Excavation Questions from Comox Valley Property Owners

Two things set the lead time. A BC 1 Call locate needs about a week, since utility members have three working days to respond and digging must begin within 14 calendar days of the request. Anything involving fill on Agricultural Land Reserve land needs a Notice of Intent filed 60 days ahead.

That varies by contractor, which is why a quote should say so explicitly. Courtenay Excavating identifies which approvals apply at quote stage — City of Courtenay, CVRD Building Services, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, or the Agricultural Land Commission — and states whether the application sits inside the price or with the owner.

Quadra Sand digs fast, compacts easily and needs no dewatering. Vashon till holds water and needs moisture control. Floodplain silt near the Courtenay River brings a shallow winter water table. The same scope on those three soils can differ by a factor of two, which is why a site walk comes before a number.

Where there is room, yes, and that is usually the largest single saving on a residential job. Material that leaves a site costs to load and again to dump. Balancing cut and fill on the same lot avoids both costs. Tight infill lots inside the city rarely have that option.

Rock is quoted by the hour rather than included in a project range, because the volume cannot be sized from the surface. Cumberland ground is where this comes up most, given the Cretaceous bedrock that carried the coal seams mined there until 1966. A quote should name rock as an exclusion.

On sand, generally yes. On till and silt, often not, because compacting saturated clay does not work. The valley takes about 1,154 mm of precipitation a year, most of it between October and April, so soil type decides whether a winter start is realistic or expensive.

Separation and surface drainage are the two concerns, particularly through Black Creek and Merville where properties draw from the Quadra Sand aquifer. Sand that moves water quickly to a well moves contamination quickly too, so fuel, spoil and machine traffic stay clear and regrading sends runoff away from the wellhead.

The field location constrains everything around it. Machine traffic across a field is a replacement rather than a repair, and a pad, driveway or drain has to be planned around the field. Where a new system is involved, an Authorized Person files the design with Island Health before the system can legally be used.

No. The City of Courtenay covers 32.42 km² inside a regional district of 1,697 km², so many properties with a Courtenay mailing address sit in a CVRD electoral area instead. A property tax notice settles which building authority, and which soil rules, apply to a given parcel.

Machine class, estimated hours or days, the volume assumed to leave the site, the disposal destination, and the exclusions. Rock, unexpected groundwater, contaminated material and utility conflicts are the four exclusions that matter. A quote should also state who files the BC 1 Call locate and when.