Hi everyone, to our surprise the excavator that dug our pad for foundation now wants to dig a 50’x 25’ hole right next to our house for extra fill dirt because their are chunks of 6-8”frozen ground that he can’t utilize. He then says this new dug up dirt would be used for all the concrete areas like garage, patio and driveway. $3500 was his price to generously dig us a giant hole and then re fill it will the frozen chunks that would then settle over time. Has anyone ever experienced this let alone heard of this. They said it would be to expensive to import proper fill in because of the load limits right now. Thanks for your input guys!
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Would buying the clean fill you need be more expensive than the hack job he proposes?
Great question, florida. Apparently the answer given by excavator was "load limits". That seems unhelpful and ambiguous. If that question was already posed to the excavator, then perhaps it should be posed again. There could be a legitimate reason, but would love to hear the details. In general, it seems odd to propose digging a hole to then just fill it with uncompacted, frozen, soil (it will settle over time, but longer than anyone involved will be alive to realize. It will result in a pile. So, my additional question would be: Why not just stockpile the excavated dirt on existing grade and cover it until it's ready to be repurposed? One thing I am sure of in this case is that tarps will definitely cost far less than $3500.
Could just be me, but I smell a desperate and unnecessary change order.
Where are you located? We have seasonal load limits on our roads too, although not yet this year, it's still winter. They reduce the loads allowed on roads because if you drive a full 14 yard truck during Spring on town roads (we call it Mud Season here in Vermont) the roads will be destroyed. They're typically set anywhere from 15,000 to 24,000 pounds, depending on the truck. But more important than load limits, why on earth would the excavator use soil to go underneath garage, patio, and driveway? Unless you have gravel instead of topsoil where he wants to dig, you don't use topsoil to go under anything, you put crushed stone, or gravel, and compact it.
In all fairness, the poster did not say the excavator would use backfill soil underneath patio, garage, driveway, etc. That might be the intention, but we should also assume that it could be used to grade up to and around those structures when completed. I assume this because we have no idea of the specific grade heights, lengths, etc. of those building elements.
Thanks for your responses. I’m located in Athol Idaho and yes they said to import suitable material while load limits are on would cost $5,000. They did not provide detail on this expense such has how many tons worth and the general price for this material per ton. I’ve since spoke with the builder and said absolutely not to the burrow pit and I’ll wait till load limits are lifted and find my own material to be brought in.
Sounds like a good solution. BTW, I moved to Vermont from the Flathead Reservation and fished the Clark Fork from the rez to Lake Pend Orielle many, many times. I do miss those streams. I actually stopped fly fishing because I couldn't get used to the delicate tiny rods and flies here in Vermont after learning how to cast the big waters of Montana and Alaska, where I lived for years before Montana. :-)