They called us for tippers. We ended up doing the whole site.
A Wolverhampton commercial site that started as a muck away enquiry and became a full package – clearance, demolition, muck away, planting and a five-metre perimeter wall. All to a fixed budget and planning conditions, with live gas and leaking water found along the way.
A tipper enquiry that turned into everything
The customer came to us wanting tippers to take hardcore and spoil off site. Straightforward enough. But we went out and looked at the job properly first – and once we'd walked the site, it was clear the muck away was one part of a much bigger piece of work. We were asked to quote the lot. Rather than the customer running five separate procurement exercises and hoping the trades turned up in the right order, they got one price, one programme and one number to ring.
What the job actually involved
Six distinct trades, coordinated as one job.
- Hardcore and spoil removed by tipper
- Green waste and trees cleared and disposed of
- Turf lifted and taken away
- Building demolished, including all metalwork
- Specified conifers sourced and planted to planning
- Five-metre perimeter wall in concrete panels and RSJs
Down to clear ground
Trees and green waste came out first, then the turf, then the building itself. The metalwork from the demolition didn't go in a skip – it was segregated and recovered, and we passed a rebate back to the customer against the scrap value.
That's money most people leave on the table. If a demolition contractor isn't talking to you about the metal, it's worth asking where it went.
The part they originally rang about
Hardcore and spoil stripped off the site and hauled away by tipper, phased so the clearance, demolition and wall build could each get on without the muck backing up.
Live gas and leaking water, neither on the drawings
Part way through we found services in the ground that shouldn't have been an issue – a gas supply recorded as disused but still live, and water pipes leaking underground.
You can't dig round a live gas main and hope. We stopped, got Cadent and Severn Trent involved, and worked with both until the services were made safe and the leaks resolved – then carried on.
It's the least glamorous part of the job and the one that separates a contractor who manages a site from one who just prices it. Handled properly, it cost some time. Handled badly, it's an incident.
Five metres of concrete panel and RSJ
The final element was a full perimeter wall – RSJ posts set into the ground, concrete panels stacked between them, five metres high the whole way round.
It had to meet the conditions set out in planning and land inside a budget that was fixed before we started. We used trusted suppliers from our network for the specialist elements rather than sub-letting to whoever was cheapest that week, and kept the whole thing under one point of contact so nothing fell between trades.
Start to finish
One contractor, one price, one programme
Site cleared, building demolished, metalwork recovered with a rebate back to the customer, muck away completed, planting in to planning spec and a five-metre perimeter wall stood up – inside the budget that was set at the outset.
The customer rang us about tippers. What they got was a single point of contact for a job that would otherwise have meant a demolition firm, a haulier, a landscaper, a groundworks contractor and two utility companies – all needing managing.
Bigger job than you first thought? Clearance, demolition, muck away and groundworks from one team.
See all services →Got a site that needs more than one trade?
Tell us what's there and what it needs to become. We'll come out, look at it properly, and price the lot.