Site Clearing Services WA 2026 - Get Quotes

What Site Clearing Actually Covers

Site clearing is the work that takes a block from its current state to a surface a builder can set out and dig on. On a vacant lot that can mean little more than removing vegetation, grading the surface and carting away the resulting material. On a knockdown rebuild or an older property it means trees, stumps, garden beds, paving, paths, slabs, sheds, fences, a pool and whatever has been buried in the back corner over fifty years. The gap between those two descriptions is where the price sits. Nobody can price the second version from a photograph of the front verge.

Have the contractor walk the whole block, including the back corner nobody has visited in years. The sequence on a typical Perth lot runs in a predictable order. Services are located and abolished where a structure is being removed, asbestos is identified and dealt with by licensed removalists, structures come down, vegetation and stumps come out, slabs and footings are broken up and removed, the surface is graded and the material is sorted for cartage or reuse. Each stage generates its own waste stream and its own disposal cost. A contractor who describes that sequence when quoting is giving you a plan, not just a price. Establish which of those stages sit inside the quoted figure and which sit outside it.

What clearing is not is levelling. Removing what is on the surface is a separate job from cutting and filling the block to the levels the slab requires, and quotes frequently cover one and not the other. A block can be perfectly clear and still need substantial earthworks before a slab can go down. Establishing which of the two you are buying is one of the first questions to ask.

Put both questions separately, because one answer does not cover the other. A block that looks flat rarely is once a level is run across it. Timeframes on a suburban lot are usually short once the machines are on site. A straightforward vegetation clear runs a day, a full clear including structures and slabs runs three to seven days, and the delays are almost never the machine work. They are the asbestos clearance, the service abolishment, the council approval and the tip availability. Booking those in parallel instead of in series is what keeps a program on track.

Utility abolishment in particular can take several weeks from application. Find out what lead time the contractor needs once the approvals are in hand. The state's steady infill development has made this one of the busiest categories in Perth earthworks. Quarter acre blocks through the established suburbs are being subdivided and rebuilt, older housing is being replaced instead of renovated, and each of those projects starts with a clearing job. Contractors who work that market know the local council requirements and the usual surprises.

The excavation and earthmoving page covers the wider range of earthworks that follow. Local knowledge matters more here than it does on most earthworks jobs. Clearing also produces a genuine safety obligation while the block sits empty. An open lot with a hole, a broken slab edge, exposed reinforcing or a partly removed fence is an attractive nuisance in a suburban street, and the owner carries responsibility for it.

Temporary fencing and a tidy site are part of doing this properly. Most contractors will include it if asked and very few will include it if not. Temporary fencing should be named in the quote with a weekly hire rate against it. An unfenced block with an open excavation is the version that causes real trouble.

The Scope Boundary With Your Builder

Western Australian project builders almost universally treat site works as a provisional allowance and not a fixed price. The contract includes an estimated figure covering clearing, levelling, sand pad, retaining and drainage, and the actual cost is measured once work begins with the owner paying the difference. That structure is legitimate and well established, and it is also the single most common source of a surprise on a WA build. Reading the clause before signing is not optional. The clause is usually headed site works or site costs and it is worth finding before anything else.

Get the builder to explain in writing how the allowance was arrived at. Owners who read it early are the ones who go looking for an independent quote. The allowance is often set before anyone has properly assessed the block. It may be based on the lot size, a desktop review, or a standard figure the builder applies across a suburb, and it will not account for a buried slab, an asbestos fence or a limestone shelf at eight hundred millimetres. Nobody is being dishonest, the number simply has not been measured. That is precisely why an independent clearing quote on the actual block is worth obtaining before you sign.

A site visit by someone who will actually do the work produces a different number entirely. Getting that independent quote gives you three things. It tells you whether the builder's allowance is realistic, it gives you a figure to negotiate against, and it gives you the option of doing the clearing yourself before handing over a clean site. Owners who do this often find the allowance is short by a meaningful amount, and finding that out at contract stage is far better than finding it out at slab stage.

The builders page covers engaging a builder and understanding what their contract includes. It also lets you compare the builder's allowance against a real market price. Builders vary considerably in how generously they set the allowance in the first place. Handing over a cleared site changes the conversation. Where an owner clears the block independently and presents a clean, level lot, the builder's site works allowance has much less to cover and the variation risk shrinks.

It also means you controlled the quality and the cost of the clearing instead of inheriting it. Not every builder will agree to it, and the time to raise it is before signing. Raise it early, because some builders structure their contracts around doing it themselves. Where a demolition is involved, the boundary shifts again. Demolition contractors commonly quote the house, the slab, the outbuildings, the fences and the trees as a package, which is efficient and usually cheaper than splitting it. What matters is what the site looks like at handover, since a demolition quote that ends at ground level leaves the footings and the slab underneath for someone else.

The demolition services page covers the removal of structures. The slab and the footings are either inside the demolition figure or they are not, and that needs stating. A demolition quote ending at ground level leaves the expensive part for someone else. Put the scope boundary in writing whichever way you go.

A short list naming what is coming out, what is staying, whether footings and slabs are removed or left, whether the surface is graded, whether fences go and who reinstates the boundary, and the condition the site is left in, prevents nearly every argument in this category. It takes ten minutes to write and it is the most useful document in the job. The concrete demolition and site preparation page covers the overlap between demolition and earthworks. Photographs attached to that list make it clearer again.

Trees, Stumps and Vegetation

Trees are the item most likely to be regulated and most likely to be mispriced. Many Western Australian local governments control the removal of trees on private land through local planning policies, significant tree registers or conditions attached to a subdivision or development approval, and a tree retained as a condition of a subdivision years ago is still protected today. Removing one without checking can attract a penalty and a replacement requirement. One call to the council's planning counter settles it for your address.

Subdivision conditions in particular are easy to inherit without ever being told about them. Check with the council whether any tree conditions attach to your title. Verge trees belong to the council whatever the clearing contractor says. Street trees stand on road reserve that the local government manages, and damaging one during clearing brings a penalty alongside the cost of replacing it. If a new crossover is going in, the tree is dealt with inside that application, not decided by whoever is driving the machine. The tree removal page covers the approval process in detail.

Councils will usually consider removal where a verge tree genuinely obstructs an approved crossover. Stumps are where a vegetation quote quietly separates from a real one. Cutting a tree to ground level is fast and cheap, and removing the stump and the major root plate is neither, particularly on a block where a slab is going over the top. A stump left in place under a building platform will rot and settle, and it also remains a termite attractant in a state with the termite pressure Western Australia has. Confirm whether stumps are ground, excavated or simply cut off.

Termite management under a new slab assumes the ground beneath it is clean. Stumps left under paving or a driveway will show as a depression within a few years. Excavating the stump entirely is the right answer where a slab is going over it. Root systems reach further than owners expect in sandy soil.

A mature eucalypt on a Perth block will have roots running well beyond its canopy, through paving, into the neighbour's garden and around service lines, and clearing the trunk does not remove them. Where a slab or a driveway is going over the footprint, the major roots need to come out with the stump. The stump grinding and removal page covers the methods and the depths. Roots under a neighbour's paving are a conversation worth having before the machine starts. Green waste is a separate stream from general spoil and it is priced separately. Vegetation is chipped where the contractor has the plant, or carted to a green waste facility at a per load fee, and mixing it with construction waste gets loads rejected at the gate.

A rejected load comes back to the site at your expense. How green waste is handled, and what it costs, should be spelled out. Green waste belongs on the quote as its own line. Chipping on site avoids the cartage entirely where there is room for the machine. In metropolitan Perth the polyphagous shot hole borer adds a real constraint on where that material can go.

A quarantine area covers parts of the metropolitan area and restricts the movement and disposal of host plant material and green waste, with the aim of limiting the beetle's spread. Contractors working inside it have specific obligations and should be able to explain them. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development maintains the current list of affected species and areas. Asking the question also tells you whether the contractor keeps up with their obligations. On larger or semi rural lots the state's native vegetation framework comes into play. Clearing native vegetation is regulated with a permit system and defined exemptions, and a stand of remnant bush on an acreage block is a very different proposition from a planted suburban garden.

The land clearing page covers that situation in full. On a standard suburban lot with a planted garden, it rarely applies. The distinction turns on whether the vegetation is remnant native bush or a planted garden. Acreage and hills blocks are where this most often applies.

Old Structures, Slabs and Fences

Sheds, carports, patios and outbuildings are usually straightforward to remove and easy to leave out of a quote. Each has a footing or a slab beneath it, and the question is whether that comes out too or gets left for the next trade to discover. On a block where a new dwelling footprint overlaps an old shed slab, it has to come out. Walk the property with the contractor and point at each structure, because a general description will not cover them. Footings under each structure are either coming out or staying in the ground.

A shed slab discovered under the new house footprint is a variation nobody budgeted for. Concrete slabs, paths and driveways are priced by area and by thickness, and the reinforcing inside them matters. A lightly reinforced path breaks up quickly, while a reinforced driveway slab or a shed slab with a thickened edge takes considerably more work and produces heavier material. Concrete is also one of the more recyclable waste streams, so a contractor with access to a crusher or a recycler may price disposal better than one carting to landfill. Get the disposal route named. Reinforced and unreinforced concrete are very different demolition jobs, so establish which the price assumes.

Reinforcing steel is either separated at the recycler or charged back to you. Footings are the item that catches people out after the slab is gone. Old strip footings, pad footings and the thickened edges of a slab sit below ground level and are invisible once the surface concrete is removed, and they will interfere with a new slab or a new footing trench. A clearing quote should say explicitly whether footings are being removed or left. The concrete slab page covers what the new slab will need underneath it.

Get it in writing, because a verbal assurance on the day is worth nothing afterwards. Swimming pools are a substantial item in their own right and they are common on older Perth blocks. Removing a pool means breaking out the shell, dealing with the plumbing and the plant, and either removing the material or breaking the base and backfilling with engineered fill where a structure is going over it. Backfilling a pool without engineering advice creates a settlement problem for whatever is built above. It is worth pricing as its own line. Engineered fill placed in layers and compacted is the standard approach where a structure follows.

The backfill specification needs naming, because a loose description is not a specification. Fences come out during clearing and the boundary question comes with them. A boundary fence is usually a shared asset under whichever fencing local law your council has adopted, so taking one out without speaking to the neighbour first creates a problem that outlasts the build. Temporary fencing during construction is usually the practical answer.

The fence and gate installation page covers reinstating the boundary afterwards. A short conversation over the fence before the fence comes down prevents most of this. Retaining walls on or near a boundary need care, not a machine. An existing wall may be retaining the neighbour's ground as well as yours, and removing it without a plan can undermine their garden, their paving or their footings.

Where levels are changing as part of the build, the new retaining is designed and approved, not improvised. The retaining wall builders page and the limestone retaining walls page cover the replacement work. Where the wall is genuinely shared, both owners have an interest in what replaces it. That conversation is much easier before the machine arrives than after the wall is down.

Asbestos and Contaminated Material

Asbestos is the most consequential thing a clearing job can turn up and it is very common on Western Australian blocks. Any property built or improved before the late 1980s may contain it, and the usual locations are cement sheet cladding and eaves, roofing, shed walls and roofs, and the fencing that lines a great many older Perth boundaries. Asbestos fencing in particular is widespread here and it is frequently overlooked entirely until a machine touches it. Assume it is present on an older block until testing says otherwise.

Older Perth boundaries in particular are worth checking carefully before anything is quoted. A single sheet of fencing can turn a routine clear into a licensed removal. Testing settles the question inexpensively. A sample is taken and analysed by an accredited laboratory, and the result either removes the concern or defines the scope before anyone prices the work. Testing before quoting is far cheaper than discovering asbestos with an excavator, which stops the job, contaminates the spoil and turns a simple clear into a regulated removal. The asbestos testing and inspection page covers the process.

Get the laboratory result in writing. A verbal opinion on site is not the same thing. Sampling is quick and a laboratory turnaround is usually a couple of days. Removal is licensed work with defined obligations. Licensed removalists handle the material under the state's work health and safety framework, with notification, controlled removal, sealed wrapping, labelled disposal at a facility licensed to accept it, and a clearance process at the end.

A clearing contractor without the relevant licence cannot legally remove it, and one offering to just take the fence out with the machine is proposing something that endangers everyone on the street. The asbestos removal page covers the licensed pathway. The clearance documentation is what proves it was done properly. Buried asbestos is the version nobody prices for. Fragments of broken sheeting are frequently found in fill on older properties, sometimes from a shed demolished decades ago and sometimes from material brought in as fill, and once it is in the spoil the whole load becomes contaminated waste at considerably higher disposal fees. Mixed loads get turned away at the gate, and a truck that comes back full is billed to you twice over.

This is the single largest variation risk in site clearing in this state. What a contractor does when suspected material appears mid job tells you a great deal about them. A contractor who stops and tests is protecting you as much as themselves. Other contamination is less common and worth knowing about.

Old fuel or oil storage, workshop floors, market garden soils with historical chemical residues, and fill of unknown origin can all require testing and specialised disposal. Where a property has an industrial or horticultural history, that should be raised before clearing begins. The obligations sit under the state's contaminated sites framework and a specialist assessment is the right starting point. A property that was once a market garden or a workshop deserves a closer look. Keep every document that comes out of this process.

The test results, the removal notification, the disposal dockets and the clearance certificate together prove the material left the site lawfully, and they answer the question a buyer, a builder or a building surveyor will eventually ask. Filed with the property records they are worth having permanently. Reconstructing them later is close to impossible. A future buyer's building inspector will ask, and a complete file answers it immediately. Store the file with the title documents, not in a builder's folder that goes missing.

Services, Survey Pegs and Boundaries

Before any machine turns up, the underground services need locating. The free national referral service reached on 1100 provides plans showing registered assets, and those plans should be on site before work starts, along with hand potholing to confirm the position of anything close to the work. Plans are indicative and not precise, and they do not show private lines such as an old bore feed or an irrigation main. Hitting a live service during clearing is expensive, dangerous and entirely avoidable. Private lines are the ones most often hit, precisely because they are not on any plan.

Potholing is either inside the quoted price or it is not. Where a house is being removed, the services need to be disconnected and abolished, not simply cut. Power through Western Power, water and sewer through the Water Corporation and gas through ATCO each have their own process and their own lead time, and abolishment is generally required before a demolition licence or permit is issued. These are the items that hold up a program, not the machine work. Starting them weeks before the intended clearing date is the practical answer. Applying early costs nothing and removes the most common source of delay.

The sewer connection deserves particular attention on an older Perth property. The junction and the position of the connection point affect where the new dwelling can go and how it drains, and an old connection may be in the wrong place for the new plan. That is a plumbing question, not an excavation one. The new home plumbing page and the plumbing services page cover the connections that follow.

Have the plumber confirm the connection point before the clearing contractor grades the site. Sewer junctions are recorded and the position can usually be confirmed before work starts. An old connection in the wrong place is better discovered now than after the slab is poured. Survey pegs are small, cheap to knock over and expensive to replace. A licensed surveyor sets out the boundaries and the building position, and a machine operator who removes the pegs during clearing forces a re-peg at the owner's cost and can delay the set out. Marking the pegs clearly with tall stakes and flagging tape before the machines arrive takes fifteen minutes.

It is one of the more common avoidable costs on a clearing job. Photograph the pegs in position before work starts as well. Boundaries themselves need establishing instead of assuming, particularly on older subdivided land. Fences in Perth's established suburbs are frequently not on the boundary, sometimes by a surprising margin, and clearing to the fence line instead of the surveyed boundary creates an encroachment problem. Where the survey and the fence disagree, the survey wins.

Getting that resolved before clearing avoids removing something that was never yours. A boundary survey is inexpensive against the cost of removing the wrong fence. Encroachments discovered during clearing are awkward and expensive to resolve afterwards. Neighbouring structures and ground need protecting during the work.

A machine working close to a boundary can undermine a neighbour's paving, crack a wall or damage a fence, and on a tight infill block the machine is always close to a boundary. Photographing the neighbouring property before work starts, with the owner's knowledge, protects both sides. The building inspection page covers arranging a formal condition assessment where the risk is significant. A short set of photographs with the date on them is enough.

Spoil, Waste and Sand Drift

Material leaving a cleared site sorts into distinct streams and each has its own cost. Clean sand and soil, concrete and masonry, green waste, general construction waste, scrap metal and any contaminated material all go to different destinations at different fees, and mixing them is how loads get rejected. A contractor who separates properly usually disposes more cheaply than one who tips everything together. Get the sorting method described. Sorting happens either on site or at the gate, and that changes the rate.

A contractor with accounts at several facilities usually disposes more cheaply. Clean sand has a genuine market in Perth and it can offset the cartage. Fill sand from a cleared site is a saleable product, and a contractor who sells it should show the credit instead of pocketing it quietly. Equally, sand may be needed back on the site later for the building pad, so carting it away and buying it back is worth avoiding where there is room to stockpile. Raise it at quoting stage. The credit belongs on the quote, not in a passing remark.

Stockpiling on site is only an option where there is room to keep it out of the way. Concrete and brick rubble is recyclable and increasingly goes to a recycler instead of landfill, with operators such as Cleanaway handling volume in the metropolitan area. Recycling gates typically charge less than landfill for clean loads, so keeping the concrete separate from the general waste is worth doing. Reinforcing steel comes out at the recycler, not on your block.

The skip bin hire page and the rubbish removal page cover smaller disposal jobs. Find out what proportion of the material is expected to be recyclable. Sand drift is the Western Australian issue that catches owners out after the machines have gone. A cleared lot on the coastal plain is loose sand with nothing holding it, and a few windy days will move a meaningful quantity of it onto the footpath, the road, the neighbour's pool and the neighbour's car. Local governments across the metropolitan area take this seriously and will issue notices requiring the owner to stabilise the site.

The obligation sits with the property owner, not the contractor who left. Councils in the coastal suburbs issue these notices routinely through the windier months. The notice arrives addressed to the owner, not to the contractor who cleared the block. Stabilising a cleared block is straightforward and cheap relative to the alternative. The usual methods are hydromulching, a sprayed bitumen emulsion crust, a covering of mulch or a layer of limestone, all of which hold the surface until construction starts. Watering alone works for a day and not for a fortnight.

Stabilisation belongs on the quote as its own line, because it is very often left out entirely. Get the method named along with how long it is expected to hold. Sediment leaving the site during rain is the other half of the same problem. Material washing into the street gutter and then into the stormwater system is a compliance issue for councils and a practical nuisance for everyone downhill, and silt fencing or a sediment barrier at the low side of the block deals with it. On a sloping block it matters more.

The drainage page covers the stormwater arrangements that follow on the finished property. Silt fencing is cheap and it is the sort of item left out of a quote unless requested. On a block that falls towards the street it matters considerably more. Rock is the last spoil variable and it is a Perth speciality.

A block that turns out to have limestone close to the surface produces broken rock instead of clean sand, changes the machine required and adds hammer time from an Epiroc or Rammer breaker to the program. The rock breaking page covers how that work is priced and how a provisional rate should be written into the quote. On the coastal plain it is worth assuming it is possible until test holes say otherwise. Test holes before quoting are the only way to settle it properly.

Costs in Detail

A standard suburban lot cleared runs $2,800 to $9,500 across the Perth metropolitan area. The bottom of that range is a straightforward vacant block with vegetation and no structures, and the top is an established property with mature trees, paving, a shed, fences and a slab to remove. Access, the volume of material and the disposal route move it within that band. A site with asbestos or rock moves above it. Establish which of those two descriptions the contractor has assumed. Test holes on the coastal plain cost a few hundred dollars and remove the guesswork.

Rock changes the machine, the program and the spoil stream all at once. Vegetation clearing alone runs $1,200 to $4,500 for a typical lot, covering removal of garden beds, shrubs, grass and small trees, and the cartage of green waste. Larger trees are priced individually at $450 to $3,500 each depending on size, access and what sits underneath. Stump removal is usually additional to felling and should be confirmed. The tree lopping and arborist services page covers the tree work in detail.

A tree price either includes the stump and the root plate or it does not. Concrete removal runs $45 to $110 a square metre depending on thickness, reinforcement and access, with driveways and shed slabs at the upper end and paths at the lower. Footings below the slab are extra and should be quoted separately. Pool removal is a project in its own right and is priced after an inspection.

Each of these belongs on its own line, because a single demolition figure hides too much. A rate per load means little without the expected number of loads beside it. Asbestos work is the item most likely to change the total. Asbestos fencing removal runs $65 to $140 a linear metre, an asbestos shed removed and disposed of runs $1,800 to $6,500 depending on size and condition, and contaminated spoil carries considerably higher tip fees than clean material. Testing beforehand at a few hundred dollars is what converts this from a surprise into a line item. It is the best value spend in the whole job.

Disposal facilities licensed to accept asbestos are limited, which is part of the cost. Get the receiving facility named and find out what their gate fee is. Regional owners in particular should confirm the haul distance before accepting a figure. Cartage runs $180 to $420 a load depending on distance, material type and the receiving facility's fees, and the number of loads matters as much as the rate. Sand stabilisation after clearing runs $600 to $2,400 depending on the method and the lot size.

Temporary fencing is a weekly hire cost worth including where the block will sit empty for a while. Temporary fencing hire is usually quoted weekly and it adds up over a long approval period. Regional Western Australia prices around travel and disposal distance more than labour. Crews operating out of Bunbury, Albany, Geraldton or Kalgoorlie charge much what a city contractor does on their own patch, while the haul to a licensed disposal facility is what lifts the figure in smaller towns.

In remote areas the choice of contractor is limited and booking ahead matters more than negotiating. Asbestos disposal in particular can require a long haul to an approved site. Regional contractors should be able to tell you the actual haul distance to a licensed facility. In the smaller towns that distance is frequently the single largest item in the quote.

What to Look Out For

Read the site works clause in your building contract before you sign it. A provisional allowance is an estimate and not a price, and the difference is payable by you once the work is measured. Getting an independent clearing quote on the actual block tells you whether the allowance is realistic while you still have the option to negotiate. Owners who skip this step find out at slab stage instead. There should also be a clear answer on what happens if the actual cost comes in under the allowance.

Some contracts credit an underspend and some do not, which is worth knowing before signing. Assume asbestos on any block improved before the late 1980s until testing says otherwise. Fencing, sheds, eaves and roofing are the usual locations, and asbestos fencing is extremely common on older Perth boundaries. Testing costs a few hundred dollars and removes both the risk and the argument. A contractor offering to simply pull the fence out with the machine is proposing something unlawful and genuinely dangerous. Testing before quoting also means every contractor prices the same scope.

Check whether footings and slabs are included or only surface concrete. This is the most common gap between a cheap quote and a complete one, and it is invisible until the new footing trench hits an old pad footing. Get a specific answer on what happens below ground level. A quote that addresses it is a quote from someone who has done this before. Below ground is where the cheap quote and the complete quote diverge.

Footings need naming explicitly in the scope, because implied is not the same as included. Confirm the tree position before anyone starts. Council controls on private land trees vary between local governments, subdivision conditions can protect a tree indefinitely, and verge trees are council property regardless of who planted them. A penalty plus a replacement cost is an expensive way to learn this. One phone call settles it. Get the answer in writing so it is on the record before machines arrive.

Do not let survey pegs be removed. A re-peg costs money and delays the set out, and the pegs are small enough to disappear under a bucket without anyone noticing. Mark them with tall stakes and flagging tape before the machines arrive, and tell the operator where they are. It takes fifteen minutes and saves a fortnight of frustration.

Tell the surveyor when the clearing is happening so they can attend if needed. Re-pegging also delays the builder's set out, which costs more than the surveyor's fee. One last thing, get stabilisation quoted before the block is cleared, not after the council notice arrives. A bare sand lot on the coastal plain will blow, the obligation to control it sits with the owner, and the contractor who cleared it has usually moved on.

Hydromulch, a bitumen emulsion crust or a mulch layer all deal with it cheaply. It is the most predictable avoidable cost in site clearing here. Mulch also suppresses weed regrowth while the block waits for construction. On a site sitting idle over a winter, that saves a second visit before the builder starts.

How to Get Comparable Quotes

Walk the block and write the list before you ring anyone. Every tree with a rough height, every structure, the paving and paths, the driveway, the fences and which ones are boundaries, any slab you know about, the pool if there is one, what the property was used for, and whether the block is vacant or occupied. Photographs of each item and of the access route are worth more than a general description. Contractors quoting from that price the actual block.

Note which items you are unsure about instead of guessing at them. A rough sketch of the block with the items numbered makes the quoting far easier. Get asbestos testing done before you collect quotes on an older property. Once every contractor is pricing against a known result, the numbers become directly comparable and the padding disappears. Without it, one contractor prices the risk generously, another ignores it, and you cannot tell which is which. The testing cost is recovered in the quality of the quotes alone.

It also stops any contractor loading the number to cover something nobody has measured. Give every contractor the same written scope. What comes out and what stays, whether footings and slabs go, whether stumps are ground or excavated, who handles asbestos and under what licence, whether the surface is graded, whether stabilisation is included, disposal and the expected number of loads, protection of survey pegs and neighbouring property, temporary fencing, and the condition the site is left in. Written answers turn three numbers into a comparison. Every contractor should state their exclusions as plainly as their inclusions.

An exclusion named plainly is far easier to price against than one discovered later. Establish the rock position separately. On the coastal plain a block can have limestone close to the surface, and a clearing quote that assumes clean sand will change if the machine strikes caprock. Get the assumed ground condition stated, along with the provisional rate if rock appears. The excavation page covers the broader earthworks where that becomes relevant. A provisional rate agreed before the machine arrives is worth far more than one negotiated afterwards.

Coordinate the timing with the build instead of clearing early. A block cleared six months before construction starts is six months of sand drift, weed regrowth, dumped rubbish and council interest, and some of that work will need repeating. Clearing close to the start of construction, with the service abolishments and approvals arranged in parallel, is the efficient sequence. Find out what lead time the contractor needs so the two can be lined up properly. Weeds regrow quickly on a cleared Perth block through winter.