cutting out a hill

[sparc]

6000 yards of compacted earth in place, but it will be 7000 or more of loose spoil once extracted.

 

[vtsnowedin]

How big is the bucket on that crawler?? deere list ~3 yards??

I may be wrong but I dont think you realize just how much dirt their is. 200x200 going from 8-0 is about 6000 yards of dirt. Digging isnt the biggest issue. But moving and doing something with 6000 yards of dirt is. Crawlers arent exactally fast at transporting the dirt any distance at all.

So...You are looking at 2000 scoops of dirt. With transportation time, lets say you average 2 minutes per scoop, thats 4000 minutes. (67 hours.) Working 10 hours a day, thats a full week.

Now, not trying to discourage you, just making you aware that this is quite an undertaking. How soon does this need done? How many hours a week can you devote to it? You can do the math and decide if it is something you want to do or not. It can most certainly be done. But can it be done in a timely manner you are satisfied with?

The math here is correct. Now add in a current bid price for excavation of $8.00 per cubic yard and your talking $48,000 dollars to have it done by people with the right equipment in hand. Do you really need to level out nine tenths of an acre?

 

[swick1]

If the price is $50k I'd recommend taking a couple of weeks off and make it happen. That's going to burn a lot of fuel! Have fun and drive in straight lines to lessen the chances of track failure.

I spent 50 hours digging out and rebuilding a hill with my 1026r it was about 40 yards of material and the pile was far away on a hillside. I've got a nice yard and wall there now!

 

[swick1]

 

[LD1]

The math here is correct. Now add in a current bid price for excavation of $8.00 per cubic yard and your talking $48,000 dollars to have it done by people with the right equipment in hand. Do you really need to level out nine tenths of an acre?

Where are you getting them kind of prices at??

Around me, its about $1.50 per yard. That would make that a ~$10k job. Maybe a tad more but depends on the lay and how far the dirt has to be moved or handled. And if trucked out, that would be more.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Where are you getting them kind of prices at??

Around me, its about $1.50 per yard. That would make that a ~$10k job. Maybe a tad more but depends on the lay and how far the dirt has to be moved or handled. And if trucked out, that would be more.

That was a current winning bid on a local highway project. Big boys playing with big toys for sure but nobody else underbid them. With fuel and machinery prices what they are plus the wages for the operators and truck drivers (Davis Bacon rates) it would be very hard to get to $1.50 today and a do it yourself project using old and undersized equipment will be hard pressed to do better then what those in the business can deliver.

 

[LD1]

Yea, I can see that now on a highway project. Probabally handling the dirt several times, load, haul, unload, spread. Plus compaction in prep for road base, etc.

But just digging into a hillside (or a pond like I just had done) seems a bit excessive. My pond to my nearest estimation (1/3 acre) required about 2500 yards of dirt dug out and spread. Got 'er done for $3500. And most quotes were under 5k.

At $8 per yard, that would have made my little 1/3 acre pond cost 20 grand:confused2: I dont think anybody would get work around here with prices like that

 

[vtsnowedin]

Yea, I can see that now on a highway project. Probabally handling the dirt several times, load, haul, unload, spread. Plus compaction in prep for road base, etc.

But just digging into a hillside (or a pond like I just had done) seems a bit excessive. My pond to my nearest estimation (1/3 acre) required about 2500 yards of dirt dug out and spread. Got 'er done for $3500. And most quotes were under 5k.

At $8 per yard, that would have made my little 1/3 acre pond cost 20 grand:confused2: I dont think anybody would get work around here with prices like that

It is a funny business with few rules. Sometimes you see contractors bidding jobs at a known loss just to get the work and make it through to better times. By known loss I mean they are spending some of the equity they have in their equipment and truck fleet to keep all their help working and available if something more profitable comes up. You can add new equipment anytime you have the work but you can't pull skilled workmen back after you have let them go as all the good ones will find a different job that pays as well with less uncertainty.
As to doing it for $1.50 a CY you would have to show me what machine depreciated over 10,000 hours and using it's known rate of fuel consumption per hour at $4.00/ gallon and up plus the operators wages and taxes (Forget benefits) divided into it's yards per hour productivity comes out to $1.50/cy . They used to be able to do that when fuel and new machinery was cheaper but not anymore.

 

[boggen]

the areas were you move the dirt is going to be a problem as in you will most likely want to compact the dirt as you bring dirt into the areas to fill in the areas. so you do not end up with a ugly mess later on down the road.

if you had access to a couple dump trucks. that 1 person could load at the house area, and having dump trucks going back and forth between dump sites, and then another person in a large tractor / compaction tractor and another person in a dozer or like to push dirt down into areas. you would really get things done quickly. of course having a crew that has it together makes life easier. and if you did good prep work before hand to reduce the crew time could save you a good amount of time and cash as well.

for me with the ford 555c TLB. driving 1/2 mile to 1 mile trip between digging area to spot were i am putting dirt. that travel time alone eats up entire day vs, actual time digging and compacting dirt things.

just having a good say 15 ton dump truck. would really help move dirt around faster. and take less toll on you and machinery. you could always buy a used dump truck use it / fix things as needed. and then sale the dump truck. *shrugs* "loader" means it would be good at "loading dirt into a dump truck".

 

[LD1]

As to doing it for $1.50 a CY you would have to show me what machine depreciated over 10,000 hours and using it's known rate of fuel consumption per hour at $4.00/ gallon and up plus the operators wages and taxes (Forget benefits) divided into it's yards per hour productivity comes out to $1.50/cy . They used to be able to do that when fuel and new machinery was cheaper but not anymore.

I dont know if I can break it down for you or not, but it was only two excavators and one dozer that did my pond in 20 hours. AND only two operators. IE: the dozer sat most of the time. And none of the equip was big. Just a PC120 komatsu, a cat Midi ex, and a komatsu d21 or d26?? dozer.

Again, all small equip. And you are saying that two guys would be justified charging 10k per day??? (or 5k each person) for a days work?????