Using a CUT when building foundations/septic

[dochockin]

I'm seriously considering getting a 25-30 HP CUT (Kubota, for geographic reasons) without a backhoe. We live on 5 acres, and are allowed to build a second home, which we'd like to do for rental income. One path I'm considering is purchasing a recycled house that will moved on to the property.

I'm wondering how viable it would be for me to use a CUT to reduce the amount of money I would spend on having a foundation/slab/septic built for a new house?

Obviously, serious excavation would require a serious excavator. I'm wondering if doing some preliminary or finishing work might save me some cash, and if so, approximately what percentage?

Thanks!

 

[Rock knocker]

Well, it is going to be impossible to give you a specific answer regarding the percentage you'll save. In fact, some contractors won't even want the work unless they are doing the dirt work, because they don't want their schedule to be dictated by another contractor, much less a rookie.

 

[GManBart]

I'm nearing the end of building a 40x64 shop/barn, and while the tractors have been handy, probably haven't saved me much money. I spread a lot of sand around before we poured the slab, and I did a lot of backfill work after the foundation was poured, as well as spreading gravel after both, but those jobs were mostly tracked in hours, not days. I did most of that work to save time, rather than save money...40 tons of gravel, Sunday afternoon...done. Otherwise, it wouldn't have moved until Monday, and every day you add seems to get compounded near the end.

The primary work of digging the trenches for the foundation, moving fill, etc was all done with an excavator, a skid steer, and a full-size backhoe. My neighbor came over with his backhoe when I was spreading gravel one time, and his bucket moved like four times what my LS does...no comparison. He helped me for maybe half an hour, and did as much work as I had done in probably two hours prior.

Don't get me wrong, it's been very handy having a couple of tractors to help out, and probably saved a good bit of time when everything is added up, but I don't know that it has saved me a lot of money...some, for sure, but not much.

Since everybody loves pictures, this was this morning before the steel was hung on the left side. We should have the rest of the steel up in the next few days, and I'm hoping the overhead door folks might be early next week before Christmas...we'll see.

 

[Rock knocker]

Did you have a contractor, or did you GC the job yourself?

 

[dragoneggs]

I would say to go ahead and get your CUT. But hire out the real big jobs especially if they are in the critical path to get the overall project of building the house done. You of course could still use your CUT during the build but I think you should rather be mainly considering it for your use in the long term. Depending on your contractor/build situation, as RockKnocker keenly pointed out... your plan of 'CUTing' corners might not work at all. But that said, I have no doubt your machine could physically do the job (but I would add the BH) if time and coordination with any contractors isn't a concern. :2cents:

 

[GManBart]

Did you have a contractor, or did you GC the job yourself?

I did the GC with a lot of help from my two neighbors who have done a number of similar projects. It's been a huge learning experience!

 

[Rock knocker]

I did the GC with a lot of help from my two neighbors who have done a number of similar projects. It's been a huge learning experience!

And that is possibly a different scenario than the OP might have wanted to do. I am assuming that he wanted to hire a GC, and then self perform work to save money. When you are your own GC, it all on you. You cut the grade, and when the foundation guy shows up and you're wrong, the back charge meter starts.

 

[dochockin]

Currently there is no job, I'm just exploring how possible it might be, since I really have no idea yet how tough and capable CUTs are. The recycled house moving company claims they can deliver before a foundation is even built, and that it takes about 2-3 months from sale until delivery. Obviously exact percentages aren't possible to know. I'm just wondering if I could do enough of the work myself to make it worthwhile, or if I'd be wasting my time.

A BH is not in the cards; too expensive and I can rent one for fairly cheap... even the dealer told me the little CUT BHs aren't really worth it (unless money is no object) since a rental one is so much more efficient.

As for GManBart's neighbour's machine being four times faster, well, I don't have any friendly neighbours with large machines. I'd have to pay someone to show up and around here they charge transport fees, unloading fees... I talked to one guy this summer with a Kubota BX about mowing my pasture. He wanted $60/hr and $60 just to show up. I have big chunks of time off with my job, so spending a few days and saving $100s... works for me.

So if we ignore time spent and ignore interfacing with contractors... I'm wondering how much of the job a CUT could handle, given that my site is fairly flat pasture. I'm assuming that I can dig 2 foot trenches, level areas, backfill, spread materials, pretty much everything other than excavating deep holes.

And GMan, that's a sweet 'shed'

 

[GManBart]

And that is possibly a different scenario than the OP might have wanted to do. I am assuming that he wanted to hire a GC, and then self perform work to save money. When you are your own GC, it all on you. You cut the grade, and when the foundation guy shows up and you're wrong, the back charge meter starts.

That certainly could be the case. I don't think my machines saved me much money, but may have sped things along a bit. For example, there was one day my concrete guy was laying in the forms (it was a Sat, so I helped) and the skid steer was busy doing something else, so I started delivering the forms to them in stacks, rather than have them carry one at a time.

 

[dragoneggs]

And that is possibly a different scenario than the OP might have wanted to do. I am assuming that he wanted to hire a GC, and then self perform work to save money. When you are your own GC, it all on you. You cut the grade, and when the foundation guy shows up and you're wrong, the back charge meter starts.

Been there, done that! I GC'd my first house because I thought it would be easy since I designed it. The coordination and importance of relationships with reliable 'subs' was something I greatly underestimated.