I’m building a walk out basement and need to remove some typical Bay Area heavy clay soil to the depth of about four feet. I’m an experienced carpenter, but haven’t done a lot of excavation work of this scope, so I need some help strategizing the digging.
The new basement (all outside of the current footprint of the house) is ~25’x25′, so we’re talking about almost a hundred yards of dirt. The local landfill only has 9 yard boxes (and at $400each that’s going to really suck). There is also about fifteen feet of our foundation that needs to get shored up and removed for a new and deeper retaining wall. The basement is on the back side of our house, with a large enough side yard to get a small backhoe through if need be. Also the street is uphill slightly and about a hundred feet away from the site, making wheelbarrowing out to the street somewhat more difficult but not impossible (any dirt box would have to be on the street since we don’t have a driveway).
What I’d like to know is what is likely going to be the best approach for me to get this dirt removed. Should I do it myself, hiring some day laborers? Or is this job large enough to consider an excavation crew that would haul the dirt away? Is there any other way to save some work and/or money on this other than these two options?
Lastly, what is a good rule of thumb estimate for man hours per yard of dirt dug and hauled a short distance?
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How much room is there to get equipment in, *really*? 'Cause I was thinking something like backhoe or a large-ish mini-excavator plus dump trailer. Or possibly smallish dump-truck.
If you can get it in there and can provide good ventilation, a Dingo will move a lot of dirt once you get used to driving it.
http://www.toro.com/professional/sws/loader/index.html
Also, I'd put an add on Craig's list. Some one may need some fill.
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Your figure of 100 cubic yards of dirt sounds a little light. Did you account for overdig and footings?
If you tried to do it by hand that would be about 1,350 wheelbarrow loads. Doing that yourself would take forever. And if you hired laborers to do it you'd likely pay about as much as if you hired it done with machinery.
I would suggest calling an excavator and having them look at it. They do this stuff every day, and should be able to size the situation up quickly.
I would also echo what Seeyou said - Try to find someone who needs fill dirt rather than hauling it to a landfill. That should save you quite a bit of money in tipping fees.
What Biff said. But I think you are looking at 120+ yards,it will expand 25-30% as you dig. Now think of 12/10yard dump trucks and the shovel in your hand,that`s a lot hand digging man.
You will want to keep some for back fill of coarse.Try local yellow pages for a company that does just that. They`ll be big help on how much to keep and take away.
Or better yet sub the foundation out,they do it all dig, form, pour, backfill,just check before they pour that`s it`s right size.
you could punch a hole in the wall and use a bobcat. or jack the house and redo the whole foundation. But you need to hire it out. Me I would just move into another house with a basement. you talking like $200k here,just for the work. and then the chance the house fall in on top of you.
If you read the OP closer, this guy is doing an addition. So it's all outside the footprint of the existing house.
Q: Why do brunettes know so many blonde jokes?
A: It gives them something to do on Saturday night.
oh, then its easy, get a track hoe couple dump trucks be done in three hours, drop kick, no other way
not sure the OP has the access for running the DTs along the side of the house.
Like the others said, if you hire an excavating company to do it, they have done it before and know potential problems, they take care of the dirt excavated and they are insured, so if something does go wrong, you are covered. I have hand dug window wells for egress from basements and that is hard enough--probably 2-3 cubic yards--can't imagine doing 100 plus!
For the last 25 years or so we have used a track hoe for excavating, your job sounds like the best machine would be the way we did it before that, a track loader,like a JD 455, or maybe a tracked skidsteer.
You could use the 1 machine to dig and move the material up to the street to load a truck.
I spent a few summers installing in-ground swimming pools in Upstate New York as a sub-contractor.
A job came up in Kingston, an old city on the Hudson river where I'd not worked before. I drove up one evening to look at the site and to borrow the local yellow pages from the HO, in order to contact excavating contractors from my home.
The Hendon pool dealer I was subbing the job from usually sent out one of their staff to measure and draw the yard for permits, but not when they could avoid it.
Sometimes the permits were granted without any formalities, just an application and a check. That was in the late '70's, early '80s.
So I arrived at this older home with only the salesman's assurance that the pool would fit in the yard. It was a very tight lot, zero room for the excavated material and very difficult to dig and remove what was required. There was a small space between the detached garage and the backyard, just enough to fit machinery through carefully.
This was before mini-excavators so a typical 580 Case backhoe was called for. Plus a skid steer to carry the bailed material from the drive way to the waiting dump truck, out in the street.
We also needed a place to stockpile the material temporarily, preferably a vacant lot in the neighborhood. The HO came up with a place nearby for that purpose.
The excavator I subsequently found was glad to remove what was left after backfilling for a small fee. Like most excavation guys, he had several places to take it, clients who would pay a good buck for found material like that.
So I got the phone and looked for a contractor who had both machines and two operators, plus the dump truck.
It was a nice challenge for all of us. Fortunately the digging was good so that helped. Also both the father and son excavating team were experienced and skilled with those machines. The last half of the pool, the shallow end, had to be dug with the skid steer only.
The contractor's son had fun with that, backing up a ramped grade with a full bucket, then squeeking around the corner of the house with enough momentum to hold front wheel traction on the grade, the rear wheels of the Bobcat clawing in the air for several seconds until he was able to slow the machine enough on the narrow driveway to regain balance.
He performed that manuver many times that afternoon, coming within a few inches of the corner each time but never hitting it.
He and I played some touch football in the street with a couple of neighborhood kids who had stopped by to watch. Turned out the he was a talented athlete too, great hands. Caught all my lousy passes.
We dug out a 15x15x5 portion of a crawlspace to make a storage and mechanicals room for a daylight half basement. The only thing that made it possible was that we live on a heavily sloped lot which allowed us to build a large retaining wall as a place to handle the fill. Fill was half clay, half weathered granite. It also helped us level out the yard for a play area. It wasn't too bad with one man working a jack hammer with clay shovel bit and two laborers wheeling the dirt. But I wouldn't recommend it.