Division 31 / Delivered
Division 31 earthwork estimating and cut and fill takeoff
Earthwork is the one division where your number and the engineer’s number can differ by thousands of yards and both be defensible. What matters is knowing which assumption produced the gap.
What we measure, and in what units
- CY cut, fill, import and export on a stated basis
- CY over excavation and recompaction
- SF stripping
- LF trench by depth band
- SF shoring
- CY structural backfill
- LF erosion control
- SF stabilisation
What the deliverable looks like for this division
Volumes taken independently from existing and proposed surfaces without looking at the engineer’s figure first, then reconciled against it, with shrink and swell applied explicitly and the difference explained rather than left. Tons carried beside yards wherever the bid form asks for tons.
Scope items routinely missed on this division
Only someone who has priced the work knows what falls through the gaps. No competitor publishes this list.
- Reconciling to the engineer’s own earthwork table rather than producing an independent number and leaving the two unexplained.
- Shrinkage and swell factors, and stating which was applied.
- Topsoil strip and stockpile as a separate operation, with the stockpile space as a site constraint.
- Over excavation and recompaction directed by the soils report, not shown on the grading plan.
- Trench spoil that cannot be reused.
- Haul distance and dump fees, which move the number more than the volume does.
- Rock, and whether the soils report supports an allowance.
- Dewatering where the water table sits above the excavation.
- Erosion control, and whether the client has excluded it.
- Import and export unit rates as the mechanism for change, since quantities move on this division more than any other.
Documents needed to price it
- Grading and drainage plan
- Existing and proposed contours
- The soils report
- Utility plans
- Cross sections for linear work
- The engineer’s earthwork quantity table
Questions people in this trade actually ask
How are import and export reconciled against the engineer’s table?
Our volumes are taken first, then compared. The difference is attributed: topsoil strip depth, over excavation, subgrade preparation, or a different shrink assumption. A gap you can explain is a bidding advantage. A gap you cannot is a risk.
How is shrinkage handled and where does the factor come from?
It is stated on the takeoff, sourced from the soils report where it gives one and flagged as an assumption where it does not, so you can change it if you know the material better than the report does.
What happens when the geotechnical engineer directs deeper over excavation in the field?
That is exactly why import and export are carried at unit rates: the quantity changes and the rate does not, so the adjustment is arithmetic rather than a negotiation.
Work of this kind
- Construction
Two single family homes and two ADUs, wildfire rebuild
Los Angeles County
Grading and excavation, retaining walls and drainage, with phased scope options priced.
Estimating & Takeoff
- Construction
Express car wash, new build
Southern California
Grading, concrete, storm drain and bioretention, sanitary sewer, landscape, site lighting and alley reconstruction. Seven scopes consolidated into one proposal.
Estimating & Takeoff / Bid & Proposal Support
- Construction
Municipal street widening
California Central Valley
Public works unit price bid. Quantity audit carried in both cubic yards and tons, with colour coded markups.
Estimating & Takeoff / Bid & Proposal Support
The service behind this
Estimating & TakeoffRelated divisions
Bidding Division 31 work?
Send the documents and the bid date. A written fee and turnaround come back before anything is measured.