For groundworkers
Nobody knows how deep the foundations are going until the digger is in the hole, and that is exactly why a groundworks estimate needs to say so. Dictate the dig, the drainage and the concrete and get a document that prices the known and rates the unknown.
The engineer says one metre, building control says deeper on the day, and there is a mature oak forty feet away. Without an agreed rate per extra cubic metre, that argument happens at final account.
Grab rates move, tips change their gate fees, and a job that generates nine loads instead of six eats an entire day's margin.
Plant, concrete and labour all go out before anybody pays anything in, and a main contractor working to thirty days does not feel that.
A real example
On the left is what you would actually write down. On the right is what your customer receives.
groundworks for a 6 x 4 extension. strip founds 600 wide, 1000 deep unless we hit something, theres a big oak two gardens over so BC may want deeper for heave, price a prov sum per cube. 3 tonne excavator and driver, grab away 7 loads. C25 ready mix, two pours. 7n trench block up to dpc. oversite - 150 hardcore blinded, 1200g dpm lapped into the dpc, 100 PIR, 150 slab with A142 mesh. drainage, new 110 run to the existing IC in the alley, 3 bends and a rest bend, 1 in 40 fall, haunch it in. BC want 3 inspections and they need 24 hours notice each time, tell the builder that now not later. 2 weeks. access is tight, everything comes through the side gate
| Item | Qty | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Site set up, plant delivery and reduce dig | 1 job | £980.00 |
| Excavate strip foundations, 3-tonne excavator and driver | 5 day | £2,100.00 |
| Grab-away of spoil | 7 each | £2,030.00 |
| C25 ready-mix concrete to foundations, two pours | 14 m³ | £2,310.00 |
| 7N trench block from footing to DPC | 1 job | £1,450.00 |
| Hardcore oversite, blinded and compacted | 24 m² | £816.00 |
| 1200g DPM lapped to DPC and 100mm PIR insulation | 24 m² | £1,008.00 |
| 150mm reinforced ground bearing slab with A142 mesh | 24 m² | £1,632.00 |
| New 110mm foul drainage run to existing inspection chamber | 12 linear m | £1,140.00 |
| Provisional sum: additional excavation and concrete below 1000mm | 4 m³ | £840.00 |
| Building Control inspections and attendance | 3 each | £360.00 |
| Total before VAT | £14,666.00 | |
An illustration using typical UK rates, not a price list. TradeScribe prices from the rates in your own notes and your saved day rate.
These are the lines that come up again and again on a groundworker's estimate. Mention any of them in your notes, however briefly, and they come out properly worded.
Price to a stated depth and add a provisional rate beyond it, per cubic metre of excavation and concrete plus per grab load of spoil. Note the assumption on the estimate: 'priced to 1,000mm; depth beyond this at £210/m³ on Building Control instruction'. It moves the conversation from a dispute to an arithmetic exercise, which is the whole point.
Always. It is the item most likely to change, because volume is not known until the hole is open and grab rates move. Separating it also means you can show the client the tickets. Groundworkers who bundle disposal into a headline figure end up funding three extra lorries out of their own margin.
The building owner pays the application fee, but you carry the cost of attending and of standing still while you wait for an inspector. Put attendance on the estimate as its own line, and state that 24 hours notice is required for each inspection. That way a missed booking is visibly somebody else's delay rather than an unexplained day on your invoice.
Price the run you can see to the chamber you can see, and put a stated sum against locating or forming a connection if the existing arrangement turns out to be different. Old properties have combined drains, redundant runs and chambers under patios. Lifting a cover on the survey visit is ten minutes that saves a genuinely expensive surprise.
If you are supplying construction services to another VAT-registered business within CIS, then usually yes: you do not charge VAT and you note on the invoice that the reverse charge applies. It does not apply when the customer is an end user, such as a homeowner. Getting this wrong on a subcontract invoice is the most common reason payment stalls in the accounts department.
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