Renovation in Port d’Andratx
The plots above the harbour sit on rock, and that decides more than people expect. Anything below the existing ground level has to be cut out rather than dug, and the difference between those two verbs is most of the groundwork budget.
Cut, not dug
Excavating soil is a machine and a lorry. Excavating rock is a breaker working slowly, a great deal of noise, and material that has to be removed by weight from a plot that is usually steep and narrow. A pool, a lower level, a plant room or a parking space all become substantially more expensive here for that reason alone, and the difference is in the ground rather than in the design.
It is worth establishing before drawing anything. What is under a plot is knowable, and knowing it early turns a design question into an informed one: the same budget might buy a modest excavation and a good house, or an ambitious excavation and nothing much above it. That trade is the real decision on plots like these.
The compensation is what rock gives back. Foundations on sound rock are straightforward, retaining is often simpler than on made ground, and a level cut into stone stays exactly where it was cut. What costs at the start does not usually keep costing.
What the ground changes here
- Excavation priced by what has to be broken, not by the volume alone
- Removal of spoil by weight, from a plot with little room to work
- Pools, which are the most common reason to cut into rock at all
- Lower levels, plant rooms and anything set into the slope
- Foundations, which are usually straightforward once the level exists
- Retaining, often simpler on rock than on made ground
- Noise and duration, which the neighbours will notice
- Services trenched into rock rather than into soil
- Nowhere obvious to stand a skip, a lorry or a machine
- Access along a harbour road that is busy for much of the year
Most asked for above the harbour
How your request reaches a company
Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for work on a rock plot goes to the renovation and building companies on our list; they quote the work and carry it out, and any agreement is between you and the company you pick.
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01
Describe the job
Tell us the property, roughly what you want and where it is. Photographs and a rough plan help, though neither is required.
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02
We match it
The request goes to companies that work in your area and take on this kind of job at this size.
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03
They quote you
Each company contacts you directly with its own price, timing and approach. We do not set any of it.
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04
You compare and choose
Put the quotes side by side and take the one you want, or none of them. Using the site costs you nothing.
How much more does rock excavation cost?
Enough to change what is worth building, which is why it is established before the design rather than during it. It is not a percentage on top of a normal groundwork price; it is a different operation with different machinery and a different rate.
Can I find out what is under the plot first?
Yes, and it is worth doing. What is underneath is investigable, and knowing it converts the largest unknown in the project into a number before anybody has been paid to draw something that may not be affordable.
Is a pool realistic on a plot like this?
Often, and the cost sits in the hole rather than the pool. It is worth pricing the excavation separately from the pool itself, because that is the line that varies most between one plot and the next.
Get quotes with the rock work priced
Describe the plot and what you want below ground, and let several companies price the same scope.