Most young kids – and boys especially – have had the toy dump trucks, backhoes, and the like. They’re great fun to play around with in the sandbox at that age, but as those kids grow up the majority of them don’t have the same interest in large-scale earth moving or anything of the sort. Some do, and some of those ones will actually pursue work in the construction trades. Which is great – it’s good, rewarding, and well-paying work for the most part! But for those who don’t there may not be a whole lot of knowledge about all that work entails. They may need an explanation for what is excavation.

And that’s fine, we have that answer right here. Let’s start by framing it this way; safe to assume everyone here knows what is to ‘dig’. Like what you’d do in advance of planting shrubs in your backyard, or what you do at the beach when you’re clamming. All sorts of examples here.

Well, in answer to what is excavation it’s fairly accurate to say that it’s the same type of digging, but on a massive scale and involving moving amounts of earth that you couldn’t lift on your own if your life depended on it. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of pounds of earth usually, in not tons of it. That’s why excavation requires power equipment, and in particular – excavators.

So it’s when you have these massive machines digging out massive amounts of earth and then relocating it to accommodate building interests. That’s your answer to what is excavation, and unless you’ve got an excavator of your own it’s something that you’re going to have to trust to a quality Victoria contractor who has the equipment and expertise needed for ‘digging’ on this type of scale!

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Information on Excavation

It’s true that excavation can also be the practice of clearing earth around archaeological finds, but what we’re going to be discussing here is excavation that involves moving earth because the space is needed for other construction interests. Most often around here that’s for putting down a house, and your new home contractor in Victoria will be responsible for doing that for you if you’re building on an undeveloped lot.

That’s how we’ll be defining what is excavation here. There can be a lot that goes into excavation, and there are 3 primary types of excavation techniques: digging, ripping, and blasting. Digging itself is fine if all that is being removed is soil and / or sedimentary earth, but ripping or blasting will be required if there are any types of stones submerged n the space that need to be removed as well.

Another thing to consider with what is excavation is that there’s always a need to be very careful and proceed slowly with this type of work. For starters, your contractor will begin by determining if there’s any municipal infrastructure under the earth that might be damaged by the excavating. This is especially important if the digging is being done to allow a sewer line to connect to a new home.

However, you also need to be careful even if your dig is shallower, like creating a trench for putting drainage rock in place

New Excavation Technologies

Next up in our discussion of what is excavation is how modern technology has changed the way large-scale dig jobs are approached. First and foremost here is the way GPS (global positioning system) technology has been applied to excavators, as well as for grading, digging foundations, installing storm drainage, and also clearing space in preparation for paving parking lots and roadways.

Plus, modern excavation technology often makes use of modern computer software and with 3D-site modeling making it possible to show a real-life image of the project before any ground is ever moved or any digging is done.

There is also hydro excavation, which is used when the materials being excavated are not as easily dislodged and removed the way ordinary earth is taken out. It uses a high-pressure water and air vacuum. The reason this excavation technique and the different equipment needed for it is so common in Canada is because the extreme cold weather during winter in many parts of the country means the earth is frozen. And frozen earth doesn’t move easily at all!

Now of course we’re a Victoria area construction contractor so needless to say we don’t find ourselves excavating frozen earth very often, but if we did we’d be using hydro excavation and making it more of what we’re able to do here. So that’s your quick answer to what is excavation.

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