Waste & excavation

1. 1

   Estimate the arisings

   Work out volume in m3 and convert to tonnes, roughly 1.5 t per m3 for soil and 2 t per m3 for hardcore and concrete.

2. 2

   Check what is underground

   Get service plans and use a cable avoidance tool before breaking ground, and hand dig near any known service.

3. 3

   Plan the route out

   Confirm access widths, whether a grab lorry can reach the front and where a skip can legally stand, including a permit for the highway.

4. 4

   Segregate on site

   Keep soil, hardcore, green waste and general waste apart. Mixed loads cost far more to dispose of.

5. 5

   Excavate safely

   Batter or support the sides of anything over 1.2 m deep, and keep spoil heaps back from the edge.

6. 6

   Move it off site

   Use a registered waste carrier, and keep the waste transfer note for two years.

Waste is the most-regulated part of a landscaping job: the law follows the soil from your garden to the tip, and the duty of care sits with whoever produced it.

• Anyone moving construction or landscaping waste must use a registered waste carrier, duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. ^[1][2]
• Skip on the public highway requires a permit from the local highway authority and amber lights at night. ^[3]
• Bonfires for garden waste are not illegal per se but become a statutory nuisance if they cause persistent smoke or disturb neighbours. ^[1]
• If your waste is fly-tipped by the carrier you hired, you can be prosecuted unless you took reasonable checks, verify their licence on the Environment Agency register and keep the transfer note. ^[1][2]
• Japanese knotweed, asbestos-containing sheets and contaminated soils are controlled or hazardous waste: separate consignment notes and licensed facilities, never a standard skip. ^[1]

Muck-away is where margins die. These numbers are what stop a £400 dig-out becoming a £1,400 one.

• Before muck-away starts, CAT & Genny sweep over the dig footprint (HSE HSG47). A bucket strike on a live cable or gas main is RIDDOR-reportable and uninsured if you skipped the sweep. Full method in the Safety guide.
• Bulking factor for dug soil: ×1.25 (sandy) to ×1.4 (clay). A 10 t skip rarely holds 10 t of muck.
• Tipping costs: hardcore £15–40/t, mixed muck £80–120/t, plasterboard separate (it's gypsum, can't go to landfill mixed).
• Keep transfer notes for 2 years; hazardous-waste consignment notes for 3 years.
• Inert hardcore (broken brick, concrete, sub-base) tips cheapest and can often be crushed and re-used on site as sub-base, cutting both the skip bill and the aggregate order.
• Green waste composted or chipped on site removes a skip category entirely; a day's chipper hire is usually cheaper than two green-waste skips.
• Grab lorries beat skips above about 8 m³: one 16 t grab load is typically the price of two 8-yard skips and needs no permit if it loads from your drive.
• Order skips for the bulking, not the neat volume: a 20 m² patio dug 150 mm makes ~3 m³ in the ground but ~4 m³ in the skip, and overfilled skips get refused or surcharged.

How deep to dig is decided by the build-up above, not by the digger driver's appetite. These are the standard UK dig depths the calculators apply.

• Patio on reasonable ground: 150–200 mm total dig (100 mm sub-base, 30–50 mm bed, slab). Soft or made ground, add depth to the sub-base, never skimp the bed.
• Driveway taking cars: 250–300 mm dig (150–200 mm sub-base). Vans and SUVs, go to the top of the range.
• Decking pads: 300×300×300 mm per pad on firm ground, deeper on clay or fill.
• Turf and planting areas: strip 100–150 mm of tired topsoil and replace, or cultivate in place if the soil is sound, importing 150 mm of topsoil over a whole garden is a lorry, not a boot-load.
• Drainage trenches: 100 mm pipe needs roughly 450 mm cover in gardens and 900 mm under driveways, plus 100 mm bedding and surround.

• Mixing waste streams: one sheet of plasterboard or a paint tin in a muck skip can contaminate the load and multiply the tip fee. Separate as you dig.
• Skip on the road without the permit: councils remove it and fine the hirer, and the permit is yours to hold, not the skip company's.
• Weighing by eye: soil is 1.4–1.8 t per m³. A 'small' 2 m³ heap is over 3 tonnes, which is why 8-yard soil skips carry weight limits, not volume limits.
• Digging past services depth without a sweep: hand-dig the last 300 mm within half a metre of any marked service, and treat every mark as live.
• Leaving spoil on the lawn 'for a few days': clay spoil kills grass in a week of rain and takes the topsoil structure with it when you finally move it.

Waste and excavation is priced by weight and by access, so measure the volume and convert it before you ring anyone.

• Muck-away for mixed soil and subsoil: roughly £80 to £120 per tonne tipped, including haulage on a standard grab run.
• 8-yard builders skip: roughly £250 to £350 depending on region, with a weight limit rather than a volume limit for soil.
• Grab lorry, around 16 tonnes per load: roughly £250 to £400 per load, and far cheaper per tonne than skips over about 8 m3.
• Skip permit for a skip on the public highway: roughly £30 to £80 per week from the council, plus lights and cones.
• Mini digger and driver: roughly £250 to £350 per day, or £120 to £180 per day for the machine on self-drive hire.
• Hazardous waste such as asbestos: priced separately and always through a licensed carrier with consignment notes, typically from £500 for a small removal.