Driveway Excavation Services WA 2026 - Get Quotes

What Driveway Excavation Covers

Driveway excavation is the stage between deciding what surface you want and being able to lay it. It covers removing whatever is there now, digging the area to the depth the finished surface requires, dealing with anything unsuitable found in the subgrade, compacting what remains, importing and compacting base material, and setting the levels and falls so the finished surface sits where it should. It ends at a prepared box ready for the concreter, the paver or the asphalt crew. Everything in that list is invisible once the surface goes down. The quote should describe the prepared box in words, not leave it implied.

A driveway that cracks in year two is almost always telling you about the dig rather than the concrete. The surface dictates the depth. The excavator does not choose it. A concrete driveway, whether the mix comes from Hanson, Holcim or BGC, needs a dig deep enough for the slab thickness plus the base beneath it, pavers need the paver thickness plus bedding sand plus base, and each surface has its own figure. The concreter or the paving contractor nominates it and the excavation contractor digs to it. A dig done to the wrong depth means either importing fill to bring it back up or a surface sitting proud of the crossover.

Get the figure from the surface contractor in writing and forward it. A hundred millimetres of difference is the gap between a sound driveway and a reworked one. That figure belongs on both quotes so nobody is working from memory. Levels matter as much as depth and they are set from fixed points.

The crossover level at the street, the garage floor or the house threshold at the other end, and any path or step in between all constrain where the finished surface can sit, and the excavation works backwards from those. Getting them wrong at the dig stage produces a driveway that ponds, steps awkwardly at the garage, or does not meet the crossover cleanly. A contractor who runs a level before quoting is doing the job properly. Find out whether anyone has run a level from the crossover to the garage yet. Two contractors working to different assumed levels will produce two very different prices. A benchmark set on site keeps every trade working from the same datum.

Running a second conduit to the front boundary covers a future gate or intercom. The prepared surface is the product and it should be inspected before the next trade arrives. A correctly prepared driveway box has a firm, uniform, compacted base at a consistent depth below the finished level, falls established, edges cut clean and no soft spots. Walking it with the concreter before the pour is a genuinely useful half hour. Photographs of the base before it is covered are the only record you will ever have.

Photograph the base from both ends before anything covers it. Those photographs are the only evidence that the preparation was done as quoted. A driveway box that looks tidy can still be soft in places, so walk it rather than looking at it, and push a bar into the base at a few points along the run. Services under a driveway are dealt with now or not at all.

Conduit for a future gate motor, lighting, power to a shed, an irrigation line or a spare draw wire all cost very little while the ground is open and a great deal once concrete is over them. The trenching page covers the service runs that can be laid at the same time. Almost every owner who skipped this wishes they had not. Twenty five millimetre conduit with a draw wire, in an Iplex or Vinidex product, covers most future needs. Two conduits cost barely more than one and give far more options. The stage also sits inside a larger project on most properties.

It follows demolition or site clearing, it runs alongside stormwater work, and it precedes the concreting or paving that everyone actually sees. The excavation and earthmoving page covers coordinating it with the rest of the earthworks. Sequencing the trades so the heavy vehicles finish before the surface goes down is basic and it is frequently got wrong. Heavy delivery vehicles crossing a finished driveway in the first week is the classic mistake.

Tell the builder to keep heavy deliveries off the new surface until it has cured properly. A concrete driveway needs time before it carries a loaded truck. The paving contractor nominates the bedding sand depth. It is not a decision made on site.

Depth by Surface Type

Concrete driveways need the slab thickness plus a compacted base beneath it, and the total dig is usually in the range of two hundred millimetres or more below the finished level. The slab thickness is set by the concreter based on the loading, with a domestic driveway thicker than a path and a driveway carrying a caravan or a boat thicker again. Reinforcement sits within that thickness and does not add to it. Get the figure from the concreter and pass it on, because each trade left to itself will assume something different.

Caravan and boat access in particular pushes the slab thickness up. Nobody should be assuming domestic loading without checking what the concreter has designed for. Exposed aggregate and decorative concrete sit on the same base as plain concrete. The finish is a surface treatment and not a structural difference, so the dig and the preparation are identical, and the extra cost sits in the concrete and the finishing rather than underneath. The exposed aggregate concrete page covers the surface side.

What changes below ground is nothing at all. Have the excavation contractor confirm the dig is identical so the quotes match. Check whether the decorative finish changes the slab thickness at all. Liquid limestone is a Western Australian favourite, poured by local specialists using limestone from WA quarries, and it needs the same careful base as concrete. It is poured like concrete, it cracks like concrete if the base moves, and its control joints are cut into a visible surface so their layout is permanent. A well compacted base and a thought through joint pattern are what separate a good liquid limestone driveway from a disappointing one.

The liquid limestone page covers the surface and its pricing. Marking the joint layout on the base before the pour is worth doing. Liquid limestone also shows every level error more clearly than a paver surface does. The falls need checking with a level before the pour is booked. Paving needs a deeper total dig than people expect, because there are three layers to accommodate instead of two.

Below the paver sits a bedding sand layer of a consistent thickness, and below that the compacted base, so the excavation has to account for all three. Edge restraint also has to be built in, because unrestrained pavers on a driveway will creep and open joints within a season. The paving and driveway installation page covers the laying. Which quote carries the edge restraint, the paving one or the excavation one, is worth settling early. Asphalt has its own base design and it is unforgiving of a poor one. The asphalt layer is relatively thin and it relies entirely on what is beneath it, so an under compacted base shows up as rutting and deformation under wheel paths rather than as cracking.

The asphalt contractor nominates the base thickness for the expected loading. Domestic asphalt driveways are less common in Perth than in the eastern states and the base requirement is the same regardless. Domestic asphalt is more common on rural driveways here than in the suburbs. The asphalt contractor should nominate the base thickness in writing.

Gravel and limestone driveways need the least excavation and the most maintenance. The dig is shallow, the compaction still matters, and the surface needs topping up and grading periodically as traffic moves the material. On rural and hills blocks a compacted limestone driveway is an entirely reasonable long term surface. The driveway installation page covers the full range of surfaces available. A limestone driveway also needs a defined edge or it spreads into the garden. How often the surface needs topping up, and who does it, are worth settling early.

Subgrade, Compaction and Base

The subgrade is the natural ground left after the excavation and its condition decides everything above it. It needs to be uniform, firm and compacted, with any soft, organic or unsuitable material removed rather than covered over, because a soft spot under a slab becomes a crack in the slab within a year or two. Excavation safety obligations on any site sit with WorkSafe WA. Perth sand compacts well when it is clean and it does nothing useful when it is full of organic material or old fill. This is where a proper job separates from a quick one.

Their answer on what happens to material they judge unsuitable tells you a good deal. Covering a soft spot is quicker and it is not cheaper over the life of the driveway. A quote that never mentions unsuitable material has not thought about it. Proof rolling finds soft spots.

Looking at the surface does not. A loaded vehicle or a roller driven across the prepared subgrade reveals where the ground deflects, and those areas are dug out and replaced with compacted fill instead of having base tipped over them. It takes a few minutes and it identifies the exact areas that would otherwise fail. Proof rolling should be part of the method, so check that it is. A loaded truck driven slowly across the area is enough to reveal most of it. Applications take time, so lodge the crossover paperwork well before the dig is booked.

Overexcavation is the fix when the subgrade is not up to it. The unsuitable material is removed to a depth where sound ground is reached, and the void is filled with compacted sand or base material in layers, which is charged by volume. On a site with old fill, buried organic material or a former garden bed under the new driveway, it is the normal outcome. It belongs in the quote as a rate, not as a surprise later. Overexcavation belongs on the quote as a rate, not as an unpriced possibility.

Contractors do not all define a soft spot the same way, so get their version of it. Crushed limestone is the base material Western Australian driveways are built on and it is worth understanding. Quarried and crushed locally, it compacts to a hard, stable, well interlocked layer that provides the platform the surface sits on, and it is both cheaper and better suited to local conditions than most alternatives. The depth of base depends on the surface and the expected loading. A driveway built without it, straight onto sand, is relying on the sand alone. Get the specified base depth as a number on the quote.

Base depth is where two quotes most often differ without either saying so. Compaction happens in layers and the layer thickness matters. Base material placed in one thick lift cannot be compacted properly through its full depth however many passes the roller makes, so it goes down in layers of a nominated thickness with each one compacted before the next. This is the step most often shortened when a job is running late.

It is also invisible afterwards. The specified depth has to go down in layers, so establish how many. Moisture content affects compaction more than effort does. Material that is too dry will not bind and material that is too wet will not compact either, so contractors water the base as they go to bring it to the right condition. A plate compactor or a roller working dry limestone on a hot Perth afternoon is achieving less than it appears to.

Watching whether water is being used is a reasonable way to read the work. A water truck or a hose on site is a sign the work is being done properly. Compaction in the heat of a Perth afternoon without water achieves very little. In summer, check whether the work is scheduled for the cooler part of the day. Testing is available and it is worth considering on a larger job. Compaction testing by an independent testing authority produces a documented result instead of an opinion, and on a long driveway, a commercial application or a job where the owner has doubts, it is inexpensive relative to redoing the work.

It is not routine on a domestic driveway. It is worth paying for where the driveway will carry significant loads. A documented result is also useful if the driveway is ever queried at sale. On a domestic driveway an owner's judgement plus a proof roll is usually enough. Photograph the verge before work starts so its original condition is on record.

Crossovers, Verges and Council Levels

The crossover is the section between the kerb and your property boundary and it is not yours to design. It sits on road reserve managed by the local government, which sets the permitted width, the materials, the levels, the approval process and the standard it must be built to, and building one without approval can mean removing it. Every Western Australian council has its own specification and they differ, with the underlying road and traffic legislation published by Western Australian Legislation. The approval comes first and the excavation follows it. Get the crossover specification sheet from the council yourself, because the contractor's version may be out of date. Levels at the crossover drive the whole driveway.

The council sets the level where the crossover meets the kerb and where it meets your boundary, and those figures then determine the fall available across the rest of the run to the garage. On a flat block that is usually straightforward, and on a block where the house sits low or high relative to the street it can dictate steps, retaining or a steeper grade. Getting the level before the dig is what avoids reworking one end. A block that falls steeply from the street is the case that most often needs rethinking.

Levels described over the phone have a way of changing, so get them shown on the quote. Reconciling the levels sometimes needs retaining or steps, which is worth knowing before the dig. A steep driveway also needs transition grades so vehicles do not ground out. Many councils contribute to the cost of a first crossover and owners frequently do not realise. The arrangements differ between local governments and typically apply to a standard crossover for a property that has not had one, with conditions about the specification and the approval. Put the question to the council directly instead of assuming.

The vehicle crossover page covers the pricing side. Some councils pay the contribution as a rebate after completion instead of discounting it up front. Verge trees and services complicate a great many crossovers. A street tree on the verge belongs to the council and cannot simply be removed to make room, services run along verges at shallow depths, and the drainage in the kerb line has to keep working. Each of those is settled through the crossover application, not on the day the machine arrives.

The tree removal page covers the tree question where removal is genuinely required. A verge tree close to the proposed crossover usually wins, and the crossover moves. Removing a verge tree without approval attracts a penalty and a replacement cost. Where the property fronts a state managed road instead of a council one, the requirements change.

Roads under Main Roads Western Australia bring their own access requirements, sight distance considerations and approval process, and on a distributor road the answer may be more involved than on a suburban street. Rural properties fronting a highway are the usual case. Establish which authority controls your frontage before designing anything. Sight distance requirements on a busy frontage can also dictate the crossover position. Rural frontages onto a highway are where this comes up most often. Reinstatement of the verge is usually a condition attached to the approval.

Councils commonly require the verge to be left in a specified condition, may hold a bond until it is inspected, and will pursue reinstatement where a contractor has left it rough. That obligation sits with the property owner. Confirm who is carrying it and whether it is inside the quoted price. Find out whether the bond comes back automatically or only after an inspection. A driveway that ponds at the garage door will do it every winter for decades.

Falls, Drainage and Stormwater

A driveway has to shed water and where that water goes is a Western Australian question with a specific answer. Stormwater is disposed of on the property across most of the metropolitan area and not allowed to run into the street, so a driveway that falls towards the kerb and discharges onto the road is generally not acceptable. The falls are designed to direct water to a grated drain, a spoon drain or a soakwell within the property. That decision is made at the excavation stage because it sets the levels. A driveway discharging onto the road is also a hazard in a heavy storm. Where the water is designed to go has to be settled before the levels are.

Some councils require the disposal point shown on a plan, so check yours. The fall across a driveway serves two purposes at once. A crossfall sheds water sideways off the surface, and a longitudinal fall carries it along the run to wherever it is being collected, and both need to be established in the prepared base, because correcting them in the surface never works properly. A flat driveway ponds, and ponding water on liquid limestone or exposed aggregate leaves staining and, over time, deterioration.

Getting the falls into the base is the cheap way to achieve it. A crossfall of even a small amount makes a visible difference to how a driveway drains. Drains across a driveway need their position and depth set before the base goes in. A grated channel drain at the garage threshold, a spoon drain across the entry or a sump at a low point all need the excavation to accommodate them and the pipe run to be laid while the ground is open. Retrofitting a drain into a finished driveway means cutting it.

The stormwater drainage plumbing page covers the licensed pipework. The grate needs a load rating suited to the vehicles crossing it. Retrofitting a drain into a finished driveway means cutting it out. Drain positions should be marked on the base before it is topped. Soakwells under or beside a driveway need trafficable lids and the right depth. A standard soakwell lid is designed for pedestrian and garden loading and will crack under a vehicle, which then fills the well with soil and creates a hazard, so any well a car might drive over needs a trafficable lid specified from the start.

The excavation contractor and the drainage contractor need to agree the positions. The soakwell installation page covers sizing and lid ratings. The lid rating belongs on the quote as a stated figure. Adding a driveway adds impervious area to the property and that has consequences. The soakwell system sized for the original house may be inadequate once a large driveway, a patio and a shed have been added over the years, and where an approval is involved the council will usually want the disposal arrangement drawn up and submitted.

Recalculating the impervious area is the first diagnostic. The drainage page covers bringing the system up to what the property now needs. Recalculating it is a short exercise and it prevents a boggy yard later. Councils will ask for the calculation where an approval is involved. The garage threshold is the detail that causes the most trouble later. Water running down a driveway towards a garage needs somewhere to go before it reaches the door, and a threshold set too low, or a driveway falling the wrong way, puts water inside the building in the first heavy storm.

A drain, a step or a reverse fall at the threshold all solve it. Raise it at the excavation stage because that is when the levels are still adjustable. The concreter will have a threshold detail in mind, and it is worth seeing it. A grated drain across the garage entry is cheap insurance on a sloping block.

Sand, Limestone and Clay

Perth sand is an easy subgrade to work with and it has to be treated properly to behave. Clean sand compacts well, drains freely and gives a stable platform, and it also flows readily into any void and offers no support at all when it is loose. Batters at the edge of an excavation need cutting back instead of being left vertical, and the compaction has to be genuine rather than a single pass. Contractors who work Perth sand daily know exactly how it behaves. Check whether the batters at the edge of the excavation are inside the price. Whether the edges are cut clean or left as a rough batter is worth establishing.

Limestone in the subgrade cuts both ways on a driveway. Sound limestone at the right level is an excellent foundation and needs no improvement at all, while limestone sitting above the level you need is an obstacle that has to be broken out. Because driveway excavation is shallower than a pool or a footing dig, the rock question arises less often and it still arises. The rock breaking page covers how hammer work is priced when it does. Sound rock at the correct level saves both base material and compaction time.

The eastern suburbs and their deep sands rarely produce a rock problem on a driveway. The Bassendean sands run well below driveway depth, and what causes trouble there is old fill or organic material, not anything hard. Coffee rock appears occasionally and sits at variable depth. Neither is common enough to price for on every job and both are worth asking about.

Where the depth is uncertain, find out whether any test holes have been dug. Sound limestone can also reduce the base depth required above it. Clay through the hills and the South West behaves differently and needs more thought. Clay subgrades move with moisture, swelling when wet and shrinking when dry, and a rigid surface laid over a reactive clay without allowance for that movement will crack. Base depth, drainage away from the subgrade and the surface design all play a part. A contractor working the scarp will raise it without being asked.

Use a contractor who works the hills, not one whose ground is all coastal sand. Base depth on reactive clay is typically greater than on sand. Get it confirmed in writing before work starts. Marking the position on a sketch of the property takes almost no time at all. Tree roots under a proposed driveway have to be dealt with, not covered over.

Roots left in place rot and leave voids, and live roots continue to grow and lift the surface above them, which is the cause of a great many cracked and uneven Perth driveways. Where a tree is being retained, the design usually has to go around its root zone instead of through it. The tree root removal page covers removing what has to come out. A tree retained beside a driveway will eventually reach under it. Root barriers are an option worth discussing at the design stage. Old fill is the subgrade problem that turns up most often on established properties.

Garden beds, filled hollows, buried rubble, an old pool backfilled without engineering and material brought in decades ago all sit beneath driveways across Perth, and none of it is a suitable foundation. Proof rolling finds it and overexcavation fixes it. Where a driveway is being replaced because it cracked, the fill underneath is usually the reason. A quote either assumes clean subgrade or allows for fill, and you want to know which. Old fill under an established driveway is the usual explanation for cracking. A short note on the quote settles it permanently.

Removing an Existing Driveway

Most driveway excavation jobs start with taking something out. An existing concrete driveway is broken up with a hammer or a breaker attachment, the reinforcement within it is dealt with, and the material is loaded and carted, and the volume is considerably heavier than the sand beneath it. Thickness and reinforcement decide how long it takes. Whether the price assumes a reinforced slab or an unreinforced one changes the dig. A mesh reinforced slab and a plain one are not the same demolition job, so establish which you have.

Concrete is recyclable and that affects the disposal cost. Clean concrete taken to a recycler generally costs less at the gate than the same material going to landfill, and the reinforcing steel comes out at the recycler instead of on your driveway. Keeping the concrete separate from other waste is what allows that. Establish where the material is going. An account at a recycler is worth having on their side of the arrangement. Steel removed at the recycler is credited against the gate fee, not charged for.

Paved driveways come up differently and sometimes the pavers are worth keeping. Pavers lifted carefully can be reused elsewhere on the property, sold or returned, while pavers broken by a machine are waste, and the difference is labour. Where the pavers are a matching type still available, reuse may not be worth the effort. The concrete demolition and site preparation page covers breakout work in general. Decide with them whether lifted pavers are stacked on site or taken away.

Matching pavers are worth keeping even if only as spares for repairs. The base beneath the old driveway is frequently reusable and frequently not. A sound compacted limestone base from a previous driveway can sometimes be retained, regraded and topped up, which saves both excavation and import, while a base contaminated with organic material or disturbed during the breakout has to come out. The contractor makes that call once the surface is off. A quote should say which assumption it has made. Whatever the contractor is assuming about the existing base needs stating in the quote.

What sits under the old driveway is worth noting before it is covered again. Services running beneath it, an old soakwell, a buried drain or a sewer junction may all be present and none of them will be visible again for decades. Photographing and measuring anything found, before the new base goes in, takes minutes. It is the only record the property will ever have.

A photograph with a tape measure from a fixed point is all that is needed. Measure from a permanent feature, not from the old driveway edge. Demolition of a driveway is sometimes part of a bigger removal. Where a shed, a carport or a house is coming down as well, doing all the breakout in one mobilisation is considerably cheaper than separate visits, and the spoil streams can be sorted together. The demolition services page and the site clearing page cover the wider removal work. Combining them is the obvious saving.

Sorting the streams properly also reduces the disposal cost across the whole job. Combining the breakout and the new preparation in one booking also shortens the program. It takes a minute and it removes the ambiguity entirely. Delivered material cost is also a larger share of a regional quote than a metropolitan one.

Costs in Detail

Driveway excavation and base preparation runs $35 to $85 a square metre across the Perth metropolitan area, covering the dig, the compaction, the base material and the levels. The range reflects the depth required by the surface going down, the volume of spoil leaving, the base depth specified and machine access. A typical single driveway prepared lands between $1,800 and $5,500. Double driveways, long runs and circular drives scale from there.

Check whether the rate covers the base material or only the excavation. A rate quoted without the base is not comparable with one that includes it. Removing an existing concrete driveway runs $45 to $110 a square metre depending on thickness, reinforcement and access, and that figure includes the breakout, loading and cartage. A heavily reinforced or thickened slab sits at the top of the range. Where the old base can be retained the total drops meaningfully. Removal quoted separately from the new preparation lets you see both numbers.

See whether the old base can be assessed before the quote is finalised. A retained base still needs proof rolling before it is accepted. Most contractors will answer that without hesitation. Crushed limestone base supplied and compacted runs $18 to $45 a square metre depending on the depth specified and the delivered material cost. Deeper base for heavier loading costs proportionally more.

This line is one of the most common places a cheap quote saves money invisibly, so the specified depth is worth having in writing. A base half the depth of a competitor's is not a better price. A depth in millimetres beats a description like adequate every time. A specified depth is also what lets you check the work as it goes in. Overexcavation of soft spots runs $55 to $130 a cubic metre including removal and replacement with compacted material. On a site with old fill this can be a significant line and it cannot be quantified until the dig is underway.

A sensible quote carries it as a rate instead of pretending it will not arise. Rock hammer time, where limestone sits above the required level, runs $180 to $320 an hour. There should be an answer ready for what happens if the soft area turns out to be extensive. Crossover excavation and base preparation runs $650 to $2,400 depending on the width, the levels and the council's specification, and the approval and any bond sit outside that.

Many councils contribute to a first crossover, so ask before assuming the whole cost is yours. Spoil cartage runs $180 to $420 a load. A driveway replacement typically produces several loads of concrete and several of sand. Check the contribution with the council before accepting any quote. The contribution usually covers a standard crossover and not a wide one.

Regional Western Australia prices around travel and material supply. Rates inside the larger regional centres track the metropolitan market reasonably closely, and it is the delivered cost of crushed limestone that climbs as the distance to a quarry grows. In remote areas the base material is often a locally won gravel instead of limestone. Get the base material named and find out where it is coming from. Where limestone is not locally available, find out what is being used instead.

What to Look Out For

Ask for the base depth to be specified in writing. This is the line where a cheap quote saves money you cannot see, and a base at half the depth of a competitor's will look identical on handover day and quite different in five years. The figure should come from the surface contractor and appear on the excavation quote. A quote that says base preparation and nothing else is not comparable with one that states a depth. A base depth stated in millimetres is the single most useful number on the quote.

Base depth measured before compaction and base depth measured after it are different numbers. Get the crossover level from the council before the dig. The council sets it, it drives the levels across the whole driveway, and a driveway excavated to suit the house alone will need reworking at the street end. It costs a phone call. Establish who is obtaining the crossover approval and whether the fee and any bond sit inside the quote. Crossover works are sometimes included and sometimes quoted separately, so check.

Note any step or level change between the driveway and the garage floor. Watch for a quote with no allowance for soft spots. Old fill, buried organic material and former garden beds under a new driveway are common on established Perth properties, and covering them instead of removing them produces cracking within a couple of years. A quote carrying a rate for overexcavation is being realistic, not padding the price.

Confirm that proof rolling is part of the method. Get the overexcavation rate even where the contractor expects clean ground. An unpriced possibility becomes a negotiation once the machine is on site. Check where the water is going before the levels are set. Stormwater has to be disposed of on the property across most of the metropolitan area, so a driveway falling to the street is generally not acceptable, and a driveway falling towards the garage without a drain is a flood waiting for the first storm. The falls belong in the base.

Correcting them in the surface is a patch. Raise it while the levels are still adjustable. Find out whether a spoon drain or a grated drain has been allowed for. Be careful about tree roots being covered over instead of removed. Roots left under a driveway rot and leave voids, and live roots keep growing and lift the surface, which is the cause of a great many cracked Perth driveways.

Where a tree is being kept, it is usually the design that moves and not the roots. Get a specific answer on what happens to any roots found. Roots found beneath the existing driveway need a stated answer too. Root removal is either inside the quoted figure or charged separately, and you want to know which.

One last thing, lay conduit before the surface goes down. A gate motor, lighting, power to a shed, an irrigation line or simply a spare conduit with a draw wire all cost very little while the ground is open and are effectively impossible afterwards without cutting the driveway. Owners who skipped it always regret it. Have it priced as an option on every driveway quote. Two conduits and a draw wire cost less than a hundred dollars in materials.

How to Get Comparable Quotes

Have the surface decision made before you seek excavation quotes. The depth, the base specification and the levels all follow from what is going down, so a quote obtained before that decision is a quote against an assumption. Get the depth requirement from the concreter, paver or asphalt contractor in writing and pass it on. Every excavation contractor then prices the same box. A written depth requirement from the surface contractor settles it for everyone.

It also means the excavation contractor can start without waiting on a phone call. Measure and describe the job properly. The driveway area and shape, the surface going down, what is there now and its thickness if known, the fall from the street to the garage, whether a crossover is included, machine access to the area, any trees nearby and whether services are known to run beneath. Photographs from the street and from the garage looking out are both useful. Contractors quoting from that price the actual driveway. Note the width at the narrowest point where a machine has to pass.

Put the same written questions to each contractor. The excavation depth and how it was determined, the base material and its compacted depth, whether proof rolling is included and the rate for overexcavation, the assumed ground condition and the provisional rock rate, removal of the existing surface and where it goes, falls and drainage provisions, crossover works and approvals, conduit, spoil loads and reinstatement. Written answers make three prices comparable. Every contractor should state their exclusions as clearly as their inclusions.

An exclusion stated plainly is far easier to price around than one found later. Coordinate the excavation contractor and the surface contractor directly. The handover between them is where driveways go wrong, and the simplest fix is getting both to agree the prepared level, the base depth and the falls before anyone starts. A joint site visit of twenty minutes prevents most of it. The concreting services page covers engaging the trade that follows.

Getting both on site together for twenty minutes is worth more than a dozen emails. Bundle everything that needs a machine into the same visit. Soakwells, service trenches, a shed pad, removing an old slab elsewhere on the property and the driveway itself can all share one mobilisation, and the marginal cost of each additional item is far lower than a separate booking. The excavation page covers the wider range of work that can be combined. Planning it once is the single largest saving available in this category.

Work out which items could be added to the same booking at marginal cost. A shed pad and a driveway in the same week costs far less than two separate visits. Contractors would generally rather do one longer job than two short ones, so the answer is usually yes. Walk the property with a list before you commit to a date.