Excavation and site work in Coombs and Errington
Parksville Excavating works the acreages through Coombs and Errington. The ground at Errington is mapped as fractured Haslam shale rather than as sand and gravel, so we price rock work as a separate line through Electoral Area F. Around a fifth of the area sits inside the Agricultural Land Reserve, where placing fill needs 60 days' notice to the Agricultural Land Commission.
Inland from the coastal strip, two things change the job. The material under the topsoil is rock instead of sand, and a large share of the land is farmland with its own approvals.
Rock rather than sand
Aquifer 220 underlies Errington and much of the surrounding area: fractured sedimentary bedrock in the Haslam Formation, covering 158.4 square kilometres, the only low-productivity aquifer in this part of the region. The rock is cracked rather than solid, so depth to good rock changes from one corner of your lot to the other.
When shale sits close to the surface, we switch from digging to breaking rock — that changes how we dig it, and how long it takes. Breaking needs a different machine and a different rate, so we quote it as its own line rather than folding it into the estimate we gave before the cut was open.
Farmland, parcels and fill
Electoral Area F covers Coombs, Errington and Hilliers. There's no water or sewer coming out here — lots are a hectare minimum so a well and a septic field both fit. That's why almost every job we do out here has to work around one or both of them. We find the well head and the field before we pick a line for the machine, and we keep the spoil off both.
The area carries a Freshwater and Fish Habitat development permit area, added to the Official Community Plan by Bylaw No. 1152.05 and adopted on 4 December 2018, and it reaches unmapped watercourses as well as mapped ones. If your parcel is inside the Agricultural Land Reserve, the Agricultural Land Commission needs notice before we place fill, and we handle it.
People also ask
How is rock priced differently from digging?
We quote breaking rock as its own line, because the machine, the rate and the time all change. Volume matters far less than method once bedrock is in the cut.
Does every acreage here need an ALR notice?
Only where fill is being placed or soil removed on land inside the Agricultural Land Reserve. We confirm the parcel's status before scheduling the work rather than assuming it from the address.
Related: Ground conditions on Oceanside · What site work costs · Foundation digs and backfill
Site work we do here
- Land clearing and site prepBrush, stump and topsoil removal, building envelope stripped to grade, and a compacted pad ready for forms. Permit position checked before the machine arrives.
- Foundation digs and backfillFootings dug to the depth on the drawings, benched where the walls are deep, then backfilled and compacted in lifts once the wall has cured.
- Drainage and perimeter drainsPerimeter drain, filter cloth and drain rock at the footing, tied into a sump or a daylight outlet that keeps running through the wet months.
- Driveways and parking padsSubgrade cut, geotextile where the ground is soft, then pit run and crush placed in compacted lifts to a crown that sheds water.