residential site preparation

Site Preparation for Construction


In any building construction, a few arduous procedures are always involved. Some are easier than others, while some are not. Site preparation for building construction is definitely on the 'not so easy' side. As it requires a lot of hard labour and a lot of hands-on follow-up, this particular segment is broken up into several steps. But you may be asking yourself, 'what's site preparation?' Well, here it is.

What is Site Preparation in Building Construction?

Site preparation for construction involves demolishing buildings and other structures. It is followed by clearing building sites and materials gathered from the demolished structure, whether the structure is a building, tree, or something else.

However, there is more to site preparation as it also includes blasting, test drilling, landfill, levelling, earth moving, excavating, land drainage and more land preparations. This process is usually a lengthy one, depending on the size of the building.

mini excavator working on construction

Construction Site Preparation Steps

Seeing how site preparation is a number of procedures all condensed and crammed up, breaking them into steps will be much easier to approach. Firstly, you should make a specific consideration towards cranes. Whether you're looking to build a skyscraper or just an average sized building, either way you may find that you need a crane hire to help out with the heavy lifting. According to Maxim Lifting Services, you can get anything from a mini crane to a tower crane hire for your site.

Here are the Steps You Should Take Note of:

  1. Draw property lines. Before the land preparation process can start, you need to get a land survey for your construction site. So go get that permit. What you want to do here is make sure the lines of the property you are yet to build are staked out properly. You can refer to the blueprints and plans for guidance.
  2. Clearing. This is where it can get a little messy. You'll call on the demolition crew to tear and wreck everything down. That could be by removing some inconveniently placed stones, a few trees, anything that gets in your way, really.
  3. Excavation. This is the process of creating a good foundation for what you're building. It's done by digging out dirt, and depending on how large the building is going to be, the excavation could go deeper.
  4. Land Grading. Land grading is where you begin to reach the end of your preparations. What you do here is quite simple, you just level and compact the soil on your site. This is done to have a properly inclined ground, so you have the land sloping at the correct angle.
  5. Utility mapping. Sometimes, you'll find that your property may not have access to the essentials of any building. This includes power and plumbing, mainly. So you'll have to choose where and how to install the sewer lines, get cables for your power and anything else that may be necessary during this preparation process.
excavator at construction site

With site preparation for construction, you should take great care in each step you're about to take. Since each of them often consists of more than one part and takes a long time to complete. Upon finishing preparations, you are ready to start with the design and build construction and make the most of your building site.

Clara Annesley

Clara Annesley is an interior design and construction content writer. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Architectural Design Technology from the University of West London. Clara specialises in residential construction for topics like health & safety, architectural design and writing cost guides for renovation and remodelling projects.