chopped
Veteran Member
Ive dug a foundation and then the basement itself dug out its a slow process but can be done...Saved alot of money in the process too.
Backhoe Anyone ever use a CUT mounted backhoe to dig a foundation?
- Thread starter Lt CHEG
- Start date
crazyal
Super Member
Even though I have a backhoe I really didn't use it much to 'dig' the foundation for my house. I made a path so I could drive down into the hole and used the FEL and dozer to remove the dirt. It's much faster and the front bucket can easily scrape a few inches off without disturbing the soil underneath.
If you try and use a BH or similar to dig out the foundation you need to start in the middle and work your way out. Once the hole starts to widen up you'll not be able to get to the center so you best have it low enough. But if you have it too low you'll need to put fill back into the hole and rent a compactor as disturbed soil is bad.
Remember with a BH you can only take a small bucket at a shot and then you have to dump it with in reach of the BH. Once that pile starts getting big you'll need to stop digging the hole and then deal with moving the pile out of your way. I think I may have a picture or two of digging my foundation if you would like to give you a better sense of what's in store for you.
If you try and use a BH or similar to dig out the foundation you need to start in the middle and work your way out. Once the hole starts to widen up you'll not be able to get to the center so you best have it low enough. But if you have it too low you'll need to put fill back into the hole and rent a compactor as disturbed soil is bad.
Remember with a BH you can only take a small bucket at a shot and then you have to dump it with in reach of the BH. Once that pile starts getting big you'll need to stop digging the hole and then deal with moving the pile out of your way. I think I may have a picture or two of digging my foundation if you would like to give you a better sense of what's in store for you.
rjkobbeman
Platinum Member
Around here we just hire an excavator with operator. Price varies, but usually around $100 to $120 per hour. Ours took 8 hours to dig and was considered extremely hard clay -- which took longer.
I can't IMAGINE trying to dig with a full size backhoe... let alone a CUT backhoe.
I can't IMAGINE trying to dig with a full size backhoe... let alone a CUT backhoe.
It's funny that this topic came back up. On Saturday I attended an auction and purchased a Woods 9000 backhoe for a great price. It was barely used, heck the teeth on the 18" heavy duty bucket are barely scratched. The machine has a little sun fading but nothing wrong at all. I've got to get the proper subframe for the backhoe and then have it attached, but even then I figure for what I bought the backhoe for I think I'm at least $1000 better than what I saw looking around for used backhoe attachments and about a third the price of new. So I ended up getting my backhoe anyway, and it will come in handy digging trenches for electrical, natural gas, public water and sewer lines for my house. I'm sure it will also be good to have for a bunch of other projects during contruction that would have required the rental of a backhoe. I figure even if I gave the backhoe away I'll probably save the rentals fees for some of the equipment that I would have used and I'll have a handy tool for lots of other projects should the need arise.
As for digging the foundation, it may be more feasible than I originally anticipated. After owning the property for a year, we've had the chance to look into some of our options. Near the border of our property is a hill which has a section that juts out more than the rest. This area is all nice, compact able gravel, confirmed by a few test holes. My uncle and I have decided that we will make the hill completely unfiform for the length of the property and use the gravel that will be removed to help elevate the foundation. There will be plenty of fill in that hill to accomplishg this task. Just guessing we're thinking that I might not need to dig down more than about 3 to 4 feet for the entire footprint of the house. A bulldozer will be used to move the hill and bring up the elevation around where the house will go so that there is even better drainage away from the house. So I'm thinking that the bulldozer will do most of the actual excavation for the house and I can square things up as need be. The backfilling can be accomplished with my FEL and backhoe so I think there is a good chance that I will not need to rent an excavator at all.
Regardless of what equipment we need to bring in to get the job done in the end for the price that I paid for this backhoe, it will more than pay for itself when it's time to break ground. I'll have the added benefit of having it around for various other projects both before and during the construction phase of this project. I'll likely keep it afterwards too as I'm sure it will be useful for various projects around the house. I think it will especially come in handy for digging stumps associated with the Christmas trees that we intend to grow and sell every year. It should help keep me busy with plenty of projects that help me relax and get my mind off of other things, which is a big reason why we bought what property we did and what tractor we bought to maintain it too.
As for digging the foundation, it may be more feasible than I originally anticipated. After owning the property for a year, we've had the chance to look into some of our options. Near the border of our property is a hill which has a section that juts out more than the rest. This area is all nice, compact able gravel, confirmed by a few test holes. My uncle and I have decided that we will make the hill completely unfiform for the length of the property and use the gravel that will be removed to help elevate the foundation. There will be plenty of fill in that hill to accomplishg this task. Just guessing we're thinking that I might not need to dig down more than about 3 to 4 feet for the entire footprint of the house. A bulldozer will be used to move the hill and bring up the elevation around where the house will go so that there is even better drainage away from the house. So I'm thinking that the bulldozer will do most of the actual excavation for the house and I can square things up as need be. The backfilling can be accomplished with my FEL and backhoe so I think there is a good chance that I will not need to rent an excavator at all.
Regardless of what equipment we need to bring in to get the job done in the end for the price that I paid for this backhoe, it will more than pay for itself when it's time to break ground. I'll have the added benefit of having it around for various other projects both before and during the construction phase of this project. I'll likely keep it afterwards too as I'm sure it will be useful for various projects around the house. I think it will especially come in handy for digging stumps associated with the Christmas trees that we intend to grow and sell every year. It should help keep me busy with plenty of projects that help me relax and get my mind off of other things, which is a big reason why we bought what property we did and what tractor we bought to maintain it too.
I doubt you will ever be sorry for buying that bh even if you need to hire a bigger piece of equipment from time to time.
I know I have projects come up all the time now I have one, things that just wouldn't have gotten done in the past now are no big deal. Plus I can dream up things now to do that improve my property's w/o much effort on my part.
What I am finding is about the time I remove the bh and put something else on I need the bh again have fun with it. ymmv :thumbsup:
I know I have projects come up all the time now I have one, things that just wouldn't have gotten done in the past now are no big deal. Plus I can dream up things now to do that improve my property's w/o much effort on my part.
What I am finding is about the time I remove the bh and put something else on I need the bh again have fun with it. ymmv :thumbsup:
MMH
Gold Member
Great discussion - I'm going thru the same debate myself.
leonz
Super Member
Good afternoon Lieutenant Cheng,
Coming from a fellow New Yorker in the Finger Lakes central new york area-
If your property is near water you may well require a permit from the DEC for the dirt distribution and excavation and you will need silt barriers and straw bales.
The manadatory requirement of utility location/identification/pipeline location is also a a N.Y.S. requirment to avoid any damage to utilites or death and injury to individuals.
The primary issue is siltation and run off.
Digging the homes foundation can be difficult depending solely on the home location where the walls of the excavation must be eight feet or more away from the buildings planned foundation wall if soils rather than bedrock are involved comply with the pit falls of land slides which happen all to often with foundation excavation and trenching.
This is circumvented by using the earth mover to excavate a very long decline with a maximum of zero degrees in slope out of the floor of the foundation- this is very commonly done on excavations with homes on long hill sides.
It allows easy access and egress with no worrries about landslides in an excavation.
This is accomplished by opening up the long side of the homes excavation with the the dozer at least 3 times wider than the height of the exacavation entirely exposing it to allow entry and exit with machinery.
This alllows a very low slope of incline and entry for machinery and the lower the better to prevent landslides/mass flow of material as the materials weight has no ability to slide effectively.
In a slight down hill slope scenario the excavation becomes a huge shelf of dirt and it is pushed back when the foundation walls and floor are finished-poured and or built up with block.
The same can be accomplished on an uphill exacavation but the dirt spoil stockpile must be pushed a considerable distance away or trucked and disposed of nearby if the intent it to reuse it.
The span required is 3-6 times the depth of the excavation in width from a foundation wall per the type of material bed rock or glacial till etc.
the slope is 2 percent in grade or less depending upon the soil type.
If space allows a decline trench is dug with a tracked excavator at the far shallow end of the trench to allow ingress and egress by foot at a very low angle of slope which creates a huge right angle triangle of dirt excavated and replaced in the trench aftet the work is finished due to the frost line depth considerations of the location.
It would take longer with a small back hoe but it can be done as just as well.
Depending on the down hill or up hill side the material is compacted by the machine and its repeated movements in and out of the excavation and will require silt curtains if near a watercourse or drainage ditch.
A single wide trench could be employed for all the utilities as long as fresh fill used to replace the old fill that is excavated for each specific utility in conduit- phone; electric; city or well water and sanitary sewer/septic system.
The trench will require that buried utility warning tape/ barrier tape is buried over each utility to prevent accidental excavation by a mechanical excavator-
the tape is placed a foot or two above the individual utility usually to mark its location.
I know this is a lot of information but I want you to succeed Lieutenant.
leon
Coming from a fellow New Yorker in the Finger Lakes central new york area-
If your property is near water you may well require a permit from the DEC for the dirt distribution and excavation and you will need silt barriers and straw bales.
The manadatory requirement of utility location/identification/pipeline location is also a a N.Y.S. requirment to avoid any damage to utilites or death and injury to individuals.
The primary issue is siltation and run off.
Digging the homes foundation can be difficult depending solely on the home location where the walls of the excavation must be eight feet or more away from the buildings planned foundation wall if soils rather than bedrock are involved comply with the pit falls of land slides which happen all to often with foundation excavation and trenching.
This is circumvented by using the earth mover to excavate a very long decline with a maximum of zero degrees in slope out of the floor of the foundation- this is very commonly done on excavations with homes on long hill sides.
It allows easy access and egress with no worrries about landslides in an excavation.
This is accomplished by opening up the long side of the homes excavation with the the dozer at least 3 times wider than the height of the exacavation entirely exposing it to allow entry and exit with machinery.
This alllows a very low slope of incline and entry for machinery and the lower the better to prevent landslides/mass flow of material as the materials weight has no ability to slide effectively.
In a slight down hill slope scenario the excavation becomes a huge shelf of dirt and it is pushed back when the foundation walls and floor are finished-poured and or built up with block.
The same can be accomplished on an uphill exacavation but the dirt spoil stockpile must be pushed a considerable distance away or trucked and disposed of nearby if the intent it to reuse it.
The span required is 3-6 times the depth of the excavation in width from a foundation wall per the type of material bed rock or glacial till etc.
the slope is 2 percent in grade or less depending upon the soil type.
If space allows a decline trench is dug with a tracked excavator at the far shallow end of the trench to allow ingress and egress by foot at a very low angle of slope which creates a huge right angle triangle of dirt excavated and replaced in the trench aftet the work is finished due to the frost line depth considerations of the location.
It would take longer with a small back hoe but it can be done as just as well.
Depending on the down hill or up hill side the material is compacted by the machine and its repeated movements in and out of the excavation and will require silt curtains if near a watercourse or drainage ditch.
A single wide trench could be employed for all the utilities as long as fresh fill used to replace the old fill that is excavated for each specific utility in conduit- phone; electric; city or well water and sanitary sewer/septic system.
The trench will require that buried utility warning tape/ barrier tape is buried over each utility to prevent accidental excavation by a mechanical excavator-
the tape is placed a foot or two above the individual utility usually to mark its location.
I know this is a lot of information but I want you to succeed Lieutenant.
leon
Egon
Epic Contributor
I'm a little confused here but that's not unusual.:ashamed:
Are you saying the side slope of the excavation has to be 2% or less Leonz?
I just got done with my little basement project I dug with my cut bh been working on it every spare minute since 9-20-10. It will serve as a tornado shelter and a water well house.
