Excavators are not the type of machinery that you see on a regular basis, but when an undeveloped parcel of land is being prepared for a new home or business property build you’re almost certainly going to see them there. Some people prefer to more simply call them ‘diggers’ and that’s fair enough as digging is exactly what they do. Mini excavators are smaller, more mobile, and more easily transported versions of excavators, so the question then becomes what can a mini excavator do? 

It’s true that they can’t move mounds of earth with the same capacity as a standard excavator that you’d see us use when working as a Victoria new home building contractor who’s clearing earth in preparation for putting down the foundation of the new home. If it’s possible to use a mini excavator for smaller tasks like clearing earth for a water line or installing drainage rock then we’ll do that, because it’s less expensive to operate a mini excavator for starters. 

But that doesn’t answer what can a mini excavator do, so let’s move to discuss that in greater detail here.

Check Our Excavation Services

GRADINGFOUNDATIONDEMOLITIONLAND CLEARINGHAULINGDUMP TRAILERSCIVIL EXCAVATIONEXCAVATINGCOMPACTIONBACKFILL

All Sorts of Applications for a Mini Excavator

As we’ve established, you’re not going to see any Victoria area contractor using a mini excavator when clearing earth to prepare it for the concrete pouring of a foundation. However, there are all sorts of other uses that can be classified within what can a mini excavator do. They are used for light demo jobs, many different material handling tasks, and landscaping interests like clearing stumps of trees that have been cut down. 

Mini excavators are also used to install pools and hot tubs, repairing sewer lines, and smaller building demolition projects or complete projects that are nearly done. You may also see a mini excavator operator using his machine for tree harvesting, road repair, and home renovations where underground fixtures need repair or replacement. 

Equipping a mini excavator with a dozer blade is a common practice that actually makes it easier to relocate these earth-moving machines around a job site. 

Attachments Expand on the Possibilities

Another part of what can a mini excavator do is what they’re capable of when paired with common mini excavator attachments. Full-size excavators aren’t as versatile as mini excavators this way. These attachments include:

• AG attachments for tasks like moving large and heavy bales of hay
• Augers and Trenchers for optimized earth cutting for any number of building or irrigation aims, and more
• Backhoes for general digging jobs and excavating on unsteady terrain
• Blades and scrapers for clearing tasks, with snow removal being one common example
• Brooms for industrial floor and surface cleaning applications, and particularly in the agricultural industries
• Construction buckets, utility buckets, or foundry buckets that make specific excavation tasks easier to complete
• Rollers and compactors for grading purposes when building a new home in Victoria or elsewhere
• Forks and spears for all kinds of different heavy tasks related to material handling
• Cold planers for road repair and more
• Hydraulic hammers for breaking through rock or concrete that’s to be demolished 

Plus many more…

What Can a Mini Excavator Do? Other Possibilities 

Another advantage to mini excavators is that they don’t leave as deep and pronounced tread track in the earth when they move about the job site, and that’s really important if one is being used near the end of a job. You will also see them used to dig garden pools, and many landscaping companies that have snow clearing contracts with residential or business developments will very commonly use a mini excavator for that task on cold winter days. 

Now of course we don’t get too many of those types of weather days here in Victoria, but Victoria does get good snow every few years. And if we go back 25 years now Victoria had it’s largest single snowfall in 1996. If that ever happens again there are not enough mini excavators in the entire South Island to clear that much snow!

What can a mini excavator do? A lot more than you think, so don’t think they’re less capable just because they are labeled as ‘mini’.

Check Our Excavation Services

GRADINGFOUNDATIONDEMOLITIONLAND CLEARINGHAULINGDUMP TRAILERSCIVIL EXCAVATIONEXCAVATINGCOMPACTIONBACKFILL