Excavation in Ottawa
Trenches, footings and site clearing, with the spoil hauled out.
Excavation in Ottawa starts with a locate request through Ontario One Call, which is free and runs on a five business day clock. Below 1.2 metres the walls need sloping or support, and how much depends on which of the four soil types you are digging in.
What we handle.
We dig, trench and clear sites across Ottawa and Gatineau: footings and foundation work, trenches for water, sewer and electrical, stump and root removal, drainage correction, and site preparation before a build. Two things decide the job before a machine turns over, what is buried under the ground and what the ground is made of, and we settle both before we start. The spoil leaves with us, because hauling is what we already do every day.
- Locate request submitted through Ontario One Call before we break ground
- Walls sloped or supported to what the soil type actually requires
- Trenches for water, sewer, electrical and drainage
- Spoil hauled out on the same visit, not left in a pile
Everything the job covers.
The locate request, submitted before we break ground
Under the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012, anyone planning to dig has to request locates through Ontario One Call first. That applies to a contractor and to a homeowner with a shovel equally. It costs nothing: the Act states that the Corporation shall not charge a fee to any excavator for submitting a locate request. It is also not instant. A standard request runs on a five business day clock and cannot be filed more than 30 days before the dig is expected to start, so budget for the wait when you book the work.
Walls built to the soil type, not to habit
Ontario Regulation 213/91 sorts soil into four types. Type 1 is hard and dense enough that it takes real effort to penetrate with a sharp object. Type 4 is soft, loose and wet, and pushes against anything holding it back like a fluid. Under 1.2 metres deep no support system is required. Past that, Type 1 or 2 is sloped at 1:1 to within 1.2 metres of the bottom, Type 3 at 1:1 from the bottom, and Type 4 at 3:1. Deeper than 6 metres or wider than 3.6 metres and the support system has to be engineered. Where a dig holds more than one soil type it is classified as the worst one present, so a pocket of Type 4 in otherwise firm ground governs the whole wall.
East Ottawa ground, in Orléans and Gloucester
Excavation in Orléans and Gloucester starts with the clay under them. Both are in eastern Ottawa, where much of the ground is the sensitive Champlain Sea marine clay described further down this page, and it loses strength when it is disturbed. So how close a dig runs to an existing footing gets settled before the machine arrives. One Orléans subdivision shows why. The published history of Avalon, built from the late 1990s, records that development slowed while the builder went back to repair foundations on houses already finished, and that some criticised building on former swampland. When a dig beside a foundation reaches the point where settlement is an engineering question, we say so, and it goes to an engineer before it comes back to us.
A metre of clear ground around the edge
The regulation requires a level area of at least one metre from the upper edge of every wall, kept clear of equipment, excavated soil, rock and material. On a tight residential lot the obvious place to put the spoil pile is right beside the hole, and that is the one place it cannot go. It is part of why access matters more than the size of the dig on most city properties.
The spoil leaves with us
Hauling is our core business, so excavated material goes out on the same visit rather than sitting on your lawn until someone books a bin.
Backfill and site tidy
Trench backfilled, ground graded back, and the site swept before we leave.
Start to finish.
Site visit
We look at access, what has to come out, and where a machine can physically reach. On a residential lot the width between houses is usually the real constraint, not the dig.
Locate request
Submitted through Ontario One Call, then we wait out the five business days while each infrastructure owner marks their lines.
The dig
Walls sloped or supported to what the soil type requires, and the spoil kept back the required metre from the edge.
Haul and backfill
Material out, ground restored, site cleared.
Ottawa ground is not one thing
Much of eastern Ottawa sits on Champlain Sea marine clay, better known as Leda clay: soft, highly sensitive, and prone to losing strength when it is disturbed. Canada's national test site for the material, Canadian Geotechnical Research Site No. 1, was established in Gloucester in 1954, with roughly 22 metres of leached marine sediment above glacial till and limestone. It is not uniform across the city. Constance Bay sits on relict sand dunes more than 10,000 years old, and sand behaves nothing like clay for shoring or backfill. Out at Carp, Precambrian rock is exposed at elevation along the ridge, so shallow bedrock is documented there, though the valley floor below is a separate question. All of that is regional geology and it tells you what to expect rather than what is under your particular lot. A specific soil condition at a specific address needs a soil report, not a map.
What drives the price.
Every excavation is quoted after we see the site, because access, depth and soil do more to set the number than square footage does. You get the figure before the machine arrives, and it does not move unless the scope does.
Excavation, answered.
Still unsure? Call or text (613) 852-4059 and we will tell you straight.
Yes. The Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act applies to homeowners, renters and tenants, not only contractors. Submitting the request through Ontario One Call costs nothing, and the buried line you hit is very unlikely to be yours.
1.2 metres. Below that depth Ontario Regulation 213/91 requires either a support system or sloped walls, and the gradient depends on which of the four soil types you are in. Past 6 metres deep or 3.6 metres wide the support system has to be engineered.
A standard request runs on a five business day clock, and it cannot be submitted more than 30 days ahead of the dig. That wait is the part people forget when planning a schedule.
It goes out with us on the same visit rather than sitting in a pile on your property.
In east Ottawa it changes quite a lot. Leda clay is sensitive, which means it loses strength when it is disturbed, and that matters for anything dug close to an existing foundation. Whether your particular lot sits on it is a soil report question rather than something a map can answer.
Yes, across Ottawa and Gatineau, with Orléans, Gloucester, Nepean, Barrhaven and Kanata included. The ground changes between them. In the east end the sensitive marine clay decides how close we can work to an existing foundation.
Yes. The trench is backfilled, the ground graded back and the site swept before we leave. Spoil that does not go back in leaves with us on the same visit.
Where these facts come from
Two provincial instruments doing two different jobs. The Act creates the duty to request locates before anyone breaks ground and is also where the statement that locates are free comes from; O. Reg. 213/91 is the source of the four soil types and the 1.2 metre depth. Ontario One Call administers the system but does not make the rule, so the statute is what is linked.
Related reading
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