Excavation Services in Bali — Foundations, Footings & Basements
We dig villa footings, strip foundations, pool pits and basements to the engineer’s levels: machine cut, the last 10 cm trimmed by hand, water pumped out, spoil trucked off the same day. From IDR 95,000/m³ in normal soil; a typical three-bedroom footprint is 60–120 m³ and 2–3 working days. 120+ sites prepared since 2019 with our 6 own machines. Send the plot pin and your foundation drawing on WhatsApp — itemised m³ quote in 24 hours.
FREE SITE VISIT · QUOTE IN 24H · from IDR 95,000/m³
Inside the scope
Included in every dig: set-out, machine cut, hand trim, spoil out
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 19–22 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.
Foundation, footing and basement excavation — what’s different
Three jobs share a machine and very little else. Depth, how the bottom is finished, how much water and spoil you manage — and therefore the price — change from one to the next.
Strip footings and pad foundations
The everyday villa job: trenches or pads 60–120 cm deep for a single storey, deeper for two storeys or soft ground, always down to the firm bearing soil your engineer names. We dig to about 10 cm above design level by machine and trim the rest by hand, so the soil the footing sits on stays dense and undisturbed. A three-bedroom footprint is typically 60–120 m³ and 2–3 working days with truck access; 96 m³ of strip footings in Canggu, pumped dry and hauled away, comes to about IDR 21 million at our October 2026 rates.
Basements and deep dig-outs
A basement is volume plus risk. The dig-out itself starts at IDR 120,000/m³, but the lines around it decide the budget: shoring or benching near a boundary, designed by the engineer and priced per job; a sump and pumps running from day one in Canggu, Seseh or Sanur, where water sits 1–2 m down; and trucks. A 4 × 8 m basement 3 m deep is 96 m³ in the ground and around 18 truckloads once the soil swells — so the truck count goes into the quote before the first bucket.
Pool pits
A pool pit is dug to the shotcrete crew’s tolerances, with overdig for plumbing and formwork, stable walls and a sump for the wet season. A standard 8 × 4 m pit in soil starts at IDR 11.5 million, in limestone at 21 million — the full method is on our pool excavation page.
On the Bukit every one of these is rock work
Footings, basements and pools in Uluwatu, Ungasan or Pecatu go through coral limestone with a hydraulic breaker at IDR 380,000–550,000/m³, priced after a free test dig that fixes the rock line before you sign — see limestone rock breaking.
Price by ground
Excavation price per m³ by soil and access (2026)
The same drawing costs different money in Canggu clay and Uluwatu limestone, and again behind a narrow gang where soil has to be shuttled out by mini excavator. Rates per m³ include machine, operator, fuel and supervision; hauling is a separate, visible line.
| Ground | Where | Machine, truck access (IDR/m³) | Tight access | Hand digging (IDR/m³) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paddy clay | Canggu, Seseh, Sanur | 95,000–140,000 + pump from 450,000/day | +40–70% | from 300,000 |
| Volcanic loam | Ubud, Tabanan | 95,000–140,000 | +40–70% | from 300,000 |
| River boulder mix | Pererenan, Kedungu | 150,000–380,000 after a test dig | +40–70% | quoted after test dig |
| Coral limestone | Uluwatu, Ungasan, Pecatu, Bingin | 380,000–550,000 (hydraulic breaker) | +40–70% | quoted after test dig |
Haul-away from IDR 750,000 per 7 m³ truck within 10 km (+45,000/km beyond); dug soil swells by about 25%, broken limestone by 50–60%. Mobilization IDR 1.5–2.5 million per job. Orientation for 2026 — the fixed figure comes after the free site visit. Soil by area is explained in Bali soil types.
Know your volume? Send the foundation drawing or the dig size, the plot pin and a photo of the access — we reply with the ground type we expect, the truck count and an itemised price within 24 hours.
Get My Dig PricedPricing
Excavation rates: per m³, per day, per truck (2026)
| 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 750,000 |
Machine, operator and fuel included, October 2026. Final rate depends on soil, depth, access and haul distance — we settle it after walking the plot, at no cost to you. The complete rate sheet sits on the pricing page.
Read the table as honest orientation rather than a public offer; the binding figure is set in the written quote that follows the free plot walk.
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 a line-by-line volume quote — normally back with you inside 24 hours, and you owe nothing for it.
FREE SITE VISIT · QUOTE IN 24H · OWN MACHINES