Cost of excavating raised front garden for driveway

ed110220

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can give me a rough estimate for excavating part of our front garden to make a driveway. The garden is held back by a retaining wall at the pavement about 1.2m tall and slopes up slightly towards the house to about 1.5m where the drive would end.

Just looking for a rough idea to see if the idea is worth pursuing.

Doozergirl

How much would it cost if the idea was worth persuing?

You haven't said how wide or deep an area you want to create.

Head_The_Ball

The price will vary hugely depending on where you live and what the job entails so get a few local contractors to give you an estimate.

Avoid the "We've just finished a job in the area and have left over materials so we can do you a cheap job' types.

Aylesbury_Duck

Doozergirl wrote: »

How much would it cost if the idea was worth persuing?

You haven't said how wide or deep an area you want to create.

Details, schmetails. You are picky. You've got one of three dimensions, what more information could you possibly need?

ed110220

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Details, schmetails. You are picky. You've got one of three dimensions, what more information could you possibly need?

Sorry, I should have said this would be to create space to park one car rather than to provide access, so width and length would be the minimum to reasonably do so.

unforeseen

You will need to dispose of around 20 cu mtrs of soil, build retaining walls on 3 sides and also pay the council to install a dropped kerb.

Dropped kerb permission of course is dependent on you being able to meet their minimum size for a drive, most tend to go with 5.5m between the house and and it's boundary with the pavement

Ask some builders to give you a quote

Aylesbury_Duck

ed110220 wrote: »

Sorry, I should have said this would be to create space to park one car rather than to provide access, so width and length would be the minimum to reasonably do so.

I'd plan it to accommodate the longest and widest car on the market, plus space to get in/out, etc. That way you haven't got to take a second bite if you size-up your car in future. I reckon you're therefore looking at excavating something like 25 cubic metres of earth. By the time that's been excavated and dumped in skips, it's probably something like 35 cubic metres. You're looking at 5-7 big skip loads at £250ish a pop, so just disposing of the earth will cost you £1500.

unforeseen

Forget to mention but if you excavate close to the house then you also have to take into account any effect it might have on the house foundations

ed110220

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

I'd plan it to accommodate the longest and widest car on the market, plus space to get in/out, etc. That way you haven't got to take a second bite if you size-up your car in future. I reckon you're therefore looking at excavating something like 25 cubic metres of earth. By the time that's been excavated and dumped in skips, it's probably something like 35 cubic metres. You're looking at 5-7 big skip loads at £250ish a pop, so just disposing of the earth will cost you £1500.

Thanks for all the replies! I can't imagine I'd buy something like a Ford Crown Victoria or a Chelsea tractor so I wouldn't worry about it being too small in the future for the sake of extra upfront costs though.

Aylesbury_Duck

I used the dimensions of a large car, like a Mondeo. Don't forget that even with an average car, you'll need at least a metre's clearance lengthwise and width wise. In any case, marginal changes to the footprint won't make a huge difference to the cost. It's still many hours labour, excavator hire, skip hire, dropped kerb costs, shoring up the walls, etc etc. There really is no point in making it a tight fit for the sake of shaving off a few hundred quid and as a previous poster has said, a dropped kerb may require a minimum amount of clearance anyway.