How much does excavation cost in Louisiana?
One national cost guide puts excavation at $2.50 to $15.00 a cubic yard. A typical job runs $1,100 to $5,600 in total, and the guide’s national average is $3,500.
Those are market numbers, not our price list. An excavator and operator hired by the hour run $100 to $300, the same guide says. In northeast Louisiana, wet clay can push a job toward the top of the per-yard range.
What does excavation cost per cubic yard?
Most excavation contractors charge by the cubic yard or by the whole project. Some charge by the hour for small jobs. The per-yard price depends on the soil type, the depth, the terrain and what is in the way.
| Soil or ground | Published range per cubic yard |
|---|---|
| Light soil | $2.50 to $6.00 |
| Average soil | $6.00 to $10.00 |
| Heavy or wet soil, or loose rock | $10.00 to $15.00 |
The guide’s per-yard prices include labor and equipment. Pricing by the square foot is rare, it says, but shows up on small, shallow grading jobs. Its per-square-foot range is $1 to $5.
Many contractors also set a minimum project fee of $500 to $800. We dig footings and cut and fill lots around Bastrop with our own excavator. See our excavation services for how that work runs.
What does an excavator and operator cost by the hour?
The guide puts an excavator and operator at $100 to $300 an hour. Most operators charge a minimum of one day or eight hours. Prices also rise when the machine has to travel to a remote site.
Hourly pricing fits small jobs where the yards are hard to count. On a bigger dig, ask for a per-yard or whole-job price so quotes compare evenly.
What do common excavation jobs cost?
The same guide lists these national ranges by job. The price drivers in the last column come from the guide too.
| Job | Published range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Home site excavation | $1,500 to $10,000 | Foundation size, depth and terrain |
| Driveway or patio excavation | $1,000 to $2,500 | Slope and access; grading and compacting usually included |
| Yard excavation | $500 to $5,000 | Size, and how much grading or leveling |
| Hillside excavation | $1,000 to $5,000 | Size, slope and the dirt to move |
The guide notes a large foundation dig can cost $20,000 or more. It ties that to areas with excessive clay, rocky soil or large boulders.
Pond digging runs on its own math, covered in our pond construction cost guide. An old slab or foundation in the way is a separate concrete removal job.
How do you figure the cubic yards?
Multiply length by width by depth, all in feet. Divide by 27, the number of cubic feet in a cubic yard. The guide points readers to a cubic yard calculator for the same math.
Say a soft spot 30 by 40 feet has to be dug out 2 feet deep. That is 2,400 cubic feet, or about 89 cubic yards.
At the guide’s heavy or wet row, the digging alone lands near $890 to $1,330. At the light soil row it is about $220 to $530, which can fall under a minimum project fee. Hauling off the spoil and bringing in new fill cost extra.
What does Louisiana ground do to the price?
The biggest soil in Morehouse Parish is Perry clay. The federal soil survey calls it very deep, poorly drained and very slowly permeable. Water soaks into it very slowly.
Hebert, the second biggest, is a silt loam on old natural levees. Its seasonal high water table sits 1.5 to 3 feet down, December through April. A hole dug deeper in those months can take on water.
Bastrop gets 58.39 inches of rain in a normal year, by NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals. Spring is the wettest season, at 16.29 inches. Wet, heavy ground like this sits in the guide’s top per-yard row, at $10 to $15.
The same guide calls spring the best time to excavate, and says areas without snow can dig any time. Around Bastrop, rain sets the calendar, and spring brings the most of it.
Should the dirt stay on site or be hauled off?
The guide says costs rise when dirt moves to or from the site instead of staying on it. On new construction, it suggests asking how the dug dirt can go to backfill or grading.
Spoil can fill a low spot in the yard as part of land grading. When we build a house pad, the pad itself is select fill, hauled in and compacted in lifts.
When the dirt has to go, we load it and haul it off in our dump truck. Backfilling often takes extra dirt hauled in, and the guide puts that at $5 to $25 a cubic yard. Our fill dirt cost guide breaks that down.
Who calls Louisiana 811 before the digging starts?
Louisiana law requires a locate notice at least 48 hours and no more than 120 hours before digging. Weekends and holidays do not count. After the request, member operators have two business days to mark their lines.
Louisiana 811 says anyone planning mechanized digging or excavating must notify it. We make that call before our excavator digs. If you rent a machine and dig yourself, the call is yours.
Louisiana 811 says buried lines are usually marked only up to the meter or the start of the service line. For lines past that, it suggests a plumber or an electrician. Digging around buried pipes takes extra care, and the guide says that adds time and cost.
Should you rent a mini excavator or hire the job out?
Renting a mini excavator yourself runs $200 to $700 a day, the guide says, depending on size and features. That covers the machine only. The spoil still has to be spread or hauled, and the 811 call is on you.
Hiring brings the machine and the operator, at $100 to $300 an hour in the guide’s numbers. Most operators set a one-day minimum. On wet clay, count the rain days a rented machine may sit idle.
What should a written excavation estimate spell out?
The guide says an accurate estimate takes a visit to the site. Its questions to ask make a good checklist for any written estimate:
- Does the price include equipment and delivery fees?
- Does it include fill dirt, topsoil and dirt delivery?
- Does it include site cleanup and debris removal?
- Who will flag buried pipes and lines before work begins?
- What permits does the job need, and who gets them?
The guide also says the contract should spell out extra costs if the dig hits rock. On wet ground, ask the same about soft spots. Permit rules come from the city or parish, so check before work starts.
What will excavation cost on your property?
Dupree’s Dirt and Excavation is based in Bastrop. We run our own excavator and skid steer, and our dump truck hauls the spoil. We work Bastrop, Monroe and about 60 miles around.
We look at the site before we price it, and the estimate is free. Call (318) 614-2073, or see what our excavation work includes.