Excavation Services in Bali — Foundations, Footings & Basements
Foundations are dug once and carried forever. We excavate footings, strip foundations and basements to the engineer’s exact levels — machine speed, hand-finished bottoms, water under control, and soil off your plot the same day.
FREE SITE VISIT · QUOTE IN 24H · from IDR 95,000/m³
What’s included
What you get with foundation excavation
Setting out & levels
We transfer the engineer’s drawing onto the ground: corner pins, string lines, laser benchmark. You see the footprint before the first bucket — and sign off on it.
Machine dig to grade
Mini or 20-ton excavator sized to your access, digging to design depth in controlled passes — not “roughly there”, but to the level on the drawing.
Hand trim & bottom prep
Footing bottoms and edges finished by hand: clean vertical faces, undisturbed bearing soil, ready for lean concrete the same day the engineer inspects.
Dewatering
Sump pits and pumps for Canggu-grade water tables. Water managed away from the excavation, not into your neighbour’s garden.
Spoil management
Soil loaded straight to trucks where possible — no month-old mountain on your plot. Haul-away counts agreed in writing before we start.
Handover with stakes
Grade stakes and the benchmark stay in place. Your builder or engineer verifies depths and levels against the drawing before we leave.
Why excavation in Bali starts with water
Ask anyone who has built in Canggu: the hole you dig in the morning has a puddle by the afternoon. Much of south Bali sits on old rice paddy with a water table a meter or two down — sometimes less in the wet season. So before we quote a single m³, we want to know where the water is. On the free site visit we test-pit, check the neighbours’ wells, and plan the sump before the excavation. It’s the difference between a controlled dig and a mud bath that eats your schedule.
Machine speed, hand-finished bearing
A 20-ton machine moves 300 m³ a day, but the last 10 cm of a footing should never meet a bucket. We dig to roughly 10 cm above design level by machine, then trim to grade by hand — so the bearing soil your foundation sits on stays dense and undisturbed. Engineers notice; several now ask their clients to use us for exactly this handover. The bottom is cleaned, levelled and ready for lean concrete the same day.
Different ground, different dig
Sticky paddy clay in Canggu and Seseh holds vertical faces well but pumps like a sponge. Volcanic loam around Ubud digs clean and fast. And on the Bukit — Uluwatu, Ungasan, Pecatu — “digging” means breaking limestone, a different trade at a different price. Our quotes name the ground and the method, so the number you sign is the number you pay. For the full picture read Bali soil types →
Where the soil goes
A typical villa foundation produces 60–120 m³ of spoil — 10 to 18 truckloads. We load trucks directly where access allows, state the count in the quote, and haul to legal fill sites we hold agreements with. Clean cut soil often has value as fill elsewhere; when we can re-sell it, your disposal line gets cheaper. What we never do is push it over your boundary or into a river — Bali has enough of that.
What it costs, honestly
Machine excavation in normal soil starts at IDR 95,000/m³; hand digging where machines can’t reach runs about three times that. A worked example: 96 m³ of strip footings in Canggu with water management and twelve trucks of haul-away lands around IDR 16–19 million, dug and handed over in three days. Your plot will differ — that’s what the free site visit is for. Full worked budgets are in the 2026 excavation cost guide, and the complete price list is on the pricing page.
Pricing
How much does it cost in Bali
| Work | Unit | Price (IDR) |
|---|---|---|
| Machine excavation, normal soil | per m³ | from 95,000 |
| Hand digging (tight access, near boundaries) | per m³ | from 300,000 |
| Basement / deep dig-out (shoring separate) | per m³ | from 120,000 |
| Footing bottom hand-trim & clean | per m² | from 25,000 |
| Dewatering pump with hoses | per day | from 450,000 |
| Soil haul-away within 10 km | 7 m³ truck | from 480,000 |
Machine, operator and fuel included, July 2026. Final rate depends on soil, depth, access and haul distance — fixed after a free site visit. Full price list on the pricing page.
All prices are approximate and do not constitute a public offer — the exact price is fixed in your written quote after a free site visit.
FAQ
Foundation excavation in Bali — FAQ
How deep are villa foundations dug in Bali?
Typical strip footings for a single-storey villa sit 60–120 cm down, onto firm bearing soil; two storeys and difficult ground go deeper. The depth is your engineer’s call — our job is to hit that depth exactly and hand over an undisturbed, dry bottom for the concrete crew.
What happens when water appears in the excavation?
In Canggu, Seseh and Sanur it usually does, especially November to March. We dig a sump corner first, run pumps, and sequence the dig so concrete follows us quickly. Water management is quoted as a line item — see also our rainy season guide →
How long does a villa foundation dig take?
With good access: 2–3 days for a typical 3-bedroom footprint including hand trim, 4–5 days where trucks can’t reach the pit and soil moves twice. The quote states working days and machine sizes, so your builder can plan the pour date before we arrive.
My neighbours are two meters away. Is machine digging safe?
Close-boundary work is normal in Canggu and Denpasar. We switch to a mini excavator plus hand crews near shared walls, avoid impact tools next to old structures, and photograph neighbouring walls before starting — protection for both sides.
Do I need a permit to excavate on my own land?
Routine foundation excavation inside your plot is covered by your building permit (PBG/IMB) — that document is your builder’s scope. What we handle is the ground-level courtesy: banjar notification, truck routes, working hours. It keeps the project welcome on the street.
Get a free site visit and a volume-based quote
Send us your location pin and a few photos of the land on WhatsApp. We visit the site, measure levels, calculate real volumes and send an itemised quote — usually within 24 hours. No obligation.
FREE SITE VISIT · QUOTE IN 24H · OWN MACHINES