How Much Does Excavation Cost in Bali? 2026 Price Guide
“How much to dig?” is the message we get most, and the honest answer starts with three more questions: dig what, out of which ground, and where does the soil go afterwards? Those three variables move an earthworks budget by a factor of five on plots two kilometres apart. Below are our real 2026 rates, three worked budgets from sites we actually ran this year, and the places where owners quietly overpay.
The short answer: 2026 excavation rates in Bali
| Work | Unit | Price (IDR) |
|---|---|---|
| Machine excavation, normal soil | m³ | from 95,000 |
| Hand digging (tight access, precision) | m³ | from 300,000 |
| Limestone / rock breaking (Bukit) | m³ | 380,000–550,000 |
| Cut and fill moved on site | m³ | from 85,000 |
| Soil haul-away within 10 km | 7 m³ truck | from 480,000 |
| Imported fill soil, delivered | 7 m³ truck | from 660,000 |
| Land clearing, light vegetation | are (100 m²) | from 550,000 |
| Land clearing, heavy jungle | are | from 2,200,000 |
| Swimming pool pit in soil (8×4 m) | package | from 8,500,000 |
| Swimming pool pit in limestone | package | from 16,000,000 |
| Machine trench, 60 cm deep | m | from 90,000 |
| Septic tank, 2-chamber + soakaway | package | from 9,500,000 |
Every rate includes machine, operator, fuel and our supervision on site. The full list, including day rates and compaction, lives on the earthworks pricing page. What none of these numbers include is trucking — and that is deliberate, because trucking is where budgets are won and lost.
What you are actually buying per cubic meter
A cubic meter of excavation is not one thing. When we price a villa dig, the m³ rate covers setting out from the engineer’s drawing, the machine pass to design level, the hand trim of the last ten centimetres, and grade stakes left in the ground so your builder can verify us. Everything below is quoted separately and visibly:
- Trucking and disposal — from 480,000 per 7 m³ load, plus 30,000/km beyond 10 km. On a normal villa this is 20–35% of the whole earthworks bill.
- Dewatering — from 450,000/day for a pump and hoses. In Canggu, Seseh and Sanur, assume you need it; the water table is one to two metres down.
- Mobilization — 1,500,000–2,500,000 for a flatbed to bring a machine in and take it out again. One mobilization, several jobs, is the cheapest way to buy earthworks.
- Shoring or benching on deep cuts near a boundary — priced per job after an engineer looks at it.
- Reinstatement — repairing the gang paving your trucks used. We include it. Not everyone does, and the banjar remembers.
Per m³ or per day: which pricing is honest
Day rates reward slow work. We price per m³ wherever the volume can be measured, which is nearly always. Machines are still quoted per day for mixed small scopes where nobody can sensibly count cubic meters:
| Machine (operator + fuel included) | Day rate (IDR) | Realistic output |
|---|---|---|
| Mini excavator, PC50–75 (fits a 1.8 m gate) | from 3,400,000 | 60–110 m³ |
| 20-ton excavator, PC200 class | from 5,400,000 | 250–350 m³ |
| 20-ton + hydraulic breaker | from 7,600,000 | 15–30 m³ of limestone |
| Vibro roller (compaction) | from 3,400,000 | 800–1,200 m² per layer |
| Dump truck with driver | from 1,900,000 | 8–12 local trips |
Do the arithmetic before you accept a day rate. A 20-ton machine at 5,400,000 that moves 300 m³ is working at 18,000/m³ of raw digging — the rest of our 95,000 is levels, hand finishing, supervision and warranty. A day rate on a crew that moves 80 m³ costs you 67,500/m³ and nobody is accountable for finishing.
The two things that really move the price: ground and access
Ground. Paddy clay in Canggu, Seseh and Sanur digs easily and holds a vertical face, but it pumps water and it sticks to everything. Volcanic loam around Ubud is the nicest material in Bali to move. Then there is the Bukit — Uluwatu, Bingin, Ungasan, Pecatu, and the upper half of Jimbaran — where a bucket bounces off coral limestone and the job becomes rock breaking at 380,000–550,000/m³. Same drawing, four to five times the price. What sits under your plot is worth reading about before you budget: see Bali soil types.
Access. The second multiplier is whether a truck can stand next to the hole. If it can, soil is loaded once. If it cannot — a gang in Canggu, a clifftop path near Bingin, a switchback driveway in the Ubud valleys — soil moves twice or three times, by mini excavator and power barrow, and the same 100 m³ costs 40–70% more. This is why we photograph access on the free site visit before writing a number.
Worked example 1: villa footings in Canggu, 96 m³
Three-bedroom villa on 3 are near Padang Linjong, strip footings to 1.1 m, truck access to the gate but not onto the plot. June 2026, rounded:
- Setting out, levels and grade stakes — included
- Machine excavation 96 m³ @ 95,000 = IDR 9.12 M
- Hand trim of footing bottoms, 62 m² @ 25,000 = IDR 1.55 M
- Dewatering, 3 days @ 450,000 = IDR 1.35 M
- Haul-away, 10 trucks @ 480,000 = IDR 4.80 M (25 m³ kept on site for backfill)
- Mobilization, mini excavator on a flatbed = IDR 1.50 M
Total IDR 18.3 million (~USD 1,150), three working days, footing bottoms handed over dry and inspected. A competing quote on the same drawing came in at 12 million — with no dewatering line, no hand trim and “soil to be arranged by owner”. Those three omissions are worth about seven million, and one of them is the difference between a foundation on undisturbed bearing soil and one on churned mud.
Worked example 2: a pool pit in Uluwatu limestone
Standard 8×4 m pool, 1.5 m average depth, on a plot above Melasti in Uluwatu. Eighty centimetres of red soil, then solid rock. Free test dig on day zero told us exactly that, so nothing below was a surprise:
- Strip topsoil and weathered rock, 18 m³ @ 95,000 = IDR 1.71 M
- Limestone breaking, 62 m³ @ 460,000 = IDR 28.52 M
- Overdig trim, wall faces and wet-season sump = IDR 1.80 M
- Rock spoil out, 14 trucks @ 620,000 = IDR 8.68 M
- Mobilization, 20-ton machine plus breaker = IDR 2.50 M
Total IDR 43.2 million, eleven working days. The identical pool on a Canggu plot is IDR 8.5–12 million and three days. Same architect, same drawing, four times the earthworks — which is why every Bukit budget should be built after a test dig, not after a phone call. See pool excavation for how we sequence it around the shotcrete crew.
Worked example 3: clearing and filling 10 are in Seseh
A former rice field near Cemagi, bought cheap, needing everything before a builder could even mobilise. This is the budget owners never see coming:
- Land clearing, 10 are @ 750,000 = IDR 7.50 M
- Root grubbing after clearing, 10 are @ 300,000 = IDR 3.00 M
- Cut and fill balanced on site, 180 m³ @ 85,000 = IDR 15.30 M
- Imported fill to raise the pad 40 cm, 32 trucks @ 660,000 = IDR 21.12 M
- Compaction in 25 cm layers, 320 m² × 2 layers @ 22,000 = IDR 14.08 M
- Final grading of the building pad, 420 m² @ 18,000 = IDR 7.56 M
- Temporary site access road, 60 m² @ 240,000 = IDR 14.40 M
- Mobilization = IDR 2.00 M
Total IDR 85 million (~USD 5,200) before a single foundation was dug. Note the two biggest lines: imported fill and the road. Both are trucking. On a plot with a better internal balance we would have imported nothing — that arithmetic is explained in what cut and fill actually is.
Almost every earthworks quote that shocks an owner is a trucking quote wearing a digging costume. Count trucks first, cubic meters second.
Where owners overpay
- Buying earthworks through a general contractor who subcontracts us anyway, at plus 25–40%. Contract the dig directly and hand your builder a finished pad.
- Paying twice for mobilization. Excavation in March, trench for water in May, septic in July: three flatbeds, three set-ups. Combine them and the third job is nearly free.
- Buying fill you already own. Cut from the high side of your own plot is free material. Trucking it away and buying it back costs about 1.14 million per 7 m³ round trip.
- Approving “earthworks — lump sum”. If a quote has one line, it has no accountability. Ask for m³, truck counts and working days.
- Skipping the test dig on the Bukit. A free half-day of digging in Uluwatu or Ungasan converts a guess into a fixed price. Owners who skip it get variation orders instead.
How to read an earthworks quote in five minutes
Take any quote — ours, or a competitor’s — and check these six things. If a line is missing, it is not cheaper; it is coming later as an extra:
- Volume in m³, and how it was measured (drawing, laser, drone survey).
- Truck count and haul distance, stated as numbers.
- Whether disposal is to a legal fill site — ask which one.
- Dewatering, if you are anywhere from Canggu to Sanur or Denpasar.
- Hand trim of footing bottoms, or a note saying machine-only.
- Working days, and what happens if rain stops the site.
For a fast sanity number before any of that: a typical three-bedroom villa on flat soil in Canggu or Pererenan runs IDR 18–28 million of foundation excavation; the same house on a sloped Pererenan gorge plot with retaining work runs 120–180 million; and on Bukit limestone, budget 2.5–4× the flat-soil figure. Then get it measured properly, because your plot is not typical.