Cost of excavator for moving soil

[hocuspocus]

Has anyone had to dig out soil hiring an excavator, if so how much would an excavator and operator cost per hour or day.Thanks in advance

[NeverSure]

I don't know in Thailand. Be aware that a bulldozer can move a heck of a lot more dirt than can an excavator unless you are digging a precise ditch or other thing that's deeper than wide or unless you need an excavator to sit on solid ground and reach out to where it's soft or muddy. Excavators are good for reaching out or down - much like a backhoe on tracks. They aren't much good for moving dirt around or for shaping it because they don't have the power or the capacity.

The real cost is how much of the type of work it can do in an hour or day vs what you really need.

Cheers.

[hocuspocus]

I don't know in Thailand. Be aware that a bulldozer can move a heck of a lot more dirt than can an excavator unless you are digging a precise ditch or other thing that's deeper than wide or unless you need an excavator to sit on solid ground and reach out to where it's soft or muddy. Excavators are good for reaching out or down - much like a backhoe on tracks. They aren't much good for moving dirt around or for shaping it because they don't have the power or the capacity.

The real cost is how much of the type of work it can do in an hour or day vs what you really need.

Cheers.

Thanks for your reply. We need to dig out a hole for future water supply (during the rainy season) and the soil that is dug out will be used to raise the land for house build. The soil will probably be transported about 100 meters through a track that has been cleared through some trees. So guess we will need an excavator to dig out and load the soil onto a small truck to be transported. Its one of those family things were I need the soil and the family need the water for the cows. My bonus for paying for the excavating will be the trees that have to be chopped down and I can have those for future projects.Probably there will be no water in the big hole during the dry season so I will have to pay for water supply during those times. My other option is just to buy the soil and have it delivered for 250 baht per truck load (about 20 truck loads). Obviously the family came up with this idea of excavating saying it would be a good idea for me but they have their interests as well and I guess if the costs of hiring the excavator etc are not too great we will all gain if the cows do not drink too much.

[Sophon]

It depends on where you are and what size of excavator you need. Up here in Tha Sop Sao, Lamphun the price is 12,000 Baht per day for a big excavator such as this one (which is normally needed if digging ponds):

On top of that, you will need a tractor to adjust the dirt, the going price here for that is 4,000 Baht per day. As you can see from the date stamp, we hired the excavator three years ago, but the price is still the same today. We have also since then hired a much smaller excavator to adjust a creek that runs through our land, dig a ditch to lay electric wires and water pipes and just generally clear away small threes and bushes. That cost us 6,000 Baht per day, but it wouldn't be able to do the job you need.

If you really only need 20 truck loads for raising the land, then buying will probably be much cheaper but quite frankly it sounds insufficient. It took us maybe ten times that number to raise our land for building the house, and that was on land that already didn't flood during rainy season.

Sophon

[colinneil]

A while back i hired a backhoe 20 tonne model, costs were 22 baht per cubic meter to dig and throw soil around the ponds

Total bill was 48.000 baht.

[aussieruss]

Hi excavator 300B a truck load excavator free usually 20/25 ton exc plus 2 tippers thats what i pay rgds russell

[green thumb]

I payed 2000B/hr for a Hitachi EX200 in Sukhothai last month. 300B/ truck load (6 wheel truck).

[NeverSure]

It depends on where you are and what size of excavator you need. Up here in Tha Sop Sao, Lamphun the price is 12,000 Baht per day for a big excavator such as this one (which is normally needed if digging ponds):

DSCI0343 (Copy).JPG

On top of that, you will need a tractor to adjust the dirt, the going price here for that is 4,000 Baht per day. As you can see from the date stamp, we hired the excavator three years ago, but the price is still the same today. We have also since then hired a much smaller excavator to adjust a creek that runs through our land, dig a ditch to lay electric wires and water pipes and just generally clear away small threes and bushes. That cost us 6,000 Baht per day, but it wouldn't be able to do the job you need.

If you really only need 20 truck loads for raising the land, then buying will probably be much cheaper but quite frankly it sounds insufficient. It took us maybe ten times that number to raise our land for building the house, and that was on land that already didn't flood during rainy season.

Sophon

I would have dug that hole with a bulldozer and loaded the truck with a front end loader and been home for lunch. That's not what an excavator is for!!!

Cheers.

[farmerjo]

Paid 1500 baht/hour for just excavating and placing dirt next to the trench not long ago.

If you have extra dirt after your backfilling they may give you discount rate and sell the left over dirt.

[AJBangkok]

Last week paid 8,000 per day in Hua Hin through a contractor so he probably made something out of that.

Edited December 22, 2016 by AJBangkok