Find a contractor or trade anywhere in Australia

Most jobs are not one trade. A single block can need an excavator to cut the pad, a tipper to take the spoil away, a concreter for the slab, a plumber for the drainage, then a fencer and a landscaper to finish it. Chasing each one separately, and finding out halfway through that the next one cannot start for three weeks, is where most projects lose their time.

ReadyFill lists real businesses across every state. You describe the job once, in your own words, and you are matched with the ones near you who actually do that work — with their own phone number, not a lead form that resells your details.

Every trade and contractor category on ReadyFill

These are the categories ReadyFill covers, with the number of businesses listed under each one right now. Plenty of businesses sit in two or three of them, so if your job spans a few, say so.

Plant, machine and truck hire

A good share of what people come here for is gear rather than a trade: an excavator for a day, a bobcat to level a pad, a tipper to take spoil away, or a machine and operator together. Businesses listed on ReadyFill run excavators, diggers and mini excavators, bobcats, skid steers and posi-tracks, dozers, rollers, front-end loaders, watercarts, tippers, tip trucks and dump trucks, body trucks, and truck-and-dog and truck-and-trailer combinations.

Most offer wet hire, which means the machine arrives with an operator. Dry hire — the machine on its own, with you supplying the operator — is available from some businesses, though it puts the licensing, insurance and responsibility for running it back on you. Say which one you want when you describe the job and you will only be matched with businesses that do it.

Two things decide the machine: access and volume. A tight backyard reached through a side gate needs something that physically fits through it, while an open block can take a larger machine and be finished in a fraction of the time. A basement dig or a site scrape on acreage is the other end of the same scale and wants something far bigger. Truck choice is usually settled by access before volume — a narrow street, a short driveway, a tight corner or overhead wires can rule out the combination that would otherwise suit the load perfectly.

Hiring a contractor

Most people ring three businesses, get three numbers that are impossible to compare, and pick the middle one. The numbers differ because each contractor is pricing a slightly different job — one has allowed for carting the spoil away, one is assuming you have somewhere to put it, and one has not seen the driveway yet.

Before booking anyone, ask four things: what is included and what is not, who is responsible for getting material off site, whether they hold public liability insurance and any licence the work needs, and what happens if they hit rock, services or fill nobody knew about. A contractor who answers those plainly is usually the one who turns up when they said they would.

ReadyFill gives you the business's own contact details so you can ask all of that directly. It does not licence, insure or vet them and is not a party to the job, so confirming those things stays between you and them.

What a contractor costs

There is no single rate, and anyone quoting one sight-unseen is guessing. Trade work moves with the scope, the access and the state of what is already there. Plant hire moves with the machine size, whether an operator comes with it, the hire period and the float to site. Cartage moves with the truck type, the distance per load, the number of loads and waiting time.

You are quoted by the business directly, so the figure is theirs and it is agreed between the two of you. ReadyFill does not mark it up and does not take a cut.

Getting a better quote

Describe the access. The street, the driveway, the side gate, the slope, where a truck can sit and whether anything has to be carried by hand. Most quotes that blow out do so because somebody priced the work and not the getting-to-it.

Then say when you need it rather than "as soon as possible", say whether the site is clear, and say if more than one trade is involved. A contractor who can see the whole job will often tell you the order to do it in — and sometimes that they are the wrong person for it, which is worth knowing before you book.

Getting started

Write the job the way you would say it out loud. "Need a 2m retaining wall along the back fence, access is through a single gate" tells a contractor more than any category could, and it is what the search actually reads. You do not need to know what machine it takes or what the trade is called — that is the part being worked out for you.

You will be shown businesses near you with their suburb, what they do and the distance from the job, and you contact whoever you like — as many of them as you like. Nothing is booked, nothing is committed, and there is no cost to look. If nothing suitable comes up nearby, widen the description rather than narrowing it: contractors often do more than their main trade suggests.

Contractors and trades by area

ReadyFill covers all of Australia. These areas have a page of their own:

Brisbane · Ipswich · Gold Coast · Sunshine Coast · Adelaide · Gippsland · Warrnambool · Bendigo

Not on the list? The search above works anywhere in the country — those pages simply exist where there is enough local activity to warrant one.

Listing your business

If you run a trade or contracting business and want work coming to you, you can be listed here and on the area pages. You are matched against jobs people describe in their own words, so you are found by the work you actually do. Browse who is already listed in the ReadyFill directory, or get in touch.