Turn a cut into bank cubic yards, swelled loose yards, truck loads, and a Bay Area cost range for digging and hauling it off.
Every result is a planning estimate, not a quote or an engineering determination. Real pricing depends on soil conditions, access, existing structure, engineering requirements, and your jurisdiction’s current fee schedule. For structural questions we coordinate with a licensed engineer — we do not perform engineering ourselves. Get a site-specific estimate before committing to a budget.
Undisturbed ground is compacted by thousands of years of its own weight. The moment a bucket breaks it loose, air gets in and the same material takes up more room — 15 percent more for clean sand, up to 50 percent for blasted rock and hardpan. That expansion is called swell, and it is why a 100-yard hole produces 125 or 135 yards of spoil sitting on the driveway. Excavation gets priced on the hole. Hauling and dump fees get charged on the pile. Estimating both from one number is a classic way to be short several thousand dollars on a foundation job.
Access usually beats volume. A flat lot in Milpitas where a 10-wheeler can back to the cut is a different job than a hillside property in Oakland or Los Gatos where soil moves by mini-excavator, conveyor, or wheelbarrow to a truck parked on the street. Narrow Peninsula lots, protected trees, overhead lines, and neighbor-shared driveways all slow production, and excavation is priced in production hours as much as in yards.
We handle the cut, spoils, and compacted base for new home foundations, ADU foundations, and crawl space work tied to foundation repair and retrofits across the Bay Area, and we will tell you on the walk whether your access supports full-size trucks or not.
Bank yards measure the hole as it sits in the ground and drive the excavation price. Loose yards measure the same soil after it is dug up and expanded, and they drive truck counts and dump fees. Loose is always the bigger number.
The tool divides loose yards by 10, which is a standard dump truck. Larger end-dump and transfer trucks carry 14 to 16 yards but need street width, turning room, and often a permit to stage, so many residential lots still run 10-yard trucks.
Sometimes. It has to be suitable material, there has to be room for it, and it cannot redirect drainage onto a neighbor. Spread soil still needs grading and compaction, so it reduces the haul cost rather than eliminating cost entirely.
Older urban and industrial parcels sometimes need soil profiling before a landfill will accept the material. Testing plus the higher disposal rate can add a few thousand dollars, so it is worth flagging early if your property has that history.
Tell us what you're building — a new home, an ADU, an addition — and we'll get back to you with next steps, usually within one business day.
(925) 592-7162
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