Small Scale Excavation Machine

What counts as small scale excavation

Ground engineers sort the types of excavation by what comes out of the hole (topsoil, earth, rock and muck) and by what the hole is for, and the second split is the one that matters on small-scale projects.

Trench excavation runs narrow and long for services and drainage, footing and post excavation goes down in a small square.

Stripping takes the top 150mm to 300mm off an area to level it for a patio, driveway or lawn.

Basement excavation and full house foundations sit at the other end of the scale. These are never small jobs, however small the plot.

On landscape jobs, the shallow three come as a set, since a patio base has to be stripped and the same plot wants post holes for a fence and a channel for lighting cable or irrigation.

Add a soakaway where the ground holds water, and that’s a typical residential project.

Where a mini excavator is still the right tool

A mini excavator earns its place on anything deep, and a 1.5 tonne digger reaches roughly 2.2 to 2.5 metres.

That covers strip foundations, a soakaway crate at depth, a septic tank pit or a deep connection to a main sewer.

The range of mini excavators starts with micro diggers around 700mm wide and under a tonne, built to go through a house and out the back.

It runs up through 1.5, 2.5 and 3 tonne compact excavators with more digging depth and a bigger bucket at each step.

Larger excavators beyond that belong on construction projects, and the type of excavator you hire should be the smallest one that reaches the depth you need.

Once the hole is dug, a digger moves spoil badly, can’t carry a pallet of slabs, and costs you day rate while it sits still.

A mini excavator digs, but that’s the majority of its skill set.

A MultiOne with the right attachment goes just as deep, and then some.

Swap attachments and the same machine carries the spoil away, brings the slabs in and moves pallets.

A multi-use, convenient machine.

Where a MultiOne compact loader does the excavation job

A compact loader is excavation equipment when the right attachment is on the front.

The MultiOne quick-hitch swaps one for another in two or three minutes without tools. Three of them cover most of the digging you’ll meet on residential and light commercial work.

Trenches for drainage, cable and irrigation

A trencher cuts a narrow channel to a fixed line at 140mm to 200mm depth, depending on model. This depth covers most of the utility installation a domestic plot ever needs.

A utility trench for armoured cable to a garden office, a land drain, an irrigation system or a utility line duct all come out of the same tool.

Digging trenches this way leaves you a cleaner, narrower cut than a digger bucket, so there’s less to fill back in afterwards.

Holes for posts, footings and trees

A hydraulic-drive auger bores a clean hole with bits from 100mm for fence posts up to 600mm for a decking pile or a shed footing.

The same tool can also be used to dig planting pits for small trees and shrubs.

Where you’ve no room to swing a digger arm, an auger on an articulated loader can often extend to the corner of the plot.

Stripping, grading and backfill

The standard bucket strips topsoil for a patio or new garden beds, loads it, and levels the sub-base.

A 4-in-1 bucket adds a clam that grips, a blade edge for levelling and a more accurate dump for filling a trench without burying the pipe in one go.

Light demolition sits here too, because the same bucket breaks out an old slab path and loads the rubble for you.

And the mini digger attachment takes this a step further still, with 90° rotation and simple controls.

A backhoe attachment for the deeper bits

MultiOne’s own catalogue includes a backhoe that mounts on the same quick-attach plate, with its own seat and controls, 180 degree swing and a digging depth of around 2.15 to 2.6 metres depending on model.

One of the attachment options even comes with radio control for excellent visibility when digging,

The MultiOne range for excavation work

Every MultiOne loader we stock shares an articulated centre pivot. The rear wheels follow the front ones and the machine turns with a zero inside turning circle on a lawn it would otherwise chew up.

That manoeuvrability matters in tight spaces, and the 1 and 2 Series are narrow enough for a standard garden gate too.

Four-wheel drive with a torque divider keeps them planted on slopes or wet ground, and the telescopic boom reaches over a trench or into a skip.

Which series suits which job

The 1 and 2 Series are the compact size end, built to get through that gate with a bucket or a light auger, and they suit domestic excavation jobs in confined spaces where access rules everything else out.

The 5, 6 and 7 Series carry more lift and reach, with enough engine to run a trencher or a stump grinder all day. This is where we’d point a contractor doing construction and landscaping work most weeks.

The 8 and 11 Series, up to 75hp, give you the power and precision for heavy lifting on commercial contracts, and still fit a 3.5 tonne plant trailer.

The EZ Series is the fully electric version for indoor and noise-sensitive sites and runs the same range of attachments.

New MultiOne loaders come with a 3-year warranty, and every series shares the same joystick, so an operator moving up the range isn’t learning a new machine.

Whether you are looking to hire or buy, our team will ensure you get the correct machine and attachments for your workload.

A Sherpa mini loader for confined garden areas

Some back gardens have no gate at all, and the only way in is through the house or down a side passage that even a MultiOne 1 Series won’t clear.

The Sherpa 100 Small and the battery-powered Sherpa 100 Eco both measure 760mm across, with the operator standing on a platform at the back, so either one fits a single doorway.

Once inside, it turns and loads in a walled garden that nothing wider was getting into.

Sherpa doesn’t offer an excavator attachment for the 100 range, but it does come with other useful tools for small scale excavation.

Auger drive unit

On the digging side, you’re limited to an auger drive unit, and that bores post holes, small footings and planting pits.

Variety of buckets

Buckets come in a range of volumes for carrying the excavated spoil out through the house and the aggregate back in.

A smaller bucket keeps a load of wet clay within what the machine will lift, and a bigger one shifts loose topsoil in fewer trips.

Concrete mixed

The hydraulic concrete mixer attachment mixes the fence post footings or a shed base beside the hole, instead of barrowing concrete through the hallway from a mixer out on the street.

The same mixer covers the garden wall footings and step bases that follow once the digging is done.

For anything deeper than a post hole on a site like that, a micro digger tracks through the same doorway and the Sherpa carries away what it digs out.

Mini digger or compact loader for a small excavation project

Scale decides it, because a full foundation or a basement is wide and deep at once and needs a mini excavator with a dumper behind it.

We’ll say so rather than sell you kit that isn’t up to it.

Below that scale, the loader wins on everything around the dig.

It cuts the channel, moves the spoil, brings pipe and aggregate to the hole, reinstates the ground and carries the slabs, and the spoil goes into the skip from the machine that dug it.

Ground conditions matter more than which machine you pick, and heavy clay slows a trencher as much as a digger.

If snow is present, there is a snow clearing attachment available to help.

Check for underground services before you excavate, and plan support or battering for any trench deep enough to bury someone.

Hire a digger for the day when a one-off deep job comes up.

A contractor doing light excavation every week on residential construction and landscape work is usually better off owning the loader and the tools.

How ILH work

1. Describe the dig – Call 0141 775 9288 or use the contact form with the depth you need, the gap the machine has to get through, what you expect in the ground and how long the job runs.
2. We match the loader and the tools – A MultiOne with trencher, auger, bucket or backhoe, or a Sherpa for a through-the-house garden, priced to hire or to buy. If it needs a digger, we say so.
3. Set up at Cumbernauld – The attachments are fitted and the quick-hitch and hydraulics checked before the loader goes on the trailer, and a backhoe is ordered in against your dates.
4. Delivered and shown on site – We deliver across Scotland, set the trencher depth and walk through the attachment swap on your ground, then leave you to dig.
5. Backing while you work – Phone advice, parts and workshop servicing through the job, collection when a hire ends, and a 3-year warranty on a new MultiOne.

Get the digging done with one machine on site

Tell us the depth, the narrowest gap and what happens after the hole is dug, and we’ll match a compact loader with the tools for the job, or tell you plainly that it needs a digger.

We plan around access. So if the gate is the worry, we will find the right machine that can be used.

Loaders go out on hire from our Cumbernauld workshop with the tools fitted, by the day or by the week, and we’ve been supplying and servicing groundcare kit as a family-run specialist since 2007.

Call 0141 775 9288 or get in touch to talk through the job.