance — hydraulic hammer Provisional 4 hours; billed only for hours actually hammered | 4 | $295.00 | — | $1,180.00 |
|
What this estimate commits you to
- How long it stands
- Twenty-one days, and the fuel surcharge is the one posted on the day the machines are floated in rather than the day this was written.
- What it does not cover
- Blasting, dewatering and pumping, imported structural fill, engineered compaction testing, and the repair of any private utility the 811 locate does not mark.
- What would change the price
- What is under the topsoil: bedrock shallower than the borings showed, groundwater that needs a pump running around the clock, unsuitable soil that has to leave the site, and volumes over the surveyed cut.
- How the client accepts it
- Sign and give a start date at least ten working days out; the 811 locate must be open and unexpired on the day, and the machines are floated in the afternoon before.
Edit this template Free, no account, no watermark — download the PDF when you are done.
When the work is done, invoice it →
What to put on an excavation estimate
- Mobilisation and demobilisation as their own line — floating a machine costs the same whether it digs for a day or a week
- Machine time by unit, with the class of machine and whether the rate includes the operator
- Cut and fill volumes in cubic yards, and whether spoil stays on site or leaves it
- Haul-off by the load, with the tipping or clean-fill site named and its charge stated
- The rock clause: what happens when the bucket stops, and the hourly rate for hammering
- Whose 811 ticket is open, whose survey stakes the work is dug to, and who is responsible for a line that was not marked
Questions
Should an excavation estimate be a lump sum or unit prices?
Unit prices for anything underground, lump sum only for what you can see. The volume of soil that has to move is the one number an excavation estimate cannot know, and a lump sum turns every surprise into an argument instead of a multiplication.
What does a rock clause need to say?
What counts as rock, how it is measured and what it costs. Usually: material that cannot be dug by the machine specified without hammering, measured in place, billed at a stated hourly or cubic-yard rate. Without those three, the word rock on an estimate settles nothing.
Who is liable for an unmarked utility?
State it, because the default assumption differs by state and by whose ticket it is. Typically the contractor is liable for lines the locate marked and the owner for lines it did not — private lines to a shed, a pool or a well are almost never marked, and they are the ones that get hit.
Ready to send it?
The template opens in the editor with these lines already on it. Change what you like, download the PDF.
Edit this templateOther trades
- Flooring Engineered white oak, 7in plank — material · Installation labour — glue-down · Carpet and pad removal, haul-away
- Foundation Repair Driven steel piers — exterior, per pier · Additional pier section, per foot past refusal depth carried · Structural engineer — scope, observation and letter
- Handyman Labour — half day, items 1 to 4 · Item 5 — kitchen tap replacement, time and materials · Materials from the van
- Interior Design Design fee — concept and two revision rounds · Furnishings budget — estimated, payable to suppliers · Procurement and order management
- Junk Removal Three-quarter truck load · Basement carry and stair labour · Special handling — mattress and box spring
- Moving Company Transportation — estimated 9,400 lb, 101 miles interstate · Packing materials and packing labour · Full value protection, 60,000 declared
- Plumbing Camera inspection and line locate · Sewer line replacement — open cut · Cleanout installation to code
- Pool Service Drain, chip-out and bond coat — per sq ft · Pebble interior finish, applied · Waterline tile and coping — per linear ft