Backhoe Anyone ever use a CUT mounted backhoe to dig a foundation?

[Will_C]

My brother is an excavating contractor with 20 years experience. He often rents a 18 ton excavator for basements, although he owns a late model Case 580M backhoe.
Will

 

[Lt CHEG]

Well that makes a huge difference including the concrete work with the excavating in your uncles price. I think I would go with that and remember to appreciate his help with your house.


Steve

I'm thinking that this is probably the way to go as well. Heck I might still end up getting a backhoe to go with a CUT. It would still come in handy for digging the utility trenches and would allow me to do it on my own schedule. I'm sure I'll also find some other projects to put the backhoe to use as well. I could then sell the backhoe and subframe when the house was up or at least being framed. I figure even if I sell the backhoe when done with it and lose $2500 it's only going to cost me maybe an extra $1000 to $1500 over what it costs to rent the equipment and it would allow me to work at my own pace. Plus I'm sure I'll find some other projects for it too.

Oh and I will never forget all the help that my uncle has given with my land so far, and all the help he's pledged to us during construction. If we do end up having him just take care of the foundation, he'll be EXTRA aware of how much we appreciate him. I might not have a huge family but we're pretty tight. We all try to pitch in and help when we can when we can. I'm a lucky guy for sure.

 

[rimshot]

I dug a foundation this Fall with my little Kioti CK-20 TLB. The caveat is that it was a foundation the tractor could handle. My neighbor was adding a 24' X 28' attached garage. This foundation was to have six courses of block and a floor. Footing for block walls had to be 16" wide and would be formed with 2 X10" lumber. It also ha to be dug so the final grade to bottom of concrete for footing was at least 42" below grade for frost protection.

I started the CK20 and was in for a fight with the one and only stump. That took about a half hour of time then I put the FEL to work and cut all the sod from beneath the future garage floor. The floor base was perhaps 1-2' low at that point. That meant I had to have some sand to bring up the floor grade. The sand was brought in by dump truck before I dug the outside footing and effectively cut off access. With the center of floor grade floated smooth with the FEL I squared up the outside of a 42" wide ditch and painted spots as a guide for the outside of a mere 12" bucket and dug to the bottom of the footing. The site makeup was a nice sandy gravel.

All spoils from digging the footing work space was piled to outside. The pile of sod and black dirt I removed with my CK-20 was piled up behind the building site and out of the way. We got in freshly excavated footing ditch the formed and poured the footing and laid up four courses of block and then filled in the walls outside and inside the new blocks carefully. Then we poured the floor and finished the block courses (two courses of 6" block)

Now this was a perfect foundation for my little CK-20 to dig but would I use it for a house foundation? Not a chance if it was a basement or even a very large crawl space. Maybe if I had an over abundance of time and the crawl space was small but that's tons of extra work. It would take days to bail and move all that fill out of a basement or large crawl space but for the garage it was perfect.

good luck with your project.

rimshot

 

[Charlesaf3]

you can do it no doubt - people used to do it with shovels, and I'll take a bh80x over a shovel any day.

It'll take time though. Even with an excavator, I think budgeting a day is way optimistic.

Main problem with the woods, and I speak from experience, is 2 ton boulders. Time doesnt really help with those, you can't lift them in sections...

 

[skidsteer.ca]

you can do it no doubt - people used to do it with shovels, and I'll take a bh80x over a shovel any day.

It'll take time though. Even with an excavator, I think budgeting a day is way optimistic.

Main problem with the woods, and I speak from experience, is 2 ton boulders. Time doesnt really help with those, you can't lift them in sections...

Agreed. I could have dug mine with the 773 Bobcat, But I hired a 320 Cat excavator, dug my basement and pulled 3 big stumps in 5 hours at $125 hour.
It took me 15 hours to haul the piles loose spoil 100 to 150 feet away to build a pad for my future garage. I did however use the Bobcat for all the other dirt and trenching work and it worked well. But for a large excavation it or a small tractor is not the best choice.
Ken

 

[cj06]

small equipment was ment to do small jobs , big equipment can do bigger jobs !!

 

[rimshot]

"Anyone ever use a CUT mounted backhoe to dig a foundation?"

Yup! I have done it twice. I just dug a 24 X 28' garage addition consisting of a seperate footing and five courses of block and floor plus garage approach. Basically, I just had to scrape area and remove sod and then dig sufficient ground suffficient for an 8 X 16" footing 42" deep wide enough to accomodate ablock layer and block wall.

I also just finished a pole barn which required digging several stumps, grubbing black dirt out and spreading 60 yards of sand to bring up floor grade plus excavating holes for posts.

I would never try a house basement or any job requiring removal of larger quantities of fill.

The jobs both required sand and gravel delivery's by suppliers.

rimshot

 

[jimmysisson]

Hire your uncle, but buy the small hoe anyway. You don't want the utility trenches there when you're trying to form and pour walls anyway. That way, you have the hoe for misc. work around the construction, and can decide later whether to keep it or not.
Definitely don't dig a cellar hole that way. You'll rue the day you thought that was a good idea. Loader buckets don't dig very well. In clay you need a 4-5' overdig. Calculate the cubic yards of the hole, divide by the loader bucket capacity less 10-15%, that'll tell you about how many trips you'll make out the ramp. Plus you'd likely have to pick the clay loose with the hoe to scoop it up with the loader. The comment about a pond is true also.
Better to let someone else take that on who can do it quickly in decent weather, and save the small hoe for trenching.
$.02
Jim

 

[Egon]

It does sound as though you want a backhoe so why not get one. The resale option should be viable. Those smaller odd jobs are easier to schedule. It will also give you some operating experience if you do rent a larger machine.

Without any knowledge of your dirt conditions I'd suggest ramping down and using the bucket for digging the basement. The backhoe will come in handy for the rocks etc. You may have to have a pump on hand for the day after the rains come down. It also means you may lose time waiting for the mud to dry.

Consider a rental piece of equipment with operator for the basement as this would be the fastest and easiest way to go. Means you may be able to get the walls and floor poured without having a swimming pool if it rains. :thumbsup:

 

[Car Doc]

Not done a foundation yet but did do a small basement 2 weeks ago to enlarge my well house pit into a tornado shelter.

I dug a 5' deep 5' wide and 7' long addition with mine and it took me about 10-12 hours including moving all the dirt to the other side of the property gave me a lot of stick time which after 30 years of not running a hoe I needed it.

I would do it again because its what I have I don't rent or borrow things ever.
Granted I could have done the same hole in an hour or 2 with a 580 but I don't have one.