600' trench DIY?

[6fthook]

Building a new house, and a 600' trench at least 36" deep (I'm thinking go to 42' for frost depth) needs to be dug for underground utilities. A got a quote of $6,000 for this to be done, but I'm thinking of doing it myself. Plan is to rent from Home Depot either a mini excavator (Kubota K008) ($249/day) or a tractor with backhoe (Kubota BX25) ($229/day). I live in Connecticut and the dig will be either March or April. My questions are:

1. Are these machines capable of completing this job (I've never operated an excavator before but I'm used to handling machinery (fireman) and have common sense) with my skill level?
2. If the ground is frozen, are these machines capable of doing the job?
3. Which machine would be better suited?

I know I may run into some problems like large rocks/boulders that I'd need to dig out, but my thought process is if I save the $6,000 I can put that towards buying a used tractor with front loader and maybe backhoe attachment. If I rent it and find out I can't do it, at least I'm only out about $249 and I can hire the job out.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[bcp]

Think about putting in a way to add future items in the trench, like maybe an empty conduit. For example, TV cable may not be in your area now, but might someday. If you haven't allowed for expansion, you will need another trench dug for it.

Bruce

 

[bcp]

Think about putting in a way to add future items in the trench, like maybe an empty conduit. For example, TV cable may not be in your area now, but might someday. If you haven't allowed for expansion, you will need another trench dug for it.

Bruce

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Building a new house, and a 600' trench at least 36" deep (I'm thinking go to 42' for frost depth) needs to be dug for underground utilities. A got a quote of $6,000 for this to be done, but I'm thinking of doing it myself. Plan is to rent from Home Depot either a mini excavator (Kubota K008) ($249/day) or a tractor with backhoe (Kubota BX25) ($229/day). I live in Connecticut and the dig will be either March or April. My questions are:

1. Are these machines capable of completing this job (I've never operated an excavator before but I'm used to handling machinery (fireman) and have common sense) with my skill level?
2. If the ground is frozen, are these machines capable of doing the job?
3. Which machine would be better suited?

I know I may run into some problems like large rocks/boulders that I'd need to dig out, but my thought process is if I save the $6,000 I can put that towards buying a used tractor with front loader and maybe backhoe attachment. If I rent it and find out I can't do it, at least I'm only out about $249 and I can hire the job out.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

What size tractor?

Is it big enough to run a PTO trencher?

60" x 6" 'Edge' 3-Point Tractor Trencher Model T-606

You may want to cost analysis on buying a new trencher, using it to trench your 600' run, any lawn sprinklers and so forth, and then selling your somewhat newish trencher the week after on Craig's List for 1/2 - 2/3rds what you paid for it depending on if you're shrewd enough to rattle can any worn paint black again.

$7800 with 33-50% depreciation = a cost of $2575 - $3900.

So what is your time worth to you?

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Make sure you have the entire area checked for underground cables, gas lines, sewage lines, water lines and other utilities before you stick a shovel in the ground.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Make sure you have the entire area checked for underground cables, gas lines, sewage lines, water lines and other utilities before you stick a shovel in the ground.

In fact, if you live where big rocks are common, it may be worth your time to get a ground sonar crew to map a path of least resistance.

Just search for "ground sonar rental" to locate a local source.

 

[fordmantpw]

If you decide to do it yourself (and I think you can), rent the mini excavator over the BX25. We just built a new house and had to dig a 1400' trench for our utilities. We started with my neighbor's 4000 series JD with a backhoe and it just couldn't cut it. He actually broke a pin on the backhoe. I then rented an old Komatsu track loader at $225/day to finish it up. It was another 2 days of work, but it did the job. Much cheaper than hiring it out, and I felt a sense of accomplishment doing it myself. A trencher wouldn't have worked for me either due to the number of rocks in the first half. The second half was nearly rock free!

Oh, and if the ground is frozen, fuggetaboutit!

 

[LD1]

Not sure what the terrain or ground is like in your area, or if there are trees nearby, but $6000 seems quite steep. Did you get more estimates?

Provided you dont have a ton of rocks or digging into bedrock, 600' of trench is something that I could do with my 50 year old backhoe in a day. A company with modern equipment, a decent excavator, a day should be no problem. And maybe a second day to come back and backfill after lines are laid. Either way, I dont see how they are getting to $6000? Are these quotes INCLUDING the material getting put in trench?

I had a 1/3 acre pond dug 2 years ago. 2 guys, A PC120 (26000lbs), a cat E70B (17000lbs) So not huge machines, they took 2-1/2 days, dug 9' deep and my total was 1/2 of your $6k quote. Something inst adding up.

IF you do decide to rent, I'd go with the Excavator. but I would want something bigger than what you listed. Something around 10,000lbs would be what I would want.

 

[oldnslo]

Any local people that do directional boring in your area? Quick clean and no backfilling except at both ends.
Can you put all of the utilities in one trench or do they need to be separated by a given depth or width?

 

[rustyshakelford]

Rent a ditch witch with a 48" stinger or a decent 5 ton hoe. No way would I mess with a bx for that long and deep unless I had no time restraint. We did 300' water and 200' of 3" conduit 36" deep. If you have a helper to glue connections it's no bad at all. Try to get 20' joints too

Brett