Regrade the yard first, then landscape, in Dieppe?

Regrading Before Landscaping in Dieppe

Regrading comes before landscaping, and planting and landscape design are a separate trade; this answer covers the excavation part. Few New Brunswick grading prices are published, so machine time is the benchmark in price guides read in September 2026: a mini excavator with operator runs $65 to $150 per hour and a standard excavator with operator runs $150 to $250 per hour, and a grading job is quoted from machine hours plus trucking and material.

What moves the price is the volume of material to move, how far the spoil travels, whether fill needs to be brought in or hauled away, how much of the lot is being touched, and whether any buried obstacles turn up once the machine starts. Access to the yard matters too: a tight gate or a narrow side passage limits which machine can get in. If any part of the yard sits within 30 metres of a watercourse or wetland, measured horizontally from the top of the bank, the province requires a Watercourse and Wetland Alteration permit before any machine work, clearing or fill placement begins. That permit is issued by the Department of Environment and Local Government; the fee is $25 for a single alteration. No machine should move within that zone without it.

For Dieppe, we found no excavation-specific grading or lot-alteration rule in the City's published materials. Check with the City of Dieppe directly to confirm whether a building or development permit is needed for your scope of work before anything starts. On locates: before any digging, the contractor should have two separate locate requests in hand. Info-Excavation, reached through Click Before You Dig, needs three working days' notice, and the locate is valid until the end date written on the request. NB Power runs its own separate underground locate service and asks for at least five business days' notice; that locate is valid for 60 days from the date on the NB Power form and covers only NB Power-owned lines. Any private lines, drainage or buried tanks that a past owner installed are yours to find and mark before the machine arrives.

When you get a quote, make sure it spells out:

• How rock is priced if it is encountered (hourly rate for a hydraulic breaker runs $200 to $300 per hour, and that is a separate line)
• Where spoil goes and who pays trucking
• Whether fill or granular material is included or quoted separately
• What clean-up and final grade tolerances look like
• The WorkSafeNB clearance certificate for the contractor's account

Under the Construction Remedies Act, you must retain a holdback of 10% of the contract price for 60 days after substantial performance is certified or the contract is completed, abandoned or terminated. Ask your insurer whether your policy covers damage during the work.

Keep the locate records, any permit or WAWA approval, and the written quote and invoice together once the job is done. The form on this page reaches excavation contractors listed in the New Brunswick Construction Network directory, who can reply with quotes.