# Forum Home Renovation General Odds & Sods  The cost of horizontal boring or drilling versus trench digging

## LRK001

I'm wondering if anyone has recently had some horizontal boring done and would be willing to let me know how much it cost per metre? And how does that compare with the cost of trench digging? I've had a quote sent to me and it seems absurdly high for the 7 metres of horizontal boring that the contractor must do in order to not cause damage to tree roots.
Thanks in advance.
LRK001

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## goldie1

Have you looked at hydro vac trenching  Underground Service Locating Australia: Hydro Vacuum Excavation and Underground Service Locating, Pipe and Cable Locating - Provac Australia Pty Ltd

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## Master Splinter

I've only ever seen horizontal boring equipment used to get under big n' busy intersections, so I would say the benchmark is that it is cheaper than digging up six lanes of road. 
Maybe the tree is secretly suffering from heat/rain/glyphosate/chainsaw stress and will die soon?????

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## Armers

What size hole you want to bore? It shouldn't be too expensive... I had a 64mm hole done for about 100$ a meter about two years ago. It was done with a Grundomat Mole.. Too bad you're not in Melbourne i would have been happy to give the details of the company.

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## LRK001

Thanks for that information. The hole diameter is probably about the same size; it's for an electrical cable. I don't know what the electrical contractor has for boring a horizontal hole. There's probably very little competition for this sort of work here in Adelaide so they can charge whatever they like.

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## Smurf

Trenching across a busy road can easily cost $1000 or even $2000 a metre once you factor in the cost of doing the work at night, compaction and test to council specifications, reinstatement of the surface (again to council specs) etc. Boring is not always cheaper, but it's the preferred method due to less impact on traffic during the works, and no lasting visible impact on the road surface. 
Boring costs will vary hugely with the size of the job due to set-up time. Also there will be a lot of variation rock versus other materials. And not all boring contractors can actually drill through solid rock anyway. 
If an excavator is out of the question then for 7m I'd either hand dig or use vacuum excavation.

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