Caliche removal

[Steve B]

I need to remove a strip of caliche about forty feet long, eight feet wide, and in thickness from zero to 12 inches. I have some ideas on how to go about this, but would like to hear from anyone who has worked with caliche before.

My ideas are: jackhammer with a spade bit, or drilling honeycombs with a star drill on a rotohammer to a standard plane of depth, and then breaking the honeycombs off. A layer of sand, then a layer of pavers will be put over the remaining caliche.

I had my brother in law try ripping it with claws on the back of his backhoe, but the stuff is too tough.

Ideas appreciated.

Steve

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Pick axe and a shovel has always worked ok for me. I suppose the jackhammer route would work too but I probably wouldn't be able to justify renting one when a bit of elbow grease works just fine. Good luck with it. Not much fun. Cheers, cc

[John McGaw]

I never had anywhere near 12" when I lived in Las Vegas -- 2" was about it most of the time. Being poor I always did the job with a good old-fashioned pick followed up with a shovel. My guess would be that, lacking a big demolition hammer on a tractor, a jackhammer would be a good fallback. I've been told that on occasion when making big holes for planting full-grown palm trees some landscaping contractors would drill and use explosives. This sounds like more fun but probably isn't practical for most people.

[dpb]

We have a layer about 28-32" deep that's roughly 8-12" thick here and while it is certainly hard when completely dry, not so bad if a little ("little" being the operative work here :) ) damp.

Certainly nothing a good-sized backhoe couldn't handle, though. Sounds to me like "bigger hammer" time--a D7 ought to be about right! :)

For a relatively small area if it is totally dry, try setting out a yard sprinkler and put a half to maybe an inch of water on it and let it set overnight. Setting corner posts couldn't get through it if dry w/ post-hole diggers so routinely carried water -- dug to layer top, poured in a half bucket of water and come back next day--piece o' cake...

[Steve B]

"John McGaw" wrote

This is in Toquerville, Utah, just north of St. George. It is deceptive because most of the terrain there is red sandstone or red sand dunes. But just under that lies caliche in some places.

Steve

[Oren]

More difficult to remove than Las Vegas? Or more costly, due to the remote area?

Pool builders use the "caliche" word here to tack added cost or so it seems. It can frighten a person; when they say _we don't know how much caliche is there_!

Hire the job out and don't stroke over it. d8=

-- Oren

..through the use of electrical or duct tape, achieve the configuration in the photo..

[Clark]

Oren wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Yabut he's wondering what he should hire out. I vote for a D-6. :-) Either that or a six-pack of "No Habla"s. As always, YMMV.

[C & E]

By previous posts this I gather that this is a mineral layer or a layer of hardpan subsoil. Would someone please explain. Thanks, Chuck

[dpb]

On Jun 6, 6:35 am, "C & E" wrote: ...

(Google is your friend... :) )

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

And contrary to the popular belief that diamonds are the worlds hardest material, caliche is definitely harder, especially when you're trying to dig it out! cc

[Steve B]

"Clark" wrote

I'm going the sixpack of "No Hablas" route.

Steve

[C & E]

Ahhh, impure calcium carbonate! Yep, gotta be hard!

[Jason Cohen]

replying to Steve B, Jason Cohen wrote: Hi Steve. Have you tried Ecobust ? Company locally based in Las Vegas . product works like magic and faster than any axe or jack hammer. Good luck

[DerbyDad03]

Unfortunately, Steve borrowed a jackhammer 10 years ago when he first asked his question. He drove the spade bit into his foot, injuring himself so badly that he never worked again, lost the house he was working on and moved in with the brother-in-law that drove the back-hoe. They got into a terrible fight over the TV remote. The brother-in-law jumped into the back-hoe and proceeded to pummel Steve's *other* foot with the bucket before throwing him out of his home.

Steve is now crippled and sleeping on an ratty couch in a cardboard box near the old abandoned railroad station. Just Steve and a couple of dozen gerbils to keep him company...and fed.