Learn the Benefits of a Suction Excavator

Suction excavation offers many benefits over the traditional method of manual excavation, as it’s quicker, safer, and less harmful to the workforce and the environment alike, which makes it an excellent solution for excavation purposes. The process involves a machine with a clever design named the suction excavator, which utilizes the capacity of suction to remove ground and earth materials quickly and safely, with the suction tube drawing up the material and into the excavator’s holding tank. 

Suction excavators have different sizes and can be used for various kinds of projects, whether in built-up or restricted areas that can be challenging to access. In this article, we will explore the advantages of suction excavators and why it makes sense to embrace them. Read on!

Enhanced site safety 

Cable strikes pose significant risks during excavation, and they can even be life-threating, but thankfully, section excavation can reduce this risk as it removes earth from around cables and utilities without causing any damage to them. Furthermore, this technique decreases the amount of dust that is generated during the excavation process. This is a notable benefit, considering that traditional forms of excavation put workers’ health at risk due to the increased air dust. With a section excavator, however, the dust gets sucked inside the machine, and air contamination is prevented through a 42-filter system, which helps maintain a healthy quality of the air. 

Precision excavation 

The suction excavation process is incredibly precise. For instance, an operator who is skilled enough can remove the earth from around the tree's roots while ensuring the tree or the roots don’t get damaged. As a result, work gets carried out around tree roots or helps move large trees with substantial root formations. This precision is needed in significantly built-up areas with nearby structures, and the earth’s movement can easily affect them.  Using suction excavation instead of conventional digging, such as open excavation, helps decrease the amount of earth that needs to be removed. 

Cost-effectiveness

The cost of suction excavation services is quite significant compared to manual excavation. For instance, clearing a cubic meter with the suction method costs £44, while a manual extraction process involves a cost of £75. It’s clearly way cheaper to excavate with the former method, and this cost saving rises alongside the scale of the project. Given the importance of cost-effectiveness, looking for a suction excavator for sale is definitely a no-brainer. 

Increased efficiency 

A suction excavator has the capacity to clear a significant area of ground in a reduced amount of time. While the manual excavation process is slow, an excavator will efficiently and quickly eliminate large earth quantities and other extraction materials, and this efficiency is shown in the lowered cost per cubic meter.

Eco-friendliness 

A suction excavator can remove debris and earth from a specific area with care and precision and without damaging the fauna and flora on the top layer. Since such a machine can be utilized with long hoses that can be up to 150 meters, automobiles can be parked at enough distance from the excavation site, which ensures the protection of local environments and habitats. Furthermore, the suction excavator can be utilized around sewage pipes and waste without the sewage spilling into the ground or damaging the pipes, which in turn helps prevent water pollution. Besides, dust reduction during extraction also contributes to environmental protection. 

What are the uses of suction excavation? 

Suction excavation is, without a doubt, a smarter choice when it comes to safe excavation due to its vast array of benefits, which we’ve already dived into earlier. Thus, it’s not surprising that this technique has found many applications: 

Trial holes 

A suction excavator is very useful when working on a complex site with many underground utilities. When it comes to trial holes, for instance, the machine can help check the utility location tools’ accuracy, offering a blueprint of what is buried underneath. 

Exposure to underground utilities

Utilizing suction power to remove the material around the buried utility line offers plenty of safety benefits compared to traditional digging, as it helps ensure that the tools won’t strike the lines or cut local utilities.

Deep excavation work

A suction excavator can be used for deep excavation work due to its remote-control operation, which helps carry out the work from a safe distance. Precision control allows the process to be done quickly and safely, and the extension pipework offers an opportunity to carry out the work in hard-to-reach locations as well. 

Site preparation

A site requires cleaning before the beginning of construction work, but it can be confusing to figure out what is below ground level on some sites. Fortunately, the safe excavation technique of utilizing the suction power decreases the risk of clearing sites. 

Construction

Suction excavation is also used in construction sites to clear areas ready for foundations and ensure speed, safety, and versatility, which are all essential for a seamless process.

Landscaping

One of the most important tasks in landscape projects is moving major earth quantities from one area to another quickly and straightforwardly, whether you need to remove something in one area or build something up in another. This results in the efficient creation of an initial landscape structure, which keeps the project on track and ensures its cost-effectiveness. 

Municipal work

Suction excavation is also popular for municipal work, which often takes place in restricted areas where there is existing infrastructure to work around. The process involves critical work that needs to be done to restore necessary services. 

The bottom line

Now that we’ve explored the use cases and advantages of suction excavation, it’s probably easy to understand why it’s a preferred choice for many projects, regardless of size and scale. This technique is ideal for hard-to-reach rural locations and built-up city areas, is cost-effective and safe, and is not damaging to the environment. And the good news is that various types of vacuum excavators are available, ranging from small city ones to tracked excavators. So, with all this in mind, are you ready to embrace suction excavation for your next project?

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