Winnipeg & Southern Manitoba
Hydrovac excavation and utility locating, done by crews who dig around live infrastructure for a living.
For 30 years, Driftwood has excavated around energized power, gas, and fibre for Western Canada's telecom networks. Now those same crews are available for your project, with same-day quotes and honest scheduling.
- Fully insured & WCB covered
- Locates + excavation in one call
- 24/7 emergency response
What We Do
Safe digging, from locate to backfill.
Daylighting & Utility Exposure
Expose buried gas, power, water, and fibre before you dig, so nobody finds a line the hard way. Non-destructive, precise, and a lot cheaper than a strike.
Slot Trenching
Narrow, clean trenches for conduit, cable, irrigation, and small pipe. You get the depth you need without tearing up half the site to get it.
Piling & Post Holes
Clean, accurate holes for screw piles, fence posts, signs, decks, and foundations. The trailer unit gets into backyards that full-size trucks can't.
Private Utility Locates
Click Before You Dig doesn't cover private lines, and public locates can take days. We locate privately owned power, gas, water, and communication lines ourselves, so your job isn't stuck waiting on a ticket.
Frozen Ground Excavation
Winter doesn't stop us. Heated water is the practical way through Manitoba frost, whether it's a frozen service repair or a January pile hole.
Catch Basin & Culvert Cleanout
We vacuum out catch basins, culverts, valve boxes, and utility chambers, then haul the mess away.
One Call, One Crew
One crew handles the locates and the digging.
Most jobs end up juggling three phone calls: the public locate line, a private locator, and a hydrovac contractor. Then everything waits until all three schedules line up. We do the locates and the digging with one crew on one visit, and if anything comes up, you have one number to call.
Our Equipment
The right machine for every dig.
Full-size trucks for the heavy work.
Our truck-mounted units carry the reach, the debris capacity, and the heated water that bigger scopes demand: duct banks, long conduit runs, commercial sites. Fewer trips to the dump means the job keeps moving.
- Deep excavations and long trenching runs on a single setup
- Heated water keeps crews digging through Manitoba winters
- On the road daily across southern Manitoba
A trailer unit for tight access.
Our Vermeer VX50 trailer hydrovac goes where full-size trucks can't: backyards, narrow side yards, fenced compounds, parkades, and finished landscapes. It tows behind a pickup and fits through a standard gate, and it digs with the same precision as the big trucks without wrecking what you're trying to protect.
- Fits through gates, side yards, and low-clearance spaces
- Light footprint on finished lawns, driveways, and interlock
- Ideal for deck piles, service repairs, and utility exposure in close quarters
Why Contractors Choose Us
Built on 30 years of digging where mistakes aren't an option.
Telecom-grade damage prevention. Our crews earn their living excavating around live fibre, power, and gas. That discipline comes standard on every job.
Fully covered. CGL insured, WCB clearance available on request, documented safety program. COIs issued same day.
Right-sized equipment. A compact hydrovac unit for tight-access residential and commercial work, with full-size capacity available for larger daylighting scopes.
Straight answers. Same-day quotes, honest scheduling, no surprises on the invoice. We tell you the minimums and mobilization costs up front.
How It Works
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Send your site details. Call or use the quick quote form. A photo and a rough scope is plenty.
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Get your quote same day. Hourly rate, minimums, and mobilization, all in writing.
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We dig it safely. Crew arrives on schedule, utilities located and exposed, site left clean.
Built for Manitoba Winters
Frozen ground is our season.
Mechanical digging in Manitoba frost is slow, brutal on equipment, and dangerous around buried services. Heated hydrovac cuts through frozen clay cleanly, which is why winter utility repairs, frost digs, and cold-weather pile installs are where hydrovac earns its keep. If your project can't wait for spring, neither do we.
Where We Work
Winnipeg and surrounding communities.
Winnipeg · Headingley · Stonewall · Selkirk · Oakbank · Niverville · Steinbach · St. Andrews · Portage la Prairie · and job sites across southern Manitoba.
Outside this area? Ask. We quote mobilization honestly and we'll travel for the right scope.
Questions, Answered
Hydrovac FAQs.
How much does hydrovac cost in Winnipeg?
Hydrovac work is billed by the hour, plus disposal and mobilization where they apply. The rate depends on which unit the job needs, how your ground is digging, and how easy the site is to get in and out of. A quick residential exposure and a full day of trenching are very different jobs, which is why we don't post one flat number. Send us your scope and you'll have a written quote back fast, with the hourly rate, the minimum, and any extra charges spelled out before we book anything.
Do you handle the utility locates too?
Yes. We can submit and manage the Click Before You Dig ticket for you, and our locators handle the privately owned lines the public service doesn't touch: parking lot lighting, gas runs to shops and garages, power between buildings, irrigation, that kind of thing. If you want, we do the locates and the digging in the same visit so you're not coordinating two companies and two schedules.
Can you dig in winter?
Yes. Our trucks run heated water, which is one of the only practical ways to get through frozen Manitoba clay. Winter is actually one of our busiest seasons, between frozen water services, frost digs, and piles for projects that couldn't wait until spring. A frost dig takes a bit longer than the same hole in July, but the result is just as clean.
Are you insured?
Fully. We carry commercial general liability coverage and we're registered with WCB. It's the same coverage we hold for our telecom work around critical infrastructure. If your site or your GC needs paperwork, just ask: we issue certificates of insurance and WCB clearance letters the same day.
What happens to the slurry?
Everything we dig comes up as a slurry of soil and water, and all of it stays contained in the truck's debris tank. From there it goes to an approved disposal facility in line with provincial regulations. Nothing gets dumped on your site or down a storm drain. Disposal shows up as its own line on your quote, so you can see exactly what it costs.
Get your quote in an hour or less.
Tell us the basics and we'll call you back with a number.