price for digging out driveway

[Markymilarky]

Hi Chaps,
I want to have the front garden dug out so i can make a drive and build a garage. there is 20m3 of top soil to dig and remove and 45m3 of sub soil that is medium density not clay and no rock. to dig and remove. those volumes include adding a third for increaced volume after digging.
Theres no tarting about with it after im doing that. had a chap round earlier he said £1600 he lives half a mile away and will dump the waste on his farm and sell the top soil. What does anyone think of the price?

Im thinking i might just hire a digger for the weekend for £300 and lay all the waste on top of my garden and make a bank around the perimiter. not ideal but if i save over a grand i think itll have to be a goer.
cheers chaps.. mark

 

[noseall]

are you mad!

£1600 is a bargain.

how many acres is your garden anyhow?

 

[Markymilarky]

are you mad!

£1600 is a bargain.

how many acres is your garden anyhow?

Hi Noseall, in reply

Yes
OO really
and I'm not sure, about the size of a football field.
The house though is 1 bedroom asbestos cottage .
Cheers fer that Matey, I woulden't have thought twice about it a few years ago but im more financialy challenged now. and i'm in Cornwall, there isnt a great deal of cash floating round here at the mo. I was hopeing it would be about £850. a bit unrealistic then. cheers Matey.... mark

 

[Markymilarky]

Hi Chaps,
decided to go for the diy approach. Got a price for a 5 ton digger for 2 days inc delivery and return £210 .. whooooopppppeeeeeeee! I cant believe how cheap it is to hire plant here. I've been in france for a while and paid about 3 times what it is here. allowing for fuel ill save £1,300 yeeee hoooooo! smoke me a kipper. cheers Chaps ... mark

 

[noseall]

good lad, watch out for services though.

drains £££££

electrics, gas, water ££££££

fibre optic cable £££££££££.

 

[Markymilarky]

Hi Noseall,
Cheers fer that, good point about the services.
There is no drains.
There is 1 water pipe to mine and neighbours. it's metal.
There is 1 copper telepone cable to me and neighbour.
There is 1 Elecric cable 240v sp to me and neighbour.
I can fix the phone cable and water pipe myself no probs, but does anybod know what would happen if i break the power cable????? and how much i would get charged to fix, and wether digger insurance would cover this??.

My neighbours are going away for 3 weeks so i plan on doing the job then so they wont be disrupted.
Ill get some epoxy cable joiners and mi cable ready incase i break the main cable. although i dont fancy that much without being able to switch it off. hummm maybee i should hire one of those detector jobbers as well.... cheers Chaps. any advice welcome please. I got some 100mm sheets of non foil backed kingspan i could stand on.. regards mark

 

[Thermo]

we went through an electric cable 4 months ago. eon are trying to sting us 500 for the work. never assume whats down there or where it is. Well worth hiring a cat scanner.