Earthworks, Christchurch.
The unglamorous work everything else stands on. We do it to the foundation plan, because the foundation is ours to pour next.
What the ground work covers.
Topsoil stripped and the platform cut to level. Hardfill placed and compacted in proper lifts, not dumped and hoped. Drainage prep where the plans say, coordinated with the plumber whose pipes are about to live there. Set-out surveyed so what gets dug is what got consented.
On Christchurch's mixed ground the platform is engineering in its own right: a TC1 site wants clean compaction; harder ground can mean over-excavation and engineered fill before a raft is even an option. Because the same book runs the earthworks and the foundation, that call gets made once, correctly, with the geotech in hand.
Christchurch first, and Canterbury and the surrounding areas.
A platform worth pouring on
When the platform suits the digger, not the slab.
A bad platform never announces itself on the day. It announces itself months later, as a slab crack, a drainage argument, or a compaction test the council will not accept. Every one of those traces back to ground work done to the digger's standard instead of the slab's.
Pouring on our own platforms is how we keep that class of problem out of the job entirely.
- Hardfill dumped in one lift instead of compacted in layers.
- Levels that suited the machine, not the foundation design.
- Drainage prep that meets the paper and argues with the plumber.
- A platform signed off by nobody who has to pour on it.
From grass to pour-ready.
Strip and cut
Topsoil off, platform cut to design level.
Hardfill
Placed in lifts, compacted and checked.
Drainage prep
Coordinated with the plumbing rough-in.
Set-out
Surveyed so the dig matches the consent.
Hand to the pour
Same crew, no gap for a problem to live in.
Ground work, from the air.
Tight access comes with Christchurch infill. The drone does not exaggerate: these are the sections the gear actually got into.
Backyard build, behind the house
Tight access
Platform done, pods placed
Ready to pour
Tight-access infill
Two slabs down
Multi-unit development
Every pad boxed, pods in
How the platform gets checked.
Layer by layer, checked as it goes down.
Priced with the job, not left as a heap.
So the dig matches the consent.
The platform gets poured on by the same crew.
Ground-work questions.
Do you do earthworks without the foundation?
Occasionally, for the right job, but the honest answer is the package. The value is one crew answering for the platform and the slab on it, both, so nothing falls into the gap between two contractors.
What about tight-access sections?
Backyard builds behind existing houses, shared driveways, neighbours' fences. The gear gets sized to the access, and the portfolio page has the drone shots to prove it.
Do you dig for retaining walls too?
Where the wall is part of the foundation job, yes: the block retaining work and the excavation for it run under the same book. The TC3 page covers the engineered block side.
Who deals with the spoil?
We do. Cart-off is part of the job and priced with it: the section gets left ready to build on, not decorated with a heap.
Price the ground work.
Email the plans and the address. The earthworks and the foundation come back as one number.
Details, then the drawings.
PDFs or photos of the drawings are both fine. Everything sent here lands with Mark himself.