In theory. The problem with trenching is that unless things go perfect, you get spots in the trench that have to be cleaned out by hand.
And it is no good in muddy earth. It is no good in hard and rocky earth. It is no good for deep trenches. So as much as I would like to trench it is a last resort for me. I prefer to plow first if that is an option. HDD second. Excavate. Trenching does not even show up on my list of options. And in my case I have to do an excavation greater than 12” wide due to power being in the same ditch. From: Adam Moffett Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 7:29 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fw: Excavation costs What if you have a trencher & backhoe combination? Isn't the chain driven trencher faster than the excavator? Just switch to back hoe when you hit a big rock. That's my theory anyway. ------ Original Message ------ From: "Chuck McCown" <ch...@wbmfg.com> To: af@afmug.com Sent: 2/21/2018 8:53:00 PM Subject: [AFMUG] Fw: Excavation costs Lets say you have an equipment operator that earns $20/hour. I always double that for loaded cost. That operator can dig probably 50 foot/hour reliably. So say 320 feet/day with start up and shut down inefficiencies. 8 x 40 = $320. So $1/foot just for the labor. More if we pay for a health insurance plan. Then equipment allowance. $100K used excavator. 10% time value of money = $10K/year Depreciation expense, say $20K/year. So $30K/year. If you kept it busy half the time, say 1000 hours, that is $30/hour. $240 per day. We are up to $560/day for 300 feet of ditch. Round it up to $600 and you have a minimum of $2/foot. And knowing my estimates are generally off by half or 3x, perhaps $5/foot is a good planning figure for the true cost of digging a ditch. From: Chuck McCown Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 6:33 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Excavation costs Anyone figured out what it costs them per foot for excavation using their own machine? I am working to figure out the real cost. What does it cost to have a contractor do it?