Cheapest way to get rid of soil?

[Derek]

Hi all,

I recently dug foundations for my garage/sunroom, and after the soil that was spread over the garden, I reckon I have 20-30+ tons of yellowish stoney earth to remove from the house (there is just no more space to hide it! and it is sitting where I need to pour the slab).

How have people disposed of soil before?

I have several acres of farming land 20 miles away from the house and the next door neighbour has offered me his 3 ton tipping trailor, but with digger hire and a 1.4lt car this could take a couple of days?

I could hire a truck? and a digger for a day and get him to dump it? what kind of cost have people paid for hire of a 20ton truck? bearing in mind it will take a 3-4 hours to fill it due to the akward site.

I could fill up my modified trouser pockets with soil and go for walks (ala great escape)?

Any ideas welcome,

Derek.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah. A familiar thing....

Basiacally if its not subsoil, its valuable to someone who wants to do landscaping. Topsoil is good stuff.

If its subsoil, its really a question of findding somehwer to dump or tip it.

I moved 50 tons or so down the garden with a digger and dump truck in two days. Digger was about 110 a day and the dumpber about 30.

IMHO you want to do just one trip - you will eed a 20 ton tipper lorry probably.

My guess is about 100 a day plus mileage. Similar for digger.

No, you would never escape.

Round here its not necessary to go ar. People are always filling in holes and needing soil. The only trick is, with subsoil, to remove teh topsoil before you dump the subsoil, then garde it with the digger, thenpush teh topsoil back on top.

[Lurch]

On Mon, 31 May 2004 10:22:25 +0100, Derek strung together this:

I dug a big hole and buried 7 tons in the back garden.

[Rick Dipper]

Sir

Your first problem is that your car will not legally tow 3 tonnes, and you may do major damage if you try.

You can hire tractors and trailers for a day, or a local farmer may do you a deal. I would look for a local farmer with a tractor and front loader. Failing that find a guy with a 20 tonne tipper and grab bucket.

Alternativly try and sell it on eBay, "buyer to collect" ......

Rick

[IMM]

Bean, what did you do with the earth you took from the hole you dug?

[Nige]

If this is from foundations, it will be subsoil: sounds like clay or sandstone. Where in the UK are you?

You will have a job gett>I dug a big hole and buried 7 tons in the back garden.

This was probably meant as a joke (ha) but it can be done. I had a large depression in the garden, so I dug down to the subsoil and dumped in a couple more tons, then replaced the topsoil. Hard work though.

[Michael Mcneil]

Don't you get tired of posting your silliness for all the world to see?

[Michael Mcneil]

Where did you put the hole afterwards?

Perhaps you could send it to him. It's mostly envelope isn't it?

[IMM]

You are very silly. That was a sensible question.

[Lurch]

On Mon, 31 May 2004 12:10:30 +0100, Nige strung together this:

In all seriousness, I used it to re-level the garden because it's on a slope, now it's not quite as sloping!

[nightjar]

I got a skip in. Just make sure that nobody dumps rubbish in it. Subsoil is not as valuable as topsoil, but somebody will want it and the skip hire company were quite pleased to get it.

Colin Bignell

[Cicero]

===================== The stuff you describe sounds like the stuff used for garden drive / path foundations. I think it's called 'marl' . Don't dump it - sell it.

Cic.

[Peter Crosland]

Illegal!

Illegal!

Impractical and illegal!

Basically you are going to have to pay to have it disposed of by a properly licenced waste operator.

Take a look at

to see the scale of fines being handed out for this.

[Reckless]

Skips aren't cheap tho - approx £120 for a 6 yd for the week. He'll need more than one I'd guess...

"nightjar .uk.com>"

[Jim Ley]

You can't move soil from one property to another? So you might have to pay a guy to dispose of your topsoil, and then buy some from somwhere else if you actually needed it on the other land?

I think we paid about 80 quid a load to a man in a 20ton truck+scoop.

Jim.

[Nige]

Technically, only if you have a licence.

[Ian Stirling]

Is this even the case if the soil is wanted for some purpose other than simply dumping it?

[nightjar]

Whether that is worth it depends on whether you are realistic in costing out your own time in getting rid of the soil. In my case, the project cost me about £10k, so skip hire (which ISTR was a lot less than that, possibly because I was putting soil into it, not rubbish) was not a significant part of the cost.

Colin Bignell.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I buried about 50 tonnes that way.

It raised the level of theat part of the garden about a foot ot so.

Some of it has sunk back. Oh well, its destined to be an orchard so WTF anyway.

>

[Graham Wilson]

If you are going to be handling large amounts of garden soil then be careful.

Our next door neighbour was a fit healthy 60 year old. They were gardening one day. They finished gardening and went in doors. They rapidly started to feel ill. Within 6 hours they were rushed into hospital and were placed on a life support machine. They died on January 01st this year from massive organ failure.

Apparently, there are viruses and bacteria that are commonly found in soil that if they invade the body can result in organ failure. The specialists at the hospital reckon that our neighbour had a very very small minor cut and soil came into contact with that cut. This is how the virus/bacteria entered their body.

Graham