West Midlands : Mini diggers and skips

[jethro_uk]

Hi all,

well, it's that time of the year again, and I am really keen to reslab the patio. The existing 2'x2'x2" slabs were never laid properly, so I will be putting down some hardcore and sand before laying the new

18"x18"x1" slabs.

At the same time, the (badly) tarmaced drive in from of the garage is breaking up. I am quite happy to have this concreted if it's cheaper.

I was wondering about the practicalities of hiring a mini-digger, and doing both areas (patio and driveway) in a day.

Does anyone know of a good price in the west midlands (SW Brum) for mini-digger hire, and skip hire ?

Am I being *too* hopeful that once the ground has been lowered, I can get a lorryload of hardcore to reverse alongside the house, and use a grab-bucket thingy to place the hardcore directly where it's needed ? And then get a big sugar bag of sand in the same way ?

Would it be too ambitious to try and get the earth dug one day, and hardcore/sand delivered the next ?

Advice gratefully recieved

J

[The Natural Philosopher]

digger between 75 and a hundred a day, and skip about 75-100 per skip

[bigegg]

Double if you are hiring someone to drive the digger. It will take you a day to learn to use the digger, so take that into account.

You don't specify how much soil you're planning to move, but consider that a tonne of soil is about 0.75 cu m when in the garden, and about

1.8 cu m in a skip - that's 40 wheelbarrow-loads

You will spend more time moving soil to the skip than you will digging, unless you can get the skip next to hole.

From experience: I can fill a "MIDI" skip in a day (10 hours solid) using a mattock and shovel and two wheel barrows. That was about 10-12 inches deep, 20 foot square, and I had my son wheelbarrowing into the skip.

[Steve Firth]

Only if one is seriously mentally challenged.

[Tim S]

Took me about 15 minutes to get basic control of a back acter on my mate's tractor. After another 30 minutes I was quite proficient - not the fastest, but the machine did what I wanted. Until the main pin sheared and the arm nearly fell off - that's second hand for you ;->

This would be easier if you have someone to help - having a driver with the digger will speed up the job - but you won't get the satisfaction of learning to use the machine.

Does depend on soil type too. When we dug out a new driveway crossover we found a 150% expansion : ie 1m3 of solid soil became about 1.5m3 in the skip *when we packed it down hard, layer by layer*.

Yes - that could be a logistical problem. If you can get the skip next to the hole within arm's reach of the digger. If you can't get the skip next to the hole *or* get another person with a wheelbarrow, one option is to also hire a driveable mini-tipper and proper skip ramps (do not use scaffold planks for this). Fill tipper, drive that up ramp, dump, drive back to digging area, repeat...

Yeah - we did a double driveway and crossover to the road with 3 blokes and a wheelbarrow by hand in a day (1/2 12" deep, other 1/2 8" deep). Two mid-sized skips filled solid. Hard work though.

Cheers

Tim

[bigegg]

ok. It will take you a day to learn to use a digger as well (ie, loads/hour) as someone who uses one very day.