I am adding a 26′ x 32′ addition to my home on the “up hill side”.
The topo map shows a 4′ to 6′ rise as I move up the hill. This will be slab construction, but I would like to mitigate the number of steps up from the inside of the home to the new slab. It appears that there is rock in the area that may not be the size you could scoupe up or slide out of the building area. Does anyone have a clue or method, or estimate of what I am looking for excavation costs? I do have an excavator coming out next week, but we have some sharp folks under this heading. Thanks for any insight!
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Excavators can "shoot" rocks to break them into manageable pieces. You can have a lot of fun with this.
Track hoe with a hammer head..? depends on what TYPE of rock..granite, limestone..etc.
figgure a few hundred per hour ( about 2?) and hauling off.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
Mid size track hoe with a hoe ram about $125/hr here. Figure a skidsteer or small highlift from $65 to $85 per hour and then haul out at $90 per single axel load plus dump fee.
Close to $300 per hour and a four hour minimum, so questimate is $1200 to $1600 for a small job like that.
Course, in my case DW thinks "rock garden", no matter what size rock I dig out, so I get to "save" the dump fee :)
Dave
Thanks..I see it in my future.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
Dw is half Japanese. Must be something in their genetic code :)
Plus she is creative as hell. Loves that sort of stuff.
You gather the rocks, we'll come down and help you and yours with the design/build.
Dave
I have the entire central fireplace limestone rocks..that were scuttled outside..we'll have to talk.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
Careful...here's what happened when I saved the dumping fee. Saved some cash but trashed my back.<g>
Ever read Stone by Stone, by Robert (I think) Thorson? He's a geology prof at UConn, and the book is a history of New England stone walls. You might enjoy.
AndyAndy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. --Robert M. Pirsig
It doesn't matter how far in the woods I hide the piles of rocks I've dug up over the years, they continue to haunt and taunt me...
So...me, enjoy a book about stones? Not this week.<g>
Maybe someday when all my piles are arranged into nice walls, then I'll get the itch to read the book. And then I'll see a picture or five that I like and set about rearranging all my previous work.
Oh, no I won't.<g>
An architect friend once brought by a book about stone walls. Fascinating book. Written by the man who built the walls in the book. More like a coffee table picture book than a technical "how to" read. Might have even been a Taunton book. Can't remember.
Fortunately I'm restricted to all those pesky round glacial rocks that resist simple stacking. With something that stacked better I might actually get ambitious and try something fancier.
Oh, no I wouldn't.<g>
See, now, I love piling rocks up. I get compulsive about it, to the detriment of my back.
The thing to remember about stone walls is that they're utilitarian. Basically a storage system for glacial detritus. As such, they don't need to be arrow straight and perfect. In New England, few of them predate the Revolution. When the forests were first cleared, there was so much topsoil that rocks were rare. It took 150 years of poor stewardship to bring up the rocks.
AndyAndy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. --Robert M. Pirsig
There is a book, "Diary of an Early American Boy" if I have the title correct.The author has written a lot about early tools and like in the US.He got an Diary from a boy, IIRC a `15 yo around 1810. And uses those to write a store about his daily life for a year.One of the the interesting things is about how they handled large rocks.
You can bet DW is not going to see those pictures!
We don't have any rock that nice looking.
I know what you mean about trashing the back. I tore out an old block retaining wall and rebuilt a new wall with landscape blocks. I chose the smaller size block because the larger 8 (H)x 16" (L) x 12" (D) weighted in at 70 lbs. each. The smaller block, like you see at Lowes, is only rated for 2' height, and just what was needed for that job. The downside was it took twice as many as the larger block. The job was in an older, nice section of Louisville, and right on the street. After the umpteenth car stopped and ask about the job, I pulled my magnetic sign off the truck, and "ran out of" business cards. No way was I going to hump those stones and shovel pea gravel all summer! That was one of those jobs that started out as a simple removal and rebuild of a run down privacy fence. Took three weeks working evenings and weekends with the additional work the HO kept wanting done. Took me three more weeks to finaly walk upright agian!
Dave
We're kindred, albeit somewhat humpbacked, souls.<g>
It all depend whether they're attached tp planet earth like a shelf rock or just big individual chunks.Round here in WV never dug a hole that didnt have rocks but in this county its mostly shale and sandstone which alot of machines can get under a strata and bust off layers.Ten miles down the rode its toatally diffrent..all limestone. which aint going nowhere without a big hammerhead on a excavator or dyno..mite.Blasting can entails pages of regs. tho and shards of limestone come out sharper than razor blades.I saw the state roads blast rite thru some overhead wires when they shot a big rock in the road and didnt use a mat.
Yep..we are under major road recon here..when they popped off a charge, my guitars hummed on the wall, right before they jumped off..LOL
That was 5 miles away.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
We paid 250/h for the track hoe w/ hammer head back in '98.
Sounds about right..I was just taking a wild stab at it.
You are sitting on some serious rock there.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
Napalm!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually C-4!!!!!
Or a bunker buster.
Call the white house, tell 'em you got some Al queda operatives dug in at your house site.
We always get it right!!!
the third time....
<!----><!---->
"Almost certain death, small chance of success.... What are we waiting for???"
Singer/songwriter Utah Phillips tells a funny story on "We have feed you all for a thousand years" about how he took advantage of the fact that the FBI was reading his mail. Seems he wrote a letter home to his wife telling her "...whatever you do, don't dig up the back yard - that's where the guns are buried!" So he gets home in time to plant the back yard after getting the FBI to do all the hard work.
the larger the hoe ram the cheaper the overall job
if you use a backhoe ram on large stone you might as well use a clawhammer.
some times you can use the excavated material to create terraces and have a interesting effect
Thanks for all the input and numbers. It really helps!
Last fall I ripped my garage down and lowered it 3' to take slope out of the driveway(6' in 35'). I rebuilt it 26' x 28'. The entire previous garage and driveway sat on solid granite. Long story short- JD 790 excavator with breaker, a good sized JD backhoe and 14 20 yard dump trucks later it cost me about 4 grand. I know the excavator was $170 per hour. Took about 2 long day's after the contractor figgured one.
I hate rocks!
John
Thanks John, I am developing a similar sentiment toward rocks.