Broken water service, collapsed sewer line or undermined footing? Call for priority dispatch.
(825) 475-5548
Excavation · Earthworks · Demolition · Drainage · Calgary, AB
Basements and infill digs, lot grading and compaction, water, sewer and storm trenches, hydrovac daylighting, house and garage demolition, concrete breakout, drainage, retaining wall bases, culverts, ponds and emergency dig-outs. Located before we dig, checked to grade as we go, and backfilled so it stays put, across Calgary, Rocky View County, Springbank, Bearspaw, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, Okotoks, De Winton and Heritage Pointe.
Six groups of work, from a single sewer service trench to a commercial pad. Each service page explains the method, the equipment, the depths and materials, the permits and locates involved, and when you would be better off choosing something else.
Cut and fill, laser grading, land clearing, compaction and driveway rough-ins.
Basement digs, infill and tight-access excavation, lowering prep and backfill.
Water, sewer and storm trenches, shallow conduit runs, hydrovac and septic digs.
House and garage teardown, slab and asphalt breakout, soil export and haul-off.
French drains, weeping tile, wall bases, culverts, ditches and slope work.
Commercial pads and parking lots, ponds and dugouts, emergency dig-outs.
Most people do not phone asking for a machine. They phone because a basement has to be dug, a line has broken, an old garage has to go or the basement floods every spring. These are common reasons people around Calgary call an excavator.
Narrow lot, neighbours’ foundations a few metres away, a laneway for access and nowhere to stockpile. The machine class, the shoring plan and the trucking all follow from that.
Infill Lot Digging & Tight-Access ExcavationAn old service line from the street to the house, laid with the cover the City’s standards call for, bedded properly and backfilled so the lawn and sidewalk do not sink.
Deep Utility Trenching (Water, Sewer & Storm)Hazardous materials checked first, services disconnected, the structure and its foundation taken out, debris sorted, and the lot left level and ready for the next build.
Residential Building & Garage DemolitionDigging down the outside of the foundation to replace failed weeping tile, bed it in clean gravel and route the water to a sump or the storm system, never the sanitary sewer, then regrade so the surface water goes away.
French Drain & Weeping Tile ExcavationTank pit, field trenches or mound base dug to the designer’s plan and the provincial standard, with the access and the well setbacks thought through before the machine arrives.
Septic System & Field ExcavationWater surfacing in the yard, a sewer backing up from a collapsed line, or a washout under a footing. Priority dispatch, a located and safe dig, and the break exposed for repair.
Emergency Utility Leak Dig-OutsThe locate, the depth and the compaction matter as much as the digging. Here is what happens between the first call and the day the last truck leaves, and what you get to see at each point.
We walk the site with the drawings, the geotechnical report if there is one, and the permit conditions. We look at the access route, overhead lines, trees, neighbours’ foundations and where trucks can load. The written quote names the machine class, the depths, the backfill material and the haul-off.
Before any ground is disturbed, buried utilities are located and marked. In Alberta, locate requests go through Utility Safety Partners, the province’s one-call service, using Click Before You Dig. We request locates for the dig area and keep the paperwork on site.
How hydrovac daylighting exposes lines safelyUtility Safety Partners asks for at least three full working days’ notice, and busy seasons can take longer, so locates are requested well before the machine is booked, not on the morning of the job.
Within 1 metre either side of a locate mark, or 5 metres for a high-pressure pipeline, the line is exposed by hand or by a non-destructive method the line owner accepts, such as hydrovac, before any machine digs there.
Utility locates stop at the utility’s own equipment. Power to a garage or shop, a gas line to a barbecue or heater, yard lights, irrigation, well lines and septic pipes belong to the owner, so tell us where they run.
A zero-tail-swing mini excavator for the backyard reached through a gate, a full-size machine for the acreage basement, a dozer with laser or GNSS grade control for the pad. The access decides the class before the size of the hole does.
Roughly 1 to 6 tonnes
Small tracked excavators, the zero-tail-swing ones with an upper house that turns inside the width of the tracks, so the counterweight never swings past the machine into a fence, a neighbouring wall or a laneway.
Where we use itRoughly 6 to 10 tonnes
The middle class, with weight classes that vary by manufacturer: enough reach and breakout force to dig a full basement or a deep service trench, with a short tail that keeps the machine working on a narrow city lot.
Where we use itAbove roughly 10 tonnes
Large tracked excavators with the reach, bucket size and stability to move volume quickly and dig deep, open excavations safely back from the edge.
Where we use itCompact class
Nimble loaders on rubber tracks or wheels that carry buckets, grapples, augers and grading attachments, and move material around a site without rutting it the way wheels on wet clay do.
Where we use itSmall to mid-size crawler dozers
Crawler dozers push and spread material across large areas. Paired with a rotating laser or satellite-positioning machine control, the blade holds a designed elevation and slope instead of relying on eye and stakes alone.
Where we use itMatched to the carrier machine
Hydraulic hammers, ripper teeth, grapples, thumbs, tilting ditch buckets and compaction wheels that turn one excavator into several tools.
Where we use itThe same hole dug somewhere mild would be a simpler job. Here, three things shape nearly every excavation: how deep the frost goes, what the soil is made of, and how much water arrives at once.
Frost around Calgary typically reaches around 2 m (about 7 ft), and in the extreme winter of 2019 the City reported it at 2.4 m (8 ft). That is why City water services need 2.7 m of cover in clay, why footings are set to the code’s minimum depths, and why frozen material never goes back into a trench as backfill.
Water, sewer and storm trenchingGround changes from one lot to the next: clay that holds water and needs kneading to compact, sand and gravel that drain but slough, and river-valley communities where groundwater, not just surface water, flooded basements in 2013. The soil decides how steep an excavation wall can stand, what can go back in as backfill, and how a subgrade is compacted, which is why a geotechnical report is worth having on bigger jobs.
Subgrade compaction and proof rollingSnowmelt arriving on still-frozen ground and short, heavy summer storms send a lot of surface water toward foundations, driveways and ditches at once. Lot grading that falls away from the house, working weeping tile, properly sized culverts and stable slopes are what keep that water from becoming a wet basement or a washout.
Foundation backfill and perimeter gradingEvery Calgary quadrant from our downtown office, the acreage country to the west and south, and the cities and towns around them. Each area page covers the lots, the ground, the servicing and whose permits apply.
City lots on municipal servicing, from inner-city infills to industrial parks.
Country residential land on wells and private sewage, where access and drainage lead the job.
Each with its own permits, servicing standards and ground.
A few details are enough to start: the type of work, where the site is, the access and your timeline. Drawings and a geotechnical report help if you have them. We come back with questions or a time to look at the site, then a written quote that names the depths, the machine class, the backfill and the haul-off.
Tell us what needs digging, where, and when. We reply with questions or a site visit time, then a written quote.
A broken water service, a collapsed sewer line or a washout undermining a footing can get worse by the hour. Call for priority dispatch and describe what you are seeing.
Call and describe the site. We will tell you what the dig involves, what it needs first, and whether it is the right job. Want to know what shapes the price? See what drives excavation cost.