We help New Brunswick homeowners find local excavation contractors, understand what a dig should cost here, and know which locates, permits and rules apply before the machine arrives.
Excavation is the first thing that happens on almost every building job and the one homeowners know least about. A foundation for an addition, a new sewer lateral, a septic field on a rural lot, a driveway that finally needs a proper base, a wet basement that needs its weeping tile dug out: each one is priced by what is in the ground, and nobody can see that until the bucket goes in.
The rules are spread out. We found no provincial licence for excavation contractors in New Brunswick. What exists sits elsewhere: WorkSafeNB's trench and excavation rules for employers, two separate locate requests (Info-Excavation and NB Power), a footing and foundation inspection before backfilling, a provincial WAWA permit within 30 metres of a watercourse or wetland, a licensed installer for any septic system, and permits that differ from Moncton to Fredericton to Quispamsis. None of that is explained on a contractor's quote, so we explain it here.
New Brunswick Excavation is a matching service, not an excavation company. We do not dig, own machines or employ operators. You tell us what needs digging, and we send your request to local excavation contractors listed in the New Brunswick Construction Network directory. They reply to you by email. We do not screen or verify them, and we say so, which is why every page tells you what to check yourself.
Choose the job type and your area, and add what you know: the size of the dig, whether the lot is on town water and sewer or a well and septic, how close it is to a brook or the shore, and anything you know is buried there. No phone number needed.
We send your request to local excavation contractors in the New Brunswick Construction Network directory who work in your area. They contact you by email to arrange a site visit and a written quote.
Compare quotes line by line: how rock is priced, how far the spoil is trucked, what goes back in as backfill and when. Ask for a WorkSafeNB clearance certificate, book your locates, and remember the 10% holdback under the Construction Remedies Act.
This site covers one category. Your request goes to excavation contractors, not general contractors or other trades, for foundation digs, trenching, septic excavation, clearing and grading, driveways, drainage, rock and backfill.
Few New Brunswick excavation prices are published, and we say so. Every service page gives the published range where a defensible one exists, usually machine hours, and what moves it: rock, access, soil, haul distance and season. Where no usable price exists, we say that instead of inventing one.
We explain the protections that matter when you hire here: the 10% holdback under the Construction Remedies Act, the ten-day cancellation right on a contract signed at your door, and how to check WorkSafeNB coverage with a clearance certificate.
Our free knowledge base answers New Brunswick excavation questions: what a dig should cost, which locates to book, what your town's permits cover, the WorkSafeNB trench rules, septic and WAWA rules, and how to tell a fair quote from a bad one.
The jobs New Brunswick homeowners bring to us, with the published range where one exists:
Digging for a new home, an addition or a garage foundation: the hole, the footings, the spoil pile and the backfill that has to wait for the inspection.
Few published New Brunswick prices. National guides read in September 2026 put a whole-house foundation dig at about $7,500 to $30,000; rock, access and haul distance move it most. No published addition-sized range was found.
Trenches for new or replacement water and sewer services, from the house to the municipal connection or to your own well and septic.
No published New Brunswick trenching prices turned up. Machine time is the best-published price: about $65 to $150 for a mini excavator with operator and $150 to $250 for a standard machine (national and Atlantic guides, September 2026).
The digging side of a septic job: test pits, the tank hole and the field, done for a provincially licensed installer, never instead of one.
Few published prices and no Atlantic breakdown. A national guide (September 2026) put septic excavation alone at about $3,000 to $12,000, and a full conventional system at about $10,000 to $25,000.
Clearing trees, stumps and brush and shaping the ground so water runs away from the house, with the permits some towns and the WAWA rule require.
Few New Brunswick prices are published; the best-published figure for lot clearing and grading is the machine hour (about $65 to $150 mini, $150 to $250 standard, with operator) plus trucking.
Digging out a new or failing driveway and building the gravel base under it, with the curb-cut or entrance permit your road needs.
Few New Brunswick prices are published. A national guide (September 2026) put driveway excavation and base at about $1,500 to $5,000; gravel for a single-car drive about $400 to $1,200.
Digging along the foundation or across the yard to replace weeping tile, fix drainage and get water away from the house.
No published New Brunswick drainage prices turned up. Machine time runs about $65 to $150 an hour (mini) and $150 to $250 (standard) with operator.
Breaking ledge and boulders with a hydraulic hammer, or blasting by a certified blaster, when rock sits where the foundation or trench has to go.
Thin: one national guide (September 2026) put a hydraulic breaker on an excavator at about $200 to $300 an hour; large machines run higher. Ask how each quote prices rock before you sign.
Filling back against a foundation after the inspection, bringing in gravel or fill, and trucking surplus soil and rock off the property.
Few New Brunswick prices are published: crushed stone about $40 to $75/m3, Granular A about $35 to $55/m3, delivery about $75 to $200 a load (guides, September 2026). Haul-away is quoted per load or per truck hour.
New Brunswick Excavation is part of the New Brunswick Construction Network, the directory your request is matched from:
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