Trenching cost

Thanks. Spoil would likely need to be removed - can probably use some of it, but not a great deal.

Theo

Have you got an odd corner where you can dig a hole and bury it?

Bill

Probably about a grand if someone has to make a living out of doing it.

If good access means it all doable with a mini digger, its about a days work for one/two men so could be sub £500 with digger hire, but if there is a lot of handwork it might take 3 days.

Most labourers want to make £200 a day minimum Each.

So what diameter are these pipes exactly ?

michael adams

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Would there be that much, given it's only a pipe and cable in the trench?

Yes, I was going to ask that, a mole plough would probably do it more cheaply. Do you really want the paving slabs on top?

Probably a pair of 32mm. I looked up some pre-lagged direct burial pipes and they come in at 125mm diameter for a pair of 32mm.

Theo

I bought a mole plough a few months ago, it cost £320. You do of course need a tractor to drag it through the ground.

A mole plough isn't one of those self propelled undeground guided missile things. It's something you drag behind a tractor with a sort of 'bullet' at the bottom of a blade and a pipe that runs down to the 'bullet' that you feed a pipe into. A quick 'net search will show you what it is.

Mine has saved me much digging and money burying both MDPE water pipes and Cat5e cables.

why do you want to put paving slabs on top ? have you considered a Moling Services you only need to dig two holes

Please tell us where you can get a digger, and driver to work it, for £300 a day. We've recently paid £600 in Leics. for a similar thing.

It'd be 2 days work to dig/ finish and make good. If it can be done for less than £1000, I'd be surprised. And as you say, there will be excess soil to get rid of, so maybe a skip or 2 at £200 each.

You bin listening to too many Goon Shows. Wait till it snows then bury the pipes under that.

Brian

And why a metre down ?. SWA doesn't need to go that deep. Nor do Insulated water pipes, and clay is much better insulation than sandy soil anyway. What sort of traffic will be crossing this trench ?.

Might need to let it all settle for a few months before putting anything on top if its clay, particularly, I have clay here and my cement patio is pot hole city. Brian

Not all moles are made the same. When I heard mole I immediately thought of the pneumatic variety:

Oh, I'm quite sure the likes of you would simply shovel it back in and wonder why there was lots left over.

Any ideas roughly what it would cost (in Cambridgeshire, heavy clay) to dig about 15m of trench to a depth of 1m, bury insulated water pipes and some SWA, backfill and put paving slabs on top?

Beyond 'hire a mini digger and DIY', where I'd probably spend most of the time failing to drive the digger...

Thanks Theo

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Hire a "Ditch Witch" or similar trenching machine. Most plant hire places will have one.

When I was working we would normally use cable ploughs such as

#well last time I used one it was £60 a day.

But that was around 2000.

I do know that a mini digger is about £100 a day and a labourer is around £200 round here.

Shouldn't be much excess soil. you aren't putting much extra there compared to what is to be removed. Raised flower bed?

The excess soil will be the same volume as the cable being laid unless its being backfilled with gravel or similar.

You don't even need a pencil and paper or calculator to calculate the exact volume; you can get a rough approximation in your head.

If this is cut into 30 1 metre lengths that gives a 5 x 6 bundle of I mtr pipe lengths, Which will be 5 X 32mm = 152mm on one side and 6x 32mm = 192mm on the other side.

Although as always I stand to be corrected and clearly the actual volume will be somewhat smaller.

I also asked about the diameter as I'd remembered a technique I devised decades ago for restricting the roots of a plum tree which are given to putting out suckers. Basically this consisted in driving strips of plywoood into the ground using a sledgehammer. Those didn't have to be removed whereas these would, possibly using levers inserted through holes. But

michael adams

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and clearly the actual