Websites for excavation contractors.

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.