Everything you ever need to know about groundsworkers

This article is everything you ever need to know about groundsworkers

A groundworker is simply a worker who deals with everything below the ground in a construction contract.

For example the groundsworker includes the following:

• Set up the site, install barriers, fencing around the site
• Set up health and safety for the site, install barriers, safety signs, site huts
• Set-out the foundations
• Remove vegetation and completely clear out the site
• Dig foundation trenches
• Provide excavation support to the foundations
• Redirecting waterways
• Install drainage systems such as manholes, inspection chambers and connecting new pipes to existing pipes
• Install concrete strip foundations
• Install concrete slab, damp proof membrane
• Laying driveways
• Installing footpaths
• Most other forms of landscaping, hard landscaping

They are usually the first people on the site.

How to become a groundworker ?

Anyone can start a groundswork business tomorrow. There is no formal qualifications to call your self a qualified groundsworker.

However it is important to get some solid experience as a groundsworker before starting your own business.

The best route is to simply start out as a laborer onsite, get experienced operating some plant and get a junior role as a groundsworker.

If you get a general laborer’s CSCS card you can happily work on most construction sites.

Should be using any plant onsite it is worth obtaining a Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) card.

How much is a groundsworker ?

A groundsworker is responsible for foundations. In a typical extension or new house the foundations will be simple strip foundations. This involves excavating ‘a strip’ of ground and then filling the resulting hole with concrete. This concrete will set to provide a firm base for the weight of the property to pass evenly down into the earth.

A standard strip foundation 500mm wide and 500mm deep will cost about £420 per linear meter. So if you have 10 linear meters of foundations to install it will cost about £4,200.

A concrete slab will distribute the weight of the ground floor to the earth and stablise the whole building linking all of the external walls and foundations together essentially bracing the structure. A typical concrete slab will cost about £270 per m2. The slab will include for excavation of the existing ground, installation of new concrete plus a damp proof membrane.

Most groundwork packages will include a little bit of brickwork. This brickwork will be laid directly unto the concrete foundations and will rise about 700mm high and thats the extent of the groundworks. The brickwork will be an engineering type brick which is suited to being underground. So its different to a facing brick which would not survive underground very long. All other brickwork will be the external walls package. This is called brickwork up to the damp proof course (DPC) level. This brickwork will be priced around £200 per m2.

The groundsworker will install the damp-proof membrane to the slab and then lap this membrane under the brickwork to the foundations. This ensures there is a continuous protective layer of membrane forming a barrier from the cold earth to the ground floor (and beyond) of the house.