Site Preparation
We handle grading, lot stripping and pad preparation for new homes and shops across the Comox Valley to match your drawings.
Serving the Comox Valley
Excavation Services in Courtenay and Comox
We handle excavation, site prep and local permits across Courtenay and the Comox Valley with clear written quotes.
00
Excavation & Site Work
Courtenay Excavating handles site prep, land clearing, driveway access and drainage across Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland. Typical site prep projects run $3,000 to $20,000, and we walk your property first to assess the ground. After our site walk, we give you a clear written price range with all machine hours listed before you decide.
01Standards
Locates before digging
We file a BC 1 Call ticket on every job. The service is free, utility members have three working days to mark their lines, and excavation must start within 14 calendar days of the request — only then does the ticket stay valid for 30 calendar days from that date.
Approvals mapped first
We work out which approvals your job needs at quote stage, before the machine is booked — a City of Courtenay soil deposit permit, a CVRD Building Services permit, a Ministry of Transportation and Transit access permit, or none of the three.
Written scope and ranges
We name the machine size, the estimated hours, the haul, and the disposal assumptions on every quote, as a written range.
Comox Valley ground
Quadra Sand, Vashon till and Puntledge floodplain silt each dig differently. We pick the machine and the method for the soil that is actually on your lot.
02Services
Excavation & Site Work in the Comox Valley
We cover four service lines for most Comox Valley ground work: preparing a lot to build on, clearing what is standing on it, getting a machine and a vehicle onto it, and moving water off it. Scope overlaps constantly — a new driveway usually needs a culvert, and a building pad usually needs a drain.
Land Clearing
We clear brush, stumps and undergrowth on rural acreages and town lots, checking local tree rules before we cut down any tree.
Driveway & Access
We build rural driveways, culverts and turnarounds, and we confirm whether your property needs a Ministry of Transportation access permit.
Drainage & Trenching
We dig perimeter drains, ditches and service trenches built to handle the Comox Valley's 1,400 mm of rain and wet till soil.
03Process
How we quote a job
- 01
Site walk and quote
A site walk comes first: we read access, slope, soil, and what has to stay standing. We send you a written estimate showing the machine size, estimated hours and haul costs for your job.
- 02
Approvals and locates
We name the approvals your job needs — City of Courtenay, CVRD Building Services, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, or an Agricultural Land Commission Notice of Intent — and file the BC 1 Call ticket before any powered equipment starts.
- 03
Dig, backfill, restore
Then we excavate, compact and backfill to the drawing, and clean the site up behind us. We slope, bench or shore any trench over 1.2 metres deep before anyone steps inside, following WorkSafeBC rules.
04Guides
More on site work
- Site PreparationWe strip, cut and compact building pads across Courtenay and Comox. We match your lot's soil conditions directly to the exact elevations on your approved plans.
- Land ClearingWe provide land clearing services in Courtenay and Comox, clearing brush and stumps. We check local tree bylaws and ALR rules before touching a single tree.
- Driveway & AccessWe build rural driveways, culverts and turnarounds across the Comox Valley. We check if your access needs a Ministry of Transportation permit before we dig.
- Drainage & TrenchingWe install perimeter drains, ditches and service trenches built for the valley's 1,400 mm of annual rain and heavy till soil. Request your free written quote.
- All site work servicesWe offer four core services, from clearing your lot to installing foundation drains.
- Locations we serveWe work across Comox, Cumberland, Black Creek and Courtenay, adapting our machines to local soil conditions.
- Excavation cost guideWe list hourly equipment rates and project price ranges, along with the factors that shape your final quote.
- Site prep permits guideWe map out which permits you need from Courtenay, the CVRD, the province or the Agricultural Land Commission.
- Common questions answeredWe explain utility locates, permits, water tables and written project quotes.
- About
- Contact
Free quote
Get an excavation quote
Send the property address, what needs to happen, and any drawings or permit numbers already in hand. We send you a written price range with machine sizes and job details clearly listed.
05Coverage
Across the Comox Valley
Service area across the Comox Valley
Comox Valley ground changes within a few hundred metres. The Quadra Sand along the coast from Comox Bay to Black Creek digs quickly, but vertical faces collapse easily if they are not sloped back. Closer to the Courtenay, Puntledge, and Tsolum rivers, floodplain silt and a high winter water table can turn a routine footing excavation into a dewatering job. With 1,400 mm of rain dropping mostly between October and April, scheduling your excavation matters just as much as machine size.
- Courtenay
- Comox
- Cumberland
- Black Creek
- Merville
- Royston
- Union Bay
06Questions
Excavation questions, answered
- Does excavation in the Comox Valley need a permit?
- Usually, but not always. Your building permit for the house covers the foundation excavation work. If you move soil inside Courtenay city limits, you must follow the city's soil fill and placement bylaw managed by development engineering. For rural properties, CVRD Building Services manages building permits across the electoral areas, except on Denman and Hornby Islands. We work out which of those applies to your property at quote stage.
- How far ahead does a utility locate have to be requested?
- Plan on about a week. BC 1 Call costs nothing, and utility members have three working days to respond to a standard request, or five working days on a large project. We must start digging within 14 days of filing the request, and your locate ticket remains valid for 30 days. We file the locate for you and time it to your start date.
- What does excavation cost in the Comox Valley?
- Machine and operator generally run $142 to $169 an hour for a mini excavator (Class 1–3) and $180 to $248 an hour for a standard excavator (Class 4–8) on Vancouver Island. Whole-project ranges are more useful for budgeting: site preparation commonly lands between $3,000 and $20,000, and drainage or trenching between $3,000 and $12,000. Soil, access, and haul distance move both figures, so we quote your property as a written range after a site walk.
- Is a permit needed for a new rural driveway?
- Sometimes. The Ministry of Transportation and Transit requires an access permit to create or change access onto a provincial highway. You do not need a provincial permit for a residential driveway on a rural side road, as long as it is not a numbered highway.
- Can trees be cleared before a build starts?
- Not before we check Courtenay's tree rules. Courtenay's tree bylaw requires a cutting permit if a tree measures over 20 cm in diameter at chest height or belongs to one of six protected species: Garry oak, arbutus, Pacific dogwood, western white pine, Pacific yew, or trembling aspen. The basic permit fee is $100, though on lots larger than 4,000 m² the fee increases to $500. Replacement trees require a $300 deposit each, while protected trees you retain require a $1,000 security deposit per protected species. A hazardous tree permit carries no fee.
- What happens when an excavation hits groundwater?
- Near the Courtenay, Puntledge, and Tsolum rivers a high winter water table is common, and our answer is usually dewatering plus a revised drainage plan rather than a deeper dig. We slope, bench or shore any trench over 1.2 metres deep before anyone steps inside, and wet ground means we take extra safety precautions to keep walls stable.