Clearing a treed lot near Hampton for a garage?

Lot Clearing Near Hampton for a Garage

Published price guides read in September 2026 show few New Brunswick figures for lot clearing by the acre; machine time is the best-published number, with a mini excavator and operator running $65 to $150 per hour and a standard excavator and operator running $150 to $250 per hour. A clearing job is priced from those machine hours plus trucking, stump disposal and any grading that follows, so ask for a breakdown of each piece rather than a single lump sum.

Several things move the cost on a treed lot near Hampton. Tree size and density matter, and stump removal adds machine time. Haul distance to a disposal site affects trucking cost. If the cleared area needs grading to prepare a pad for the garage, that is additional machine time. And if the contractor hits rock during grubbing, a hydraulic breaker on the excavator runs $200 to $300 per hour, which is a different rate from standard digging; make sure the quote says how rock is priced if it is found.

Before any machine moves, two locate requests go out, and they are separate. Info-Excavation, reached through Click Before You Dig, needs three working days' notice; the locate is valid until the end date written on the request. NB Power runs its own underground locate service, separate from Info-Excavation, and asks for at least five business days' notice; that locate is valid for 60 days from the date on the form and covers only NB Power-owned lines. Private lines, drains or buried cables that a past owner installed are yours to find and mark before the machine arrives.

Check whether your lot sits within 30 metres of a watercourse or wetland. The province's Watercourse and Wetland Alteration permit, issued by the Department of Environment and Local Government, is required before operating heavy machinery, disturbing ground or clearing trees within that 30-metre zone, measured horizontally from the top of the bank on the ground, not from a map. The permit fee is $25 for a single alteration. No clearing or grubbing in that zone before the permit is in hand.

For the garage itself, we found no Hampton rule specific to excavation, so check with the Town of Hampton or your Regional Service Commission on whether a development permit or building permit is required before clearing and construction begin. A building permit for a garage may be exempt if the structure is 55 square metres or less and not intended for overnight accommodation under Regulation 2021-2, but local by-laws can still require a development permit, so confirm before you start.

Ask the contractor for a WorkSafeNB clearance certificate before signing, and hold back 10% of the contract price as required under the Construction Remedies Act, kept for 60 days after substantial performance.

Before you sign a clearing contract, ask the contractor exactly where the trees, stumps and brush will go and whether that disposal cost is included in the quote or billed separately.