Burying Junk

[Believer]

This is a great site and I'm leaning alot. I bought an old place and there's a lot of junk around; that might even be a good description for the house. What do I need to know about digging a big hole and filling it with junk? Or is that a bad idea? I might be able to haul off some of it but I wouldn't want to haul off the house if I tear it down. I've got a backhoe, maybe I can buy a small dozer.

 

[20 20]

Burying junk allways seems like a good idea, until some poor fool has to dig in that spot. OR someone burys toxic crap that ruins the ground for many years too come. Some stuff can be buried though, like untreated wood, leaves basically anything that won't kill the climate. Recycle metal and take tires, batteries, plastics, oils etc. to the proper place. Maybe you could even have a burn pile, once again nothing toxic. Just remember anything can be buried, but some things may come back to haunt you.


Allmost forgot you may want to make sure your digging won't cut into a buried power line, phone line, gas line...........................

 

[cowboy357]

This is a great site and I'm leaning alot. I bought an old place and there's a lot of junk around; that might even be a good description for the house. What do I need to know about digging a big hole and filling it with junk? Or is that a bad idea? I might be able to haul off some of it but I wouldn't want to haul off the house if I tear it down. I've got a backhoe, maybe I can buy a small dozer.

Not knowing where You are located makes it a little difficult ta say wether its even legal . BUT I will give You my opinion since I,ve been digging up several old dumps for the last 2 years on our property thats been there for 50 years or better .

The top layers are stuff that definatlly should not be buryed & I had to pay to have it Properlly disposed of . Some of the other stuff was Burnable lumber & such. Tons of Scrap metal , iron, copper, aluminum & a lot of oil field trash & iron , also probablly 300 tires, that cost 4 bucks a piece to dispose of . that was Buryed when it wasn,t worth anything or illegal . Which selling that helped recoop some of the money spent as well as fuel for cleaning it up .

So I would suggest not burying it as a favor to the next owners, Family, neighbors & yourself. These days it could come back to haunt You or the next owners later .

Anything You put in the ground will eventually effect the water supply as it Seaps or decays into the ground. Thats the Main reason I started cleaning things up. There is no good water around Our area . it Smells like Petrolium & I wouldn,t even think about drinking it or cooking with it. Several attempts of drilling wells with no better luck.

Just My opinion . Just because people have been doing it for many many years dont mean its a good or acceptable idea . . Bob

 

[RobertN]

Local regs probably cover burying junk.

As for the house, donate it to the Fire Department for a training burn. All that will be left is a pile of ash... When we get burn buildings, we practice search and rescue, forced entry and more before the burn. Then, live fire training. Live fire training sure beats mocked up training. Have heard in some places you can get a tax write-off for it, but not sure...

 

[studor]

Like Bob, I have been busy unearthing things on my propoerty since I bought it. My suggestion would be to burn what you can (if you can!) and sort the rest for scrap or proper disposal. I too would go for trying to use the house in training rather than dozing it.
Just to give you an example we had a pond dug a couple of years ago in a low area that was wet a fair amount. Part way through the dig we starte to unearth big oil soaked timbers. Turns out they were from a building pushed over and buried in the 60's. The timbers could be burned right away due to the oil content in them -- I do not imagine that was very good for the ground water -- JMHO

 

[jimmyj]

We burn all our wood and scrap gets recycled. We do bury some wood ashes and the odd bit of brush that I'm too lazy to burn.

Something to think of though is resale on your property. Years ago we looked at a farm that the owner had obviously buried stuff on (he was a contractor who did septic systems and excavating). He said he'd only buried "clean fill" such as concrete rubble, bricks and steel but our realtor said she would not recommend us offering on the place without an environmental expert doing an assessment to protect us from making a mistake. Well, I am not much for gov't involvement so we passed on the place rather than get inspectors involved. He never did sell his farm and still lives there.

I guess my point is that somebody could use it against you later if you bury stuff. And, if the gov't did find something on your land via an inspection your life would be heck I'd think.

 

[LBrown59]

Burying junk allways seems like a good idea, until some poor fool has to dig in that spot. OR someone burys toxic crap that ruins the ground for many years too come. Some stuff can be buried though, like untreated wood, leaves basically anything that won't kill the climate. Recycle metal and take tires, batteries, plastics, oils etc. to the proper place. Maybe you could even have a burn pile, once again nothing toxic. Just remember anything can be buried, but some things may come back to haunt you.


1*Allmost forgot you may want to make sure your digging won't cut into a buried power line, phone line, gas line...........................

1*This could ruin you finacially for the rest of your life if you failed to call before you dig first.

 

[LBrown59]

Not knowing where You are located makes it a little difficult ta say wether its even legal . BUT I will give You my opinion since I,ve been digging up several old dumps for the last 2 years on our property thats been there for 50 years or better .

The top layers are stuff that definatlly should not be buryed & I had to pay to have it Properlly disposed of . Some of the other stuff was Burnable lumber & such. Tons of Scrap metal , iron, copper, aluminum & a lot of oil field trash & iron , also probablly 300 tires, that cost 4 bucks a piece to dispose of . that was Buryed when it wasn,t worth anything or illegal . Which selling that helped recoop some of the money spent as well as fuel for cleaning it up .

So I would suggest not burying it as a favor to the next owners, Family, neighbors & yourself. These days it could come back to haunt You or the next owners later .

Anything You put in the ground will eventually affect the water supply as it Seaps or decays into the ground. Thats the Main reason I started cleaning things up. There is no good water around Our area . it Smells like Petrolium & I wouldn,t even think about drinking it or cooking with it. Several attempts of drilling wells with no better luck.

Just My opinion .
1* Just because people have been doing it for many many years don't mean its a good or acceptable idea . . Bob

1*This could be exactly why you souldn't do it.
IE already to much damage already from doing it all those years.

 

[jinjimbob]

I've got a backhoe, maybe I can buy a small dozer.

I would think it'll be cheaper to pay to throw it away or recycle it then buying equipment.

Plus, it'll be the right thing to do.

 

[chh]

If there is a lot of stuff to burn dig a hole(in a safe location) to burn the junk in. That way if there are a lot of nail/staples ect in it you can cover the remains up and be in good shape. I burned an old outbuilding this way and then fill the hole partway with old bricks/blocks ect before covering and smoothing. Steel, copper, alum. ect you really should haul in for scrap. Good luck with it all.