Lot Clearing and Grading
Brush, stumps and topsoil off, then the site graded to the levels the drawings call for. Stumps and land-clearing debris are not accepted at a CVRD recycling centre, so haul routing is part of the quote.
Serving the Cowichan Valley
Excavation in Duncan
Site prep, footings, drains and driveways across the Cowichan Valley — quoted after a look at the ground, not over the phone.
- Free written quotes
- Serving the Cowichan Valley
- Utility locates before digging
- Quoted on site
Excavation in the Cowichan Valley
Duncan Excavating handles site preparation, footings, drainage and driveway access across the Cowichan Valley. Ground conditions change within a few kilometres: the valley floor is river sand and gravel with a water table near 2.4 metres, while bedrock at Mill Bay is mapped under 1 metre of soil. Every quote follows a site visit.
What Duncan Excavating does
Excavation & Site Preparation in Duncan
Four lines of work. Each one is priced by what the machine hits, how far the spoil has to travel, and how deep the trench goes.
Footings and Foundations
Digging and backfilling for footings and foundation walls, cut to the surveyor's levels. On the valley floor the water table sits near 2.4 metres, so depth and timing get planned before the machine arrives.
Perimeter Drains and Ditching
Perimeter drains, ditching and service trenches. An excavation over 1.2 metres that a worker enters has to be sloped, benched or shored under the OHS Regulation, which is why a deep run costs more than a shallow one.
Driveways and Culverts
Rural driveways, turnarounds and culvert installs. Access off a numbered highway needs a provincial permit; a driveway off a maintained side road outside the municipal boundary usually does not.
3-Step Local Quoting Process
How a quote comes together
- 1
Send the details
The form asks for the property, the work and a rough timeline. A photograph of the site is worth more than a paragraph describing it.
- 2
Site visit
Ground conditions set most of the price, so the quote comes after someone has stood on the site — access width, spoil volume, rock, and how wet the ground is.
- 3
Written quote
Machine time, trucking and disposal listed separately, so the cost of moving material off the property is visible instead of buried in one total.
Explore excavation services & guides
- Lot Clearing and GradingBrush, stump and topsoil removal, then grading to drawing levels across the Cowichan Valley. CVRD recycling centres do not accept stumps or land-clearing debris.
- Footings and FoundationsExcavation and backfill for footings and foundation walls across the Cowichan Valley, cut to surveyor's levels and planned around a winter water table.
- Perimeter Drains and DitchingPerimeter drains, ditching and service trenches across the Cowichan Valley, where groundwater on the valley floor sits at a median of 2.4 metres.
- Driveways and CulvertsRural driveways, turnarounds and culvert crossings across the Cowichan Valley, including the access permits that apply on provincial and municipal roads.
- All excavation servicesTODO: services hub blurb.
- Areas we serveCommunities across the Cowichan Valley.
- Excavation cost guideTODO: cost guide blurb.
- Permits and setbacksTODO: permits guide blurb.
- Common questions answeredTODO: FAQ blurb.
Free, no-obligation quote
Excavation quote request
The more detail about the property and the work, the closer the first number will be. A written quote follows a site visit.
Where the work happens
Duncan Excavating service area
The Cowichan Valley does not have one kind of ground. The floor of the valley is river sand and gravel laid down by the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers, unconfined and highly transmissive, running to about 30 metres deep — straightforward digging until the water table appears, which it does from November through January. Cowichan Bay is the opposite: the CVRD's own community plan describes much of that area as underlain by highly impervious clay soils, which is why drainage work behaves differently there. At Mill Bay and along the Malahat, near-surface bedrock less than a metre down has been mapped across most of the area, so a footing dig can turn into a breaker job. East and west of Shawnigan Lake, bedrock outcrops at surface.
- Duncan
- Cowichan Bay
- Shawnigan Lake
- Mill Bay
- Cobble Hill
- Lake Cowichan
Frequently asked
Excavation in Duncan — FAQ
- How much does excavation cost in the Cowichan Valley?
- No excavation contractor on Vancouver Island publishes a price list. One Duncan company's own pricing page states only that equipment carries a two-hour minimum plus transport, and that trucking is billed hourly with a one-hour minimum. Price is driven by machine size and access, haul distance and disposal, whether the bucket hits rock, and trench depth.
- Is a permit needed to dig on a property here?
- It depends which authority governs the parcel. North Cowichan requires a soil removal and deposit permit above 300 cubic metres per parcel, or 60 cubic metres per acre, in a calendar year, and exempts parcels under one hectare. The Cowichan Valley Regional District adopted Soil Deposit Bylaw No. 4380 for all electoral areas in July 2021. Work in the Agricultural Land Reserve needs a Notice of Intent filed with the Agricultural Land Commission at least 60 days ahead, with a $150 fee.
- How far ahead do utility locates need to be booked?
- BC 1 Call locate requests are free, and member companies require three working days' notice, or five business days for large projects. A ticket requires excavation to begin within 14 calendar days of the request date, and once work has begun the ticket stays valid for 30 calendar days.
- Where does the excavated material go?
- Not to a CVRD recycling centre. Bings Creek, Meade Creek and Peerless Road take rubble — asphalt, brick, concrete, gravel and rock — at $94 per tonne, and clean untreated lumber at $165, but the yard waste rules state no rock, sod or dirt, and no stumps. Soil, sod and land-clearing debris go to a private facility such as Fisher Road Recycling at Cobble Hill, which does not publish rates.