Have you ever wondered how Vacuum Excavation works? Why continue with the stressful exercise of instructing your operatives to excavate around existing services with traditional methods of excavators and spades?
Vacuum Excavation Process
- Place the remote-controlled boom over the area that requires excavation, around 6–8 inches above the material. Switch on the vacuum fans to start the suction process.
- As the material starts to make its way up the suction pipe, follow the material with the boom ensuring the 6–8-inch gap is maintained to allow for constant air flow.
- As the service becomes visible, the material gets harder, the use of an air lance may be required to loosen the ground or clear the service.
- There is a selection of tools onboard to deal with different conditions i.e., reduced pipe size for narrow areas, air lance for loosening material and air breakers for breaking up the hard surface, all driven by a built-in compressor.
- With our vast experience in the Civil Engineering sector, we offer advice on other equipment or materials that may be required to complete the task safely and can even assist with the temporary works.
- To support projects, we can provide a full package i.e., supply ground protection with rubber mats or fence panels to fence off the work area.
- The material is stored in a built-in skip that is capable of holding 8m3. To reduce transport costs, we take the excavated material to a stoke pile on site.
- The material is dispensed by lifting the lid upright and side tipping the material to offload onto the ground. The material can also be tipped directly into demountable skips, ready for removal from site to avoid reloading.
- Many contractors prefer the vacuum system when working in built-up areas to ensure safe excavation around existing services and to keep footpaths clear of material to prevent slips, trips and falls for the work force and public. In addition, the noise level of the equipment is under the legal requirement.
- To prevent any contamination in the air, the vacuum is created by air circulation where there is a filter system that consists of 42 filters. This ensures that there is no escape of dust.
Material Removal and Adjustments
Vacuum excavation is a safe, efficient, and clean way to remove material off-site, or to move it around the site. As vacuum excavation is so much quicker than traditional excavation work, it also reduces the cost of removing materials. Some sites require trees and earth to be moved, to form new green spaces on the site. A vacuum excavator can remove the earth from around tree roots, and allow the tree to be safely moved, and resituated, with the earth. This ability to recycle and reuse is part of the environmentally friendly credentials of the vacuum excavator.
Suction Excavation is Perfect For:
Vacuum excavation is perfect for a whole range of scenarios. It is proven to be quicker, safer, cleaner, cheaper, and less damaging. In almost every situation, vacuum excavation is consistently the best choice. It is ideal for the following:
- Safe excavation around buried utilities
- Emergency repairs around pipework and utilities
- Deep excavation
- Restricted access sites
- Rail ballast removal
- Clearing contaminated ground and sewers
- Roof and basement work
- Clearing around tree roots without damaging them
- Culvert clearance
- Water treatment filter bed clearance
Taking Control of Excavations
Using vacuum excavation gives you control over the excavation on your site. Even if the services or utilities plans are old, or unclear, you can still proceed with clearing the site, without worry, using vacuum excavation. Due to the speed of vacuum excavation, you can prevent delays on projects, no longer waiting for crucial areas to be cleared. Many development projects now have very stringent environmental requirements in place, and using vacuum excavation means that you can keep to these specifications. Vacuum excavation can help to relocate trees, and it reduces the dust in the air, helping to reduce site pollution. The collective benefits of vacuum excavation give you more control over the excavation part of your project and reduces the risk of the project being derailed at this stage.
Hire the Right Team
When you choose to work with the team at PIER UK, you are benefitting from years of experience and knowledge in vacuum excavation. We have invested heavily in our fleet of vacuum excavators as well as our team of operatives so that we can bring our resources to every project that we undertake. Our operatives are experienced at working with your on-site construction team, and will always work to your schedule. We are here to work with you, to provide you with exceptional vacuum excavation services, no matter the size or scale of the project.
You can contact our team on email or on 01925 228 674. Alternatively, you can view our latest projects on our Social Media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.