ᐅ Costs for Excavating a Basement Without Waste Removal

Hello dear forum,

The house contract has been signed, the basement contract is upcoming, and now it’s about excavating the slope for the basement.
The excavation volume will be around 210 m³ (275 cubic yards) and does not need to be disposed of – soil class 3.
What costs should I expect for excavation, backfilling, and spreading the remaining soil on the property?
(I only find prices online that include disposal of the excavation and are several years old.)
Has anyone recently dealt with the same issue?
Thank you very much

Has your house builder/basement contractor not provided a cost breakdown?

Is the soil even suitable for backfilling (compaction-capable)?

I believe that simple earthworks are not too expensive if you have enough space. It could also be that it’s just time plus labor and machinery costs. How long might the excavation take if it can be stored nearby? Then add machine costs and about 500€ per day for the excavator operator. Note: this is a layperson’s opinion and rough estimates.

So, for excavation and loading/storage, we pay 3€ per m3 (cubic meter). Disposal costs are extra.

Installing and compacting material is quite expensive; our current offer is about 25€ per m3 (cubic meter) using existing material. If, for example, gravel or similar needs to be used for compaction due to water issues, the costs can be significantly higher when material has to be delivered. This is then determined not by the amount of existing material but by the soil survey.

These figures are up to date.

Did you calculate the 210 m3 (cubic meters) yourself, or does it come from a reliable source? That seems far too low for a sloped site. In our case, for a basement with three sides on a slope, just the working space that needs to be backfilled is about 300 m3 (cubic meters). And that’s only the “edges” of the excavation pit…

Better double-check the quantities before the nasty surprise with the bill.

By the way, I have no idea either, but this topic is currently relevant for us.

Um. Distributing 210 cubic meters across the building plot—I can’t imagine that’s feasible. If so, you would need expensive L-shaped retaining walls. I just can’t see how you could manage the basement construction without waste disposal, unless your plot is 2000 square meters (21,500 square feet) in size.

maulwurf79 schrieb:

Uh. Distributing 210 cubic meters across the property is hard to imagine

But we will, since it’s a sloped site and the area in front of the house also needs to be filled. If necessary, we’ll add a berm near the boundary. We do expect to use some retaining wall blocks, that’s true.