Open today 7 am – 5 pm
Excavation Contractor · Milton
Basement digs, drainage, septic beds and service trenches, with a mini-ex for the backyards a full-size machine cannot reach. Eramosa Excavating will have the locates cleared before a bucket goes in and tell you up front where the dirt is going.
Serving Milton
About us
Eramosa Excavating started with one mini excavator and a dump trailer, taking the tight-access digs the big outfits would not bother with, and the work has grown from there without changing how it is done. Locates are in before the machine is unloaded, trenches are boxed or sloped rather than trusted, grades are shot with a laser instead of eyeballed, and the yard is put back the way it was found. We tell you what the dirt will cost to move before you agree to move it.
What we do
Big jobs and small ones, across Milton and the surrounding area.
Excavation for additions, walkouts, garages and new builds, dug to the engineer's grade with the sides benched or sloped so nobody works under a bank of clay. Spoil is stockpiled for backfill where the site allows and hauled off where it does not, and the hole is ready for the footing inspection when the forming crew shows up.
Regrade so the ground falls away from the foundation instead of toward it, with swales cut to carry water to the street or a rear catch basin. Topsoil is spread and seeded or sodded, and on a new build we grade to the approved lot grading plan so the municipality will release your deposit.
Trenches for water services, hydro to a shop or pool, gas lines, sprinkler mains and low-voltage runs, dug below the frost line and bedded in sand before backfill. Anything deeper than 1.2 metres that a worker enters gets a trench box or proper sloping under O. Reg. 213/91, and your electrician or gas fitter runs the line in an open, safe trench.
Tanks set and beds built to the designer's drawings under an Ontario Building Code Part 8 permit from your health unit or municipality, with the imported filter sand and clear stone the design calls for. We coordinate the pre-cover inspection so the bed is signed off before a shovel of topsoil goes back on it.
Perforated Big O with a filter sock laid in clear stone to pull water away from a wet basement or a soggy corner of the yard, tied to a sump discharge, a dry well or daylight. Downspout extensions and catch basins go in at the same time so the roof water stops running straight to the foundation.
A mini excavator that fits through a 36-inch gate and a tracked skid steer for the jobs a full-size machine cannot reach: pool and hot tub digs, stump removal, backyard drainage and hauling spoil out between houses. Fence panels come off and go back on, and mats go down where the lawn or the driveway needs protecting.
Topsoil stripped and Granular A or B placed and compacted in lifts, on geotextile where the subgrade is soft, so the asphalt, pavers or gravel on top has something to sit on. Culverts and driveway entrances go in under the municipal or MTO entrance permit and get graded so the ditch keeps flowing.
Brush and stumps cleared, small buildings and old slabs broken out, and the material hauled away or chipped and left where you want it. We deliver topsoil, screenings, gravel and fill by the tandem or dump trailer load, and haul spoil to a site that will take it, with the excess soil paperwork handled where the volume calls for it.
Need a hand in Milton?
Tell us what the job is and we'll tell you what it takes.
Why choose us
Ask to see any of these before the work starts.
Service area
Eramosa Excavating covers these towns week in, week out.
Not on the list? Give us a call — we can often still help.
Book online
Choose a slot and it goes straight on the schedule. No phone tag.
Pick a time that works. Takes about 30 seconds.
FAQ
Don't see your question? Call and ask. We'd rather answer it on the phone than have you guess.
Yes, by law — anyone digging in Ontario has to request locates through Ontario One Call before breaking ground, and we do that for every job as soon as it is booked. The request is free but takes up to five business days, which is usually what sets the start date. Ontario One Call only marks the public lines up to your meter or property line; anything you own past that, like the wire to the shed, the septic pipe or the sprinkler main, needs a private locate, and we can arrange one where it matters.
Almost always. The mini-ex fits through a 36-inch gate or a single fence panel with the panel off, and it goes back on when we are done. Where there is no way through we bring the tracked skid steer or hand dig the tight stretch. Access is the biggest thing on the price after the size of the hole, so a photo of the route in gets you a better number than a description of it.
It depends what it is and how much. Clean fill and topsoil are usually kept on site and put back or spread, and we plan the cut and fill so as little leaves as possible. What has to go is loaded and hauled to a site that will take it, and the tipping fee is a real line in the quote rather than a surprise. Bringing fill in can need a site alteration permit in some municipalities, and we tell you before that becomes your problem.
Start outside. Most wet basements we see have ground sloping toward the house, downspouts dumping at the corner, or a window well with nowhere to drain, and regrading plus extending the downspouts fixes them for a fraction of a full excavation. If the wall is leaking through cracks or the old clay tile has collapsed, then it is a dig down to the footing, new weeping tile, membrane and stone. We look at both before quoting either.
Digging itself does not need a permit, but what you are digging for often does. A basement or addition needs a building permit before we break ground, a septic bed needs a Part 8 sewage system permit from the approval authority, a culvert or new driveway needs an entrance permit, and anything near a creek or wetland may need conservation authority sign-off. We tell you which apply and dig only once the paperwork is in place, because an inspector who finds an open hole with no permit stops the whole job.
We dig year round, but frost changes the price. Frozen ground a foot or two down means ripping with a frost tooth or thawing it first, and the spring thaw turns clay into a mess that ruts lawns and bogs down trucks. Late spring through fall is easiest and cheapest, and septic beds in particular go in better in dry ground. If a water line breaks in January we come anyway; if a pool dig can wait for May, it should.
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