Do you price groundworks as a fixed job or day rate?

Either. Contract work is normally priced by the job from drawings or a site walk, so the client carries no day-rate risk. Where ground conditions make quantities uncertain, RH Plant Machinery Ltd will say so up front and agree a rate-based structure with clear assumptions instead.

What size groundworks jobs do you take on?

From a single driveway or drainage run to multi-week packages: site strips, bulk excavation, farm infrastructure, drainage schemes, lakes and lagoons. The operated fleet runs from 1 to 14 tonnes with dumpers and rollers alongside, so the machine spread matches the job rather than the other way round.

Do you tender for groundworks packages?

Yes. RH Plant Machinery Ltd prices groundworks and earthworks tenders for developers, main contractors, farmers and estates across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire, and provides RAMS, insurance certificates and a programme with the submission.

Can you work to engineers' drawings and levels?

Yes - that's the standard way of working. iDig 2D laser level control on the excavators cuts formations and falls to the figures on the drawing, which keeps concrete, stone and muck-away quantities where the estimate said they would be.

Groundworks and Earthworks Contracting

RH Plant Machinery Ltd delivers groundworks and earthworks as priced contracts across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire - site strips, drainage schemes, foundations, farm infrastructure, lakes and lagoons. An operated fleet from 1 to 14 tonnes, our own NPORS operators, one company responsible from first cut to handover. Tenders and job pricing welcome: 07545 265075.

Contract work, not just machines

The hire side of the business supplies machines with operators by the day. This is the other side: whole packages of work, priced from your drawings or a site walk, delivered under one contract by RH Plant Machinery Ltd. You get a figure for the finished job, a programme, RAMS and insurance certificates before day one, and the same company answerable for all of it. A groundworks package is a serious undertaking - of capital, time and trust. We treat it that way.

Excavator and dumper stripping and levelling a site

Site preparation

Site strips and reduced-level digs, demolition clearance, levelling and compaction, haul roads and hard standings.

Excavators forming a pond and reshaping ground beside woodland

Drainage & water

Land and field drainage schemes, surface water systems, attenuation ponds, ditching, lakes and lagoons.

Formation set out and dug to the drawing behind a new retaining wall

Foundations & access

Footings and foundations to the engineer's drawing, farm tracks and access roads, gateways and yards.

Who this is for

Farmers and estates: drainage schemes, tracks, yards, lagoons and water infrastructure, quoted as complete jobs - insured with NFU Mutual like most of our farming clients. Developers and main contractors: groundworks packages and earthworks tenders, priced from drawings with quantities held tight by machine-control accuracy. Landowners and self-builders: one competent outfit from muck to formation, working to the engineer's drawing and handing over ready for the next trade.

Why quantities stay where we priced them

Over-dig is where groundworks budgets die: every 100mm past the drawing is concrete, stone and muck-away you didn't need to buy. A number of our excavators run iDig 2D laser level control, so formations and falls are cut to the figure, not to feel. It's the same discipline that runs through the group - our design and construction arm Hay & Co builds on the ground we prepare, so the standard is set by people who have to live with the foundation. It's the same team that formed the twin lakes and carried out the vast earthmoving at Cowpasture Farm in Oxfordshire.

"Having worked in the development sector for a number of years, Hay & Co have been by far the most organised and superb contractor I have worked with in the past 30 years."Mark, Wiltshire

How pricing works

Send drawings for a priced submission, or walk the site with Rory for a written quote - site visits are free and without obligation - job price wherever quantities are knowable, honest rate-based terms with clear assumptions where the ground says otherwise. Every quote comes from the person who'll run the job. Where a job is better served by the day-rate model, we'll tell you and point you at the published hire rates - whichever way costs you less.

Excavators forming a reduced level dig and drainage basin

Tracked excavator on a large chalk site strip and bulk earthworks job

Contracting questions, answered straight

Fixed job price or day rate?

Either. Contract work is normally priced by the job so you carry no day-rate risk. Where ground conditions make quantities genuinely uncertain, we say so up front and agree rates with clear assumptions instead - no surprises either way.

What size jobs do you take on?

From a single drainage run to multi-week packages. The fleet runs 1 to 14 tonnes with dumpers and rollers alongside, so the machine spread matches the job.

Do you tender?

Yes - groundworks and earthworks tenders for developers, main contractors, farmers and estates, with RAMS, certificates and a programme in the submission.

Can you work to our engineer's drawings?

That's the standard way of working. iDig machine control cuts formations and falls to the drawing, which keeps your concrete, stone and muck-away quantities where the estimate put them.