Excavation and site servicing
Site preparation, layout, excavation, underground services and grading, ahead of the concrete and the building.
What the work includes
Site work sets up everything that follows. If the layout is out or the base is soft, the error is carried into the concrete, the building and the paving. We run it as part of a general contract or as its own package, before or after a demolition.
- Clearing, grubbing and stripping the topsoil
- Construction layout: gridlines, offsets and elevations from the survey and the drawings
- Bulk excavation and trenching
- Shoring and excavation support, to the engineer’s design
- Dewatering, where the excavation needs it
- Storm, sanitary and water services, with manholes and catch basins
- Backfill and compaction in lifts
- Rough and finished grading
- Granular base for parking areas, roads and slabs
- Excess soil tested and taken to a site that can accept it
Checks and approvals that often apply
- Locates
- Underground services located and marked through Ontario One Call before any digging.
- Notice of Project
- Filed with the Ministry of Labour before work starts where labour and materials are expected to exceed $50,000.
- Excavation support
- Excavations sloped, benched or shored as the construction regulation requires, with an engineered design where the depth or the soil calls for one.
- Municipal connections
- Connections to municipal sewers and watermains approved by the municipality and inspected before they are backfilled.
- Dewatering
- Water pumped from an excavation above set daily volumes has to be registered with, or permitted by, the province.
- Excess soil
- Soil leaving the site planned, tested and tracked to a receiving site under Ontario’s excess soil rules.
Site work questions
Do you take on site work without the rest of the building?
Yes. Site preparation, excavation, servicing and grading are priced as their own package or as part of a general contract.
Who designs the shoring and the services?
The engineer of record designs them. We build to the drawings, coordinate the reviews they call for and book the municipal inspections.
Can the demolition be part of the same package?
Yes. Demolition, site preparation and excavation can run as one package, so the site goes from an existing building to a graded pad without a hand-off between contractors. See demolition.
Have a site to prepare or service?
Send us the drawings, the geotechnical report if there is one, and the closing date.