Commercial site preparation in Melbourne’s west is still an earthworks job: cut to the levels, deal with the fill, and get the spoil off without blocking the street the business next door uses. The building might be a warehouse, a childcare centre or a shop pad. The quote still fails in the same places a house quote fails — access, rock, and a handover that was never agreed.
A bigger pad is not a different trade
On the west, commercial sites turn up in industrial estates, on old house blocks that have been rezoned, and on corners where a single dwelling is making way for something with a car park. The machine might be larger. The questions are the same ones we ask on a site cut: what level, what has to leave, and how the truck gets out.
We price the earthworks we will stand behind. That is excavation, cartage, and trenches that are drawn. It is not a design, a traffic management plan we have not seen, or a promise that the building surveyor will sign the platform. If those documents exist, send them. If they do not, the quote will say what we assumed.
A house crew that “also does factories” without talking about turning room is how a 20-tonne machine ends up booked for a yard it cannot swing in. Tell us the width at the gate and what is overhead. We will match the machine to that, not to the hero photo in the brochure.
Pads, yards and the fall to the street
Commercial levels usually have to meet a floor, a loading dock or a car-park grade that already exists on the drawing. “Level with the footpath” is rarely what the drawing says once the fall for drainage is in. We cut to the marks we are given. If the marks are still being argued by the architect and the civil designer, we can dig a pilot, not the whole platform.
Cut to fill, where the site allows it, is often cheaper than carting everything and buying replacement. It is only cheaper if the material is allowed to stay under the new works. Contaminated fill, demolition rubble and wet clay are not free structural fill. Read the distinction in our note on cut to fill versus import fill before you ask for one blended rate.
Proof rolling, pavement and a sealed yard are downstream of the earthworks. We can leave a trimmed platform. We do not describe that as a finished hardstand. If a geotech has a compaction requirement, put the clause in the email so it is either in our scope or clearly in someone else’s.
Live streets, neighbours and hours
A residential court complains about mud. A commercial street complains about a truck across a driveway that a forklift needs at 7am. Both are real constraints. The quote should name the hours, the standing zone, and whether we have allowed for the site to be opened and closed each day rather than left as a through-route.
Spoil leaves on our tippers when cartage is in the scope. See truck work for how access changes the load count. On a west-side industrial estate the haul to a licensed facility is often shorter than a cross-town job. That is an advantage only if the facility will take the material. If the material is not ordinary soil, say so before the truck is booked. Spoil and waste are taken to licensed recycling and disposal facilities in Melbourne's west, with clean fill, rock and concrete separated for reuse wherever possible.
Public roads, permits to stand a truck, and any traffic control are named if we are pricing them. If we are not, they stay with you. We will not assume a quiet Saturday covers a weekday peak on a road that is not quiet.
Demolition handover on a commercial block
Where a building is still standing, it needs to be demolished and cleared before we cut. We price the ground afterwards: slabs and footings if they were left in the pad, the cut, and the spoil. The sequence is the same idea as a house knockdown, with more room for a truck and less room for a vague scope.
A commercial slab can be thicker, and it can hide pits, culverts and old tanks. Put them in the photos or the demolition report. Finding a pit on the morning the steel is due is not a variation anyone enjoys. It is also not something we should pretend was included because the building “looked simple from the road”.
If only part of the site is being rebuilt and the rest stays in use, draw the line on a plan. We will fence our side of that line in the method if you ask us to. We will not guess which roller door still has to open for the tenant.
What to send with the address
The address, the use of the new building if you know it, and the drawings that show levels. Photos from the gate and from the boundary you are worried about. A note on hours, neighbours, and whether demolition is finished, booked, or not yet scoped. Anything you know is under the slab.
Send that to the quote form or call 0414 011 405. If the pack is thin, you will get questions, not a pretend lump sum. Commercial work goes wrong when the lump sum hides the truck, the rock and the hours. We would rather show those lines.
House-scale calculators are a rough volume check only. The site cut calculator will turn a pad size and a depth into bank metres and a swell allowance. It will not price a loading dock, a traffic plan or a contaminated load. Use it to start the conversation, then send the drawing.
FAQ
Do you prepare commercial sites as well as house lots?
Yes, when the job is earthworks we can actually do: cut, fill, spoil removal, trenches and truck work. We are not a civil contractor for kerb, pavement or a finished car park unless that is separately agreed, and it usually is not.
Is demolition of a commercial building included?
No. Earthmoving Melbourne prices the ground once a building is down and the site is clear, or a site that was already clear. If a building is still standing, it needs to be demolished and cleared before the site cut.
Can you work while the neighbouring tenancy is open?
Often, with a program. Truck routes, hours and where spoil may sit have to be in the quote. A machine that blocks the only driveway is not a detail to discover at 8am.
How do you want the levels?
From the civil or architectural set, with the cut-and-fill intent marked. A floor area and a verbal “make it flat” is not enough on a site that falls to a road.