Excavation Cost Calculator
Your cost per cubic yard, built from your own machine, crew, haul and dump numbers — not a national average that has never seen your market.
Why the published averages are close to useless
Search excavation cost and you get a range from $5 to $250 a cubic yard, because those figures blend a 10,000 yard subdivision cut with a hand-dug footing in Manhattan. The spread is not measurement error — it is the honest consequence of averaging jobs that share nothing but a unit.
Your cost is four things: how fast the machine moves dirt, what the machine and crew cost per hour, what it costs to truck and dump the surplus, and how much mobilisation you have to spread over the job. Those four you know.
Bank yards for digging, loose yards for hauling
Excavation is bid per bank cubic yard because that is what the plans measure. Trucking is paid on loose yards because that is what rides in the truck. This calculator applies swell to the haul side only — the single most common way a dirt bid comes up short is pricing 500 yards of trucking when 625 yards leave the site.
Mobilisation is why small jobs look expensive
Mobilisation barely changes with job size, so it lands entirely differently depending on volume. An $800 move is eight dollars a yard on a 100 yard dig and eight cents on a 10,000 yard dig. When a customer asks why the small job costs so much per yard, this is almost always the answer — and it is worth showing them the line rather than burying it in the rate.
Machine production drives the digging half of the cost. If you are guessing at it, the excavator production calculator builds it from cycle time and bucket size instead.
Frequently asked questions
How much does excavation cost per cubic yard?
Published ranges run roughly $5 to $20 per cubic yard for straightforward dirt work, climbing to $30-$75 for rock. But those are averages across every market and every site condition in the country. Your number comes from your machine rate, your crew, your haul distance and your dump fee — which is what this calculator builds instead of quoting an average.
What should I include in an excavation cost per yard?
Machine time (owning and operating, or rental), operator and labor, trucking, dump or tipping fees, and mobilisation spread over the job. Overhead and profit go on top of that cost — the number this tool produces is your cost to do the work, not your price to the customer.
Should I price off bank or loose yards?
Excavation is normally bid per bank cubic yard, because that is what the plans measure. Trucking is paid on loose yards, because that is what rides in the box. Mixing the two is the most common way a bid comes up short — this calculator keeps them separate and converts between them.
What does mobilisation add per yard?
Mobilisation is close to fixed, so it lands hard on small jobs and disappears on large ones. Moving a machine and trailer for $800 adds $8 per yard on a 100 yard dig and eight cents on a 10,000 yard dig. It is usually the reason small excavation work looks expensive per unit.