guidance please

[bill]

Can anyone tell me the kind of sum I can expect to pay a mini-digger driver per hour/day for excavating footings? Many thanks.

[Rick Dipper]

I pay

15.50 per hour for a 6 ton machine, including driver, diesel. I rent a drive yourself machine (1.5 or 3 ton) for 40 quid a day + diesel. a 750kg machine is 60 quid.

The 6 tonne machine will dig about 1000mm deep, 25-50m in a day, upto

1000mm wide. Width is a function of bucket width, not time.

JCB's are more.

These are fairly standad rates round my way.

On top of this you will need to shift the spoit, I pay 40 quid a day for a dumper, which I self drive, of I use my bobcat. You will quckily find that the removing of spoil slows the excavator down, unless you run a relay of dumpers, which I have also done.

All Prices + VAT, however some of the farmers are not VAT registered, which helps.

Diesel, is 20 litres for a fiver, from the farmers, for non road use only.

On a finl not, if its VERY wet, it will take longer, and the dryer it is, the less of a mess you will make.

Rick