Pricing guide
How much does excavation cost?
Most residential excavation jobs in the US land between $1,500 and $5,000. Underneath that headline the work is billed by the hour, the day or the cubic yard, and the site decides which end of the range you get. Excavation is one of the few trades where the hole is the easy part and everything around it sets the price.
The short answer
Budget $150 to $350 an hour or $800 to $2,000 a day for a machine and operator, plus $200 to $800 to get the machine to your site. Bulk earthmoving is often quoted at $50 to $150 per cubic yard. Anything unusual, meaning rock, bad access, or spoil that has to leave the property, is priced on top.
The three ways contractors price it
Knowing which basis a quote uses tells you what will happen if the job runs long, which is the single most useful thing to establish before work starts.
- By the hour or the day. Standard for small and unpredictable jobs. You carry the risk if the ground surprises everyone, and you benefit if it does not.
- By the cubic yard. Used for bulk earthmoving where the volume can be calculated up front. The contractor carries the productivity risk.
- Fixed price for the job. The cleanest to compare and the most likely to carry exclusions in the fine print. Read what is excluded before you read the number.
Typical 2026 prices
| Job | What it covers | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Machine and operator | Excavator or skid steer, per day | $800-$2,000 |
| Mobilization | Trailering the machine in and out | $200-$800 |
| Bulk earthmoving | Per cubic yard moved | $50-$150 |
| Basement excavation | Full dig for a new build | $10,000-$30,000 |
| Utility trenching | Per linear foot, normal soil | $4-$12 |
| Site grading | Shaping and levelling a lot | $1,000-$5,000 |
| Gravel driveway | Cut, base and surface course | $1,500-$6,000 |
| House demolition | Tear down and clear the lot | $8,000-$25,000 |
These are typical ranges for general guidance, not quotes. Easy access, dry weather and soil that digs cleanly put you near the bottom of each range. Tight lots, wet clay and anything the machine has to work around put you near the top.
The five things that actually move the number
- Access. A machine that can drive straight onto the lot works at full speed. One that has to thread between a house and a fence line, or work off a smaller machine because the big one will not fit, can double the hours for the same volume.
- What the ground is made of. Sandy loam digs fast. Wet clay sticks to the bucket and slows everything. Rock is the big one: hitting it can mean a hammer attachment, a different machine, or a renegotiated price, which is why good quotes state whether rock is included or excluded.
- Where the spoil goes. Spreading it on site is close to free. Trucking it off means haul time, trucking cost and often a tipping fee at the other end. This one line is the most common reason two quotes for the same hole are hundreds or thousands apart.
- What has to come in. Imported fill, gravel and topsoil are materials plus delivery, and they add up faster than people expect on a job that seemed to be about digging.
- Paperwork and utilities. Permits, inspections and locating buried services all take calendar time even when they cost little. Nobody should be digging before utilities are marked.
Call 811 first, and it is free
In the US, calling 811 or filing online gets your buried utility lines located and marked at no charge, typically a few business days ahead of the dig. It is a legal requirement in every state before you break ground. Agree explicitly with your contractor who is filing the ticket and get it in writing, because "I assumed they did it" is how a shovel finds a gas line.
How location changes the price
Rates track local labor markets and how far material has to travel. The same dig can differ by half between a dense metro with expensive disposal and a rural county where the spoil can be spread on the next field over. That is why comparing two or three contractors from the same city is worth more than any national average. Our directory runs deepest in metros like Tucson, Houston, Phoenix, Indianapolis and hundreds of smaller cities besides.
One contractor or several?
If your job needs clearing, then grading, then a dig, a single outfit that covers all three is usually cheaper and faster than three specialists. You pay one mobilization instead of three, and nobody is waiting on anybody else's schedule. 10,132 of the contractors in this directory carry two or more trades, and the filters on every city page exist so you can find the ones that cover your whole job.
Compare earthwork contractors near you
EarthworkScout lists 21,050 contractors across 51 states. Open your city, filter by the job you need, and call for a quote:
Notes
Prices are typical 2026 US ranges for general guidance, not quotes. Costs vary widely by region, site conditions, soil and season. Always get the scope, the exclusions and the treatment of spoil in writing before work begins.