Removing large amounts of earth

[Martin Carroll]

I have had the plans passed on the renovation project and one of the first tasks will be to level the site.

I am putting a two storey side extension up and also need to level the rest of the width of the plot for car parking purposes.

At a very rough estimate I will have to remove something like 50m3 of soil (and some stone/concrete etc.) and was wondering what the cheapest way of doing this is. Standard Skips are out of the question at £115 a go.

I will be hiring a digger to do the levelling and I guess I am looking at pretty big pile of earth to be moved.

Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers

Martin

[Owain]

If it's reasonably clean soil then "topsoil for sale" or "landscaping material for sale" might actually make you a profit. The secret is to find someone with an 'ole what needs filled.

Dig a hole and bury it:-)

Owain

[geoff]

In message , Martin Carroll writes

Watch "The Great Escape"

[RobertL]

Topsoil costs =A3100 a cu metre in Homebase. It's cheaper in bulk (not from homebase), maybe as low as =A310 / cu metre for 10+ cu m (in Cambridge area)

Robert

[The Medway Handyman]

You're going to need a very large vaulting horse & extreemly baggy trousers for 50m3.

[adder1969]

Grab lorry at 20 tonnes* and about =A3200 each. They're so big they can actually sort of dig to some extent too.

• 20 tonnes or 20 square yards or 20 square metres depending on who you talk to.

Or one of those giant skips.that's as big a big truck.

[adder1969]

I forgot, or hire a truck and take it to a waste site yourself.

[geoff]

I put a couple of cubic metres out the front with the sign "free to a good home" on it

It was still there two months later

[Autolycus]

Ask the digger driver, or his employer. If you can, get one contract "excavate and cart away" - then it's someone else's problem if either the digger or the lorry breaks down. Otherwise there's scope for endless rows about waiting time. Discuss with your chosen contractor whether you'll be able to segregate the loads, so some will be just resellable soil. If there's any tarmac at all, either don't admit it, and make sure it's at the bottom of the lorry-load of concrete, or (better) skip it separately. They charge more if there's tarmac in the load.

[Andy Hall]

That's all very well, but how are you going to make large lumps of clay drop neatly down your trouser legs without people thinking that there is something unfortunate happening?

[Andy Hall]

Listen. If you can turn carrots into fluffy white rabbits, this is a mere bagatelle.

[Owain]

Or lots of underweight illegal immigrants in Mr Blobby costumes taking frequent walks in local parks.

Owain

[Owain]

Well duh, you should have put some security fencing round it. Then some fick pikeys would have thought it was worth something and nicked it.

Owain

[geoff]

In message , Andy Hall writes

Yeah, and if David Blane or whoever it was managed to magic away the statue of liberty and the great wall of china, surely a few spadefulls of soil shouldn't be too difficult for you

[geoff]

practice ?

[nightjar]

Can't you arrange it so that you can use the spoil from high bits to raise low bits? Not only do you not have the problem of removal, you also only need to move about half as much earth..

Colin Bignell

[Martin Carroll]

In article , nightjar writes

By level, I mean reduce! So there are no low bits.

[Ian Stirling]

Take all the soil. Put it in 25Kg bags. In one of these bags place 200 pounds. Advertise this fact, and offer the bags free.

[nightjar]

What I meant was, can't you change the design so that the finished height is different, meaning that there would be low bits to fill in?

Colin Bignell

[geoff]

Yeah, never thought of that psychological approach