How to Price Excavation by the Hour or by the Cubic Yard

Here is how to price excavation both ways. The hour is the machine plus the operator, with a published equipment schedule as the floor. The cubic yard is that same cost divided by the yards moved in the hour, plus swell, trucking and dump fees. Price the hour when the ground is unknown; price the yard when the hole can be measured.

The hourly rate for an excavator and operator, from published rates

Start with the machine. FEMA's schedule of equipment rates, applicable to disasters declared on or after July 1, 2025, covers ownership and operation: depreciation, overhead, all maintenance, field repairs, fuel, lubricants, tires and OSHA equipment. It is a cost floor for a machine you own, not a market price, and labor costs of the operator are not included.

Then the seat. O*NET's wage page for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators shows a median of $28.78 an hour in the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 data; the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook puts construction equipment operators at $59,600 a year in May 2025. A median is the middle of the country: use your operator's wage, plus payroll taxes, insurance and idle days.

The hourly price is machine rate plus loaded wage plus markup, and it is right when nobody can see what is in the ground: a demolition cleanup, an unmarked septic, fill of unknown depth. Quote a minimum of hours, mobilization as its own line, and say when the clock starts.

Excavation cost per cubic yard: the same hour, divided

A per yard price is the hourly cost divided by the yards the machine moves in that hour. Time three jobs: bank yards dug (length by width by depth in feet, divided by 27) over machine hours is the pace. Loaded hourly cost divided by pace is the cost per bank yard before trucking.

The yard is right when the hole can be measured before the dig: a basement, a pool, a footing trench from a plan. The customer sees a quantity and a unit price, and a change in depth is a change in yards, not an argument about hours. The risk is the ground: a pace timed in loam will not hold in wet clay or rock, which is why the clauses below matter more on a per yard quote.

Bank yards versus loose yards: swell, and what the truck carries

The hole is measured in bank yards, material in place. The truck carries loose yards, and there are more of them. The Engineering ToolBox's bulking factor table says soil or rock from the borrow expands when dropped on the truck or stockpiled; its example takes 300 cubic meters of clay at 40 percent swell to 420.

So price the dig per bank yard, which the customer can measure, and the haul per loose yard or per load, which the truck can measure, and say which yard you mean on the quote.

Haul-off, trucking and dump fees

Trucking is the second machine and often the larger number. FEMA's schedule lists dump trucks by bed: 7 cubic yards at $55.28 an hour, 12 at $120.74, 14 at $122.94 and 18 at $147.99, no driver in the rate. Loose yards over bed size is the load count; loads times the timed round trip is the truck hours; and the excavator waits whenever trucks are short.

Dump fees depend on where the dirt goes and what it is. Washington County, Utah lists clean dirt and tile at $0.00 a ton in its 2026 column and construction and demolition at $32.00. Orange County, California charges clean soil the full disposal rate of $92.70 a ton from October 12, 2026 and wants pre-tested soil certification for loads over 5 cubic yards or 8 tons. Quote trucking by the hour or the load, the dump fee as a pass-through from the scale tickets, and the soil test if asked. A nearby job that wants fill is the cheapest dump there is.

Call 811 before you dig, and price the private locate

The national 811 page calls 811 the free national before-you-dig service, says to contact it a few business days before you begin any digging, and says utilities mark the approximate location of buried lines with paint or flags. The ticket goes in when the quote is signed; the dig date is after the marks.

The marks stop at the meter. North Carolina 811's FAQ says to contact 811 three working days before digging, that locators mark publicly managed lines for free, that contacting 811 will not get your private lines marked, and that anything between the meter and the building is a private utility line; sprinkler systems and propane lines from the tank are its examples. A private locator is a separate line on the quote, and on a lot with a septic, a well or a pool it is the line that saves the job. US OSHA's 29 CFR 1926.651 says the same for the crew: the estimated location of underground installations shall be determined prior to opening an excavation.

Rock, water and the unknown: the clauses that protect the price

Federal contracts carry a clause worth copying in plain words. The FAR's Differing Site Conditions clause covers subsurface or latent physical conditions at the site which differ materially from those indicated in the contract, and unknown physical conditions of an unusual nature which differ materially from those ordinarily encountered. The contractor gives written notice promptly, before the conditions are disturbed, and the price is adjusted.

• Rock: "Price assumes material the bucket can dig. Rock, boulders larger than the bucket, or material needing a hammer or blasting is billed at the hourly rate shown, after notice to the owner."
• Water: OSHA 1926.651(h)(1) says employees shall not work in excavations with accumulated water unless adequate precautions are taken, water removal among them. Price the pump as its own line; FEMA lists a 3 inch diesel trash pump at $13.06 an hour and a 4 inch at $27.38.
• Buried debris, old foundations, tanks, mud: notice, a photo, and the hourly rate until the ground is what the quote described.

Good to know: This is general information, not legal advice. Contract terms and excavation rules vary by state; read the current text and ask your state licensing board or a lawyer before you rely on it.

Mobilization, trench safety and the minimum charge

Mobilization is the hours before the first bucket. FEMA's tri-axle equipment trailer is $15.80 an hour and the truck pulling it is its own rate, but the real number is the operator's time loading, driving and unloading, twice. Quote one line per move.

Trenches add rules with a cost. Under 29 CFR 1926.652, each employee in an excavation shall be protected from cave-ins by an adequate protective system, except when the excavation is made entirely in stable rock, or is less than 5 feet deep and examination of the ground by a competent person provides no indication of a potential cave-in. Under 1926.651, a trench 4 feet or more deep needs a ladder within 25 feet of travel, and spoils stay 2 feet from the edge. Box, sloping and ladders go on the quote as what they are. The minimum charge is mobilization plus the fewest hours worth starting the machine for.

The excavation deposit and stage billing on the quote

Excavation spends money before the customer sees a hole: the locate, the trucks, the box rented. A deposit covers that, and a job that runs more than a few days bills in stages: after the dig, the backfill, the grade. How much deposit a contractor should ask for covers the deposit and how to bill a job in stages covers the rest.

In MakeHay the quote carries line items in your units, per item or flat, so the dig can be one line priced per item with the bank yards as the quantity and the trucking another line with the truck hours as the quantity, on the same quote (create and send a quote), with a deposit on the quote that the customer pays when they approve and sign online. Once approved, the quote becomes an invoice in one click, or bills in stages.

The customer sees the quantity, the unit and the price for each line, then approves and signs from the link.

Write the clauses in the quote's notes: the yard you priced, the pace you assumed, the rock and water rates, the locate, the minimum. A customer who read them before signing does not argue after.