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Site visit, plan review and Dial Before You Dig. One clear quote covering dig, cartage and cleanup.
Annandale is a grand terrace-and-mansion suburb on the shale-sandstone edge, basement and underpinning work on heritage streets. The regular jobs here are basement digs, pool digs and retaining walls. Services located first, sites left level and clean.
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From a knock-down rebuild to a new estate pad, each service has its own page with the detail.
Annandale sits about 5 kilometres west of the city. Locals place it by Johnston Street, Federation mansions and Rozelle Bay. It's ringed by Leichhardt, Rozelle, Glebe, Lilyfield and Forest Lodge. What's changing: basement digs and pools cut into rock, and underpinning and retaining on the steep terrace blocks.
Around Annandale, near Johnston Street, you're mostly on victorian and Federation terraces and workers cottages, with heritage conservation areas. Near Johnston Street, the terraces are dug through the house or over the back fence. On a Annandale block that usually means basement digs, pool digs and retaining walls.
Annandale sits on Wianamatta shale over sandstone on the ridge to Rozelle Bay, out toward Johnston Street. On the Annandale blocks toward Federation mansions the rock is shallow, so pools, piers and basements are sawn clean and broken rather than dug. Around Rozelle, the clay is reactive, so fill goes in in compacted layers.
Annandale is in Inner West Council; the Johnston Street end carries heritage and tree protection controls, so we dig to the approved plans. The crew reaches the Annandale job off Parramatta Road or Booth Street, where the fall has to be benched and retained, past Leichhardt.
Every job follows the same sequence, whether it's a single trench or a full site cut.
A trench can be a day, a basement can be weeks. Dates come with the quote, not after.
Annandale and the streets around it, from the older estates to the new blocks.
From the older streets to the newer blocks, Annandale and the suburbs around it. If you're anywhere in the Annandale area, we can get to you.
See the whole Inner West →It depends on the volume of material, the ground (wianamatta shale over sandstone on the ridge to rozelle bay), access for the machine and how far spoil has to be carted. Every job gets a written quote after a site look, with the dig, cartage and cleanup spelled out, so you know what’s included before anything starts.
Usually, if the excavation is part of a build. Cut and fill beyond set limits, work near boundaries and anything on a lot with a flood, bushfire or heritage overlay needs approval as part of the DA or CDC. We work to the approved plans; check with your certifier before the dig is booked.
A trench, pool dig or single pad is a day or two; a knock-down site cut or a basement runs longer and depends on volume, ground and weather. Dates come with the quote, not after.
Yes. Wianamatta shale over sandstone on the ridge to Rozelle Bay. The ridge suburbs sit on sandstone at or near the surface, often right under the floorboards of a terrace. It’s sawn against the party walls and broken out, and it’s in the quote from the site look.
Yes, and it’s one of the most common Inner West jobs. The house is supported to the engineer’s underpinning design, the ground under it is dug in stages through the front or rear, and rock is sawn at the party walls so the neighbours’ footings stay put. Spoil goes out by conveyor.
Through the house on boards with the floor protected, or over the back fence by crane. Spoil comes out the same way or by conveyor into a skip in the lane. Slower than a side gate and priced for it, but it’s how most Inner West yards get dug.
Conditions on the approval, usually about keeping the front of the house, protecting the neighbours’ walls, and sometimes an archaeologist watching the dig on the oldest streets. Haberfield and the older parts of Balmain, Glebe and Marrickville are the strictest. We dig to what’s approved.
Reactive clay. It swells in wet winters and shrinks in dry summers, and anything poured on loose or uncompacted fill moves with it. A pad cut and filled in compacted layers to the engineer’s spec is what stops the new slab doing the same thing.
Tell us about the job. We'll look at the site before quoting, so you know what's included before anything starts.
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