"Theo" wrote in message ...

Any ideas roughly what it would cost (in Cambridgeshire, heavy clay) to dig
about 15m of trench to a depth of 1m, bury insulated water pipes and some
SWA, backfill and put paving slabs on top?

Beyond 'hire a mini digger and DIY', where I'd probably spend most of the
time failing to drive the digger...

Thanks
Theo

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Hire a "Ditch Witch" or similar trenching machine. Most plant hire places
will have one.

https://www.ditchwitch.co.uk/products-hire.php

But does it have to be as deep as 1 metre? Most trenches are 18" to 24", and
if you laying paving slaps over it the cable/pipes are going to be
protected.

When I was working we would normally use cable ploughs such as
https://www.atpcableplough.com/cable-plough/ but we were doing much longer
runs than 15m. The cost of laying a ploughed fibre optic cable (including
cable and warning tape) was about 10 quid per metre. The plus point about
the plough is that you don't have to remove spoil or backfill.

https://www.atpcableplough.com/cable-plough/