cost of professionals to construct foundations

[sm_jamieson]

My foundations will be around 4 x 5 metres, one side by a party wall, one side by my house wall, another side 2 metres from a public sewer. The foundations near the sewer must be over 2 metres deep. The rest of them should be 1 metre. I am starting to think the best plan may be to get a company to do this work, presumably with insurance against damaging the sewer with the probably using 3 tonne digger. Any idea of the cost for this, and how much I would be paying in labour against materials. Not including the floor slab. I will still to that. Thanks, Simon.

[Rick]

Digger hire 3 days at 60 quid Dumper hire 3 days at 40 quid

2 men at 9 quid an hour for 3 days concrete at 70 quid a cube, going up with the price of oil so check. skips at 30 quid per cube of muck

• VAT

at a guess

If you can claim the VAT back, you can claim the VAT on operated machines, but not on self drive. Also they will work faster than you could, so the extra you pay on the men, is saved by then not needing so much machine time. The same appys to the concrete delivery, these guys charge by the minuite if you keep em hanging arround too long (you get 10 minuites plus 5 minuites a cube).

What I do is become a laborer for them, so I get one guy with a digger and dumper, then drive the dumper, work the shovel, make the tea, order the stuff up etc etc ....... This normally means I work 12+ hours a day, and they work 7.5.

I guess your costs will be up, due to the sewer, you may need a bigger company with more organisation, rather than just a "man and digger" operation.

Rick

[PhilC]

Not sure about cost but if you are in Surrey/Sussex/Middlesex can recommend a very good small company

Phil