Digger Hire for House Extensions

Sensible digger hire for house extensions starts with a machine narrow enough to reach the back of the house, strong enough to dig the footings, and delivered when your groundworks are due. Central Plant Hire is a self-drive plant company covering Sussex and Surrey, supplying compact mini diggers, tracked dumpers and attachments to extension jobs across both counties. We deliver to your door, explain the machine before we leave, and keep booking simple so your extension gets underway.

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Hiring a digger for Sussex and Surrey

Digger hire for house extensions is one of the jobs we get asked about most, because the tricky part is rarely the digging, it is getting a machine down the side of the house to where the footings go. Central Plant Hire is a self-drive plant company covering East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey, hiring mini diggers, tracked dumpers and attachments to homeowners and builders building extensions. For a single storey kitchen extension, a two storey side return or a rear extension, we match you to a machine that fits the access, reaches the footing depth and arrives ready to dig and clear the spoil, with no trade account and no deposit to sort first. It is worth checking the planning permission rules for extensions before groundworks begin.

Access is the hard part

On almost every extension, the hard part is not the digging, it is getting the machine to the dig in the first place. The excavation sits at the back or side of the house, and the only route to it is a side gate, a passage between houses, or a gap along a boundary fence. Bring a machine that is too wide and it stops at the gate, leaving you to barrow every bit of spoil by hand. That single mistake can add days to a job and blow the labour budget.

Measuring up before you book

Getting a machine to the back of the house is a measuring job before it is a hiring one. Find the narrowest point on the route and you already know most of what decides the machine, because the gap down the side of a house is often tighter than it looks. The catch is that the gate is rarely the only squeeze. Gate posts, a water meter box, a soil pipe, a low soffit over the passage, a step up off the drive or a tight turn at the back can all stop a machine that measured fine at the gate. Walk the full route it has to travel, not just the gate, and note the tightest point anywhere between the unloading spot and where the footings go.

Ground conditions along that route matter as well. A firm path or patio takes a tracked machine in its stride, but a soft lawn or a freshly laid drive may need boards down first to spread the weight and avoid marking. Once you have the narrowest measurement and a couple of photos of the access, the hire desk can tell you which machine will make it through and what is worth moving out of the way before delivery day.

Micro and 1.5 tonne diggers

Where that measurement comes back tight, our micro diggers and 1.5 tonne mini digger are the machines built for it. They fit through standard gateways and narrow passages and still dig a full footing trench once they are through, and their rubber tracks are far gentler on your drive, path and patio than a machine on steel. On plenty of terraced and semi detached homes, a compact machine like this is the only one that will physically get to where the extension is going.

Digging the footings and clearing the spoil

Extension footings need clean, vertical trench sides and a level base so the concrete goes in efficiently and passes inspection. A well set up mini digger holds that line far more accurately than hand digging, and with a trenching bucket sized to the footing width it cuts the trench to profile in one pass. Your footing depth is set by Building Control and the ground conditions on your plot, following the building regulations on foundations, so pick a machine with reach to spare.

Spoil is the other half of the job. On a rear extension, every bucket of soil has to come back down the side access, so pairing the digger with a tracked dumper keeps it moving to a skip or grab lorry on the drive without hand barrowing. Our attachment range also covers hydraulic breakers for the old patio, path or slab that often sits where the extension is going, so you can break it out and dig through in the same hire.

Digger Hire for House Extensions

Central Plant Hire works on a self-drive basis, so the machine can be run by your builder or by you, without paying for an operator on top of the hire. For homeowners project managing an extension, that puts a capable machine in your hands with a clear handover on delivery, and the hire desk on the phone if you need us. For builders, it keeps the day rate predictable and puts the dig with your own gang. Every machine is delivered on a tidy transport with the controls and daily checks explained before we leave your drive.

We are long standing members of the Hire Association Europe and a SafeHire registered company, so the fleet is serviced and inspected between hires. On an extension where the concrete is booked and the trades are lined up, a machine that starts every morning and holds up to a full day of digging keeps the whole job on track. That is why homeowners and builders across Sussex and Surrey come back to us for their extension work.

The 3 tonne for footings by the wall

Where access allows, the 3 tonne mini digger is a strong choice for extension footings. It digs to over three metres deep and stays just over 1.5 metres wide, and its boom can be offset so you can run the footing trench tight alongside the existing wall. That offset is exactly what an extension needs, because the footings have to tie in against the house and a fixed boom would leave you finishing the line by hand.

Booking and delivery across Sussex and Surrey

We deliver to homes throughout Sussex and Surrey, working out from our base near Horsham, so digger hire in Horsham, Crawley, Horley and East Grinstead are close by, with Worthing and Dorking further out. You can see more of the towns we serve on our areas we cover page. Delivery is arranged both ways at rates set by area, so you are not left sorting collection once the job is done. Booking could not be simpler, with no account to open and no deposit to pay, you will just need ID to hire, and a Loss or Damage Waiver is available for peace of mind while the machine is on your drive

Get Your Extension Started

If you need digger hire for house extensions in Sussex or Surrey, get in touch with Central Plant Hire for a quote. We are happy to talk through your access and footings, point you to the machine that fits, and get it to your door, with no account to open and no deposit to pay.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What size digger fits down the side of a house?

For a standard side gate or passage, a micro or 1.5 tonne machine is usually the only one that fits. Measure the narrowest point and we confirm it.

Can it dig footings tight against the existing house wall?

Yes, the 3 tonne has an offset boom that runs the trench hard alongside the wall so the extension footings tie in.

How deep will it dig extension footings?

The 3 tonne reaches over three metres and the 5 tonne just under four, clearing the depths extensions are usually taken to.

Will it mark my drive or patio reaching the back?

Rubber tracks are gentle on drives and paving, and on delicate surfaces we advise boards to protect the route in.

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