How to Price Earthworks
Quick answer
Price earthworks from quantities up: measure cut, fill and strip in bank m³, convert to loose for cartage, work out plant and truck days from realistic production rates, add disposal and materials, then apply overheads and margin. Never price from a per-m³ 'going rate' you can't stand behind.
1. Get the quantities right first
Everything downstream is built on the quantities, so nail them before touching rates:
- —Topsoil strip — area × strip depth, usually stockpiled or carted separately
- —Bulk cut and fill — from the survey model or area × average depth as a check
- —Net balance — surplus to cart off, or import required (with compaction allowance)
- —Loose volumes — apply bulking to anything going on a truck
2. Plant and truck productivity
The cost driver in earthworks is time, not volume. A 14-tonne digger might load 60–100 loose m³ an hour depending on material, reach and truck availability — and it's the trucks that usually govern. Work out the truck cycle (load, haul, tip, return, queue) and check how many trucks the digger can actually keep busy. One truck short and the digger waits; one truck too many and you're paying a truck to queue.
Formulas
Digger days = loose volume ÷ (loading rate × productive hours/day)
Truck loads = loose volume ÷ capacity (check payload too)
Trucks required = cycle time ÷ load time (rounded sensibly)
3. Build the rate, don't guess it
Cost each element from your own numbers: machine charge-out (ownership + running + operator), truck rates (hourly or per load), disposal fees per tonne or per load, imported material supplied and placed, compaction plant, and supervision. Then add project overheads (establishment, traffic management, environmental controls) — these are real costs, not margin.
Only after the true cost is built do you apply margin. Margin is on sell, not markup on cost — a 20 % markup is only a 16.7 % margin.
4. The checks that save you
- —Sanity-check total truck loads — does the programme physically allow that many movements per day?
- —Wet weather and undercut risk — price it, tag it, or exclude it explicitly
- —Disposal site rules — clean fill vs managed fill vs contaminated changes the price completely
- —Access and stand-down — small sites with slow cartage kill production rates
Fieldlink builds the full earthworks estimate — takeoff quantities priced with your plant, labour, cartage and disposal rates, then straight to quote and job budget.
See Earthworks Estimating