600' trench DIY?

[6fthook]

Building a new house, and a 600' trench at least 36" deep (I'm thinking go to 42' for frost depth) needs to be dug for underground utilities. A got a quote of $6,000 for this to be done, but I'm thinking of doing it myself. Plan is to rent from Home Depot either a mini excavator (Kubota K008) ($249/day) or a tractor with backhoe (Kubota BX25) ($229/day). I live in Connecticut and the dig will be either March or April. My questions are:

1. Are these machines capable of completing this job (I've never operated an excavator before but I'm used to handling machinery (fireman) and have common sense) with my skill level?
2. If the ground is frozen, are these machines capable of doing the job?
3. Which machine would be better suited?

I know I may run into some problems like large rocks/boulders that I'd need to dig out, but my thought process is if I save the $6,000 I can put that towards buying a used tractor with front loader and maybe backhoe attachment. If I rent it and find out I can't do it, at least I'm only out about $249 and I can hire the job out.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[bcp]

Think about putting in a way to add future items in the trench, like maybe an empty conduit. For example, TV cable may not be in your area now, but might someday. If you haven't allowed for expansion, you will need another trench dug for it.

Bruce

 

[bcp]

Think about putting in a way to add future items in the trench, like maybe an empty conduit. For example, TV cable may not be in your area now, but might someday. If you haven't allowed for expansion, you will need another trench dug for it.

Bruce

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Building a new house, and a 600' trench at least 36" deep (I'm thinking go to 42' for frost depth) needs to be dug for underground utilities. A got a quote of $6,000 for this to be done, but I'm thinking of doing it myself. Plan is to rent from Home Depot either a mini excavator (Kubota K008) ($249/day) or a tractor with backhoe (Kubota BX25) ($229/day). I live in Connecticut and the dig will be either March or April. My questions are:

1. Are these machines capable of completing this job (I've never operated an excavator before but I'm used to handling machinery (fireman) and have common sense) with my skill level?
2. If the ground is frozen, are these machines capable of doing the job?
3. Which machine would be better suited?

I know I may run into some problems like large rocks/boulders that I'd need to dig out, but my thought process is if I save the $6,000 I can put that towards buying a used tractor with front loader and maybe backhoe attachment. If I rent it and find out I can't do it, at least I'm only out about $249 and I can hire the job out.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

What size tractor?

Is it big enough to run a PTO trencher?

60" x 6" 'Edge' 3-Point Tractor Trencher Model T-606

You may want to cost analysis on buying a new trencher, using it to trench your 600' run, any lawn sprinklers and so forth, and then selling your somewhat newish trencher the week after on Craig's List for 1/2 - 2/3rds what you paid for it depending on if you're shrewd enough to rattle can any worn paint black again.

$7800 with 33-50% depreciation = a cost of $2575 - $3900.

So what is your time worth to you?

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Make sure you have the entire area checked for underground cables, gas lines, sewage lines, water lines and other utilities before you stick a shovel in the ground.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Make sure you have the entire area checked for underground cables, gas lines, sewage lines, water lines and other utilities before you stick a shovel in the ground.

In fact, if you live where big rocks are common, it may be worth your time to get a ground sonar crew to map a path of least resistance.

Just search for "ground sonar rental" to locate a local source.

 

[fordmantpw]

If you decide to do it yourself (and I think you can), rent the mini excavator over the BX25. We just built a new house and had to dig a 1400' trench for our utilities. We started with my neighbor's 4000 series JD with a backhoe and it just couldn't cut it. He actually broke a pin on the backhoe. I then rented an old Komatsu track loader at $225/day to finish it up. It was another 2 days of work, but it did the job. Much cheaper than hiring it out, and I felt a sense of accomplishment doing it myself. A trencher wouldn't have worked for me either due to the number of rocks in the first half. The second half was nearly rock free!

Oh, and if the ground is frozen, fuggetaboutit!

 

[LD1]

Not sure what the terrain or ground is like in your area, or if there are trees nearby, but $6000 seems quite steep. Did you get more estimates?

Provided you dont have a ton of rocks or digging into bedrock, 600' of trench is something that I could do with my 50 year old backhoe in a day. A company with modern equipment, a decent excavator, a day should be no problem. And maybe a second day to come back and backfill after lines are laid. Either way, I dont see how they are getting to $6000? Are these quotes INCLUDING the material getting put in trench?

I had a 1/3 acre pond dug 2 years ago. 2 guys, A PC120 (26000lbs), a cat E70B (17000lbs) So not huge machines, they took 2-1/2 days, dug 9' deep and my total was 1/2 of your $6k quote. Something inst adding up.

IF you do decide to rent, I'd go with the Excavator. but I would want something bigger than what you listed. Something around 10,000lbs would be what I would want.

 

[oldnslo]

Any local people that do directional boring in your area? Quick clean and no backfilling except at both ends.
Can you put all of the utilities in one trench or do they need to be separated by a given depth or width?

 

[rustyshakelford]

Rent a ditch witch with a 48" stinger or a decent 5 ton hoe. No way would I mess with a bx for that long and deep unless I had no time restraint. We did 300' water and 200' of 3" conduit 36" deep. If you have a helper to glue connections it's no bad at all. Try to get 20' joints too

Brett

 

[Xfaxman]

Why not rent a trencher with a rock chain?

 

[GPintheMitten]

I recently used a ride on ditchwitch trencher to go 42 to 48 inches for a lot longer trench than yours. You could do it in a day. I don't recall the rental rate. Rocks were abundant and a problem but we got it done.

If you don't go with a trencher get a small to medium excavotor.

Pay extra for for damage insurance. These things are expensive to fix.

 

[Beaudeane]

$10 a foot seems high for a 3' trench to me also. I put in about half that length at my place in georgia with a ride on ditch witch trencher by myself & only cost me rent of the ditch witch, cost of the pvc waterline & romex cable from my power pole to my well. Would be an easily done project over a weekend to save yourself a good bit of $$. Do call your local utilities to make sure u won't be digging into anything they have in the ground already.

 

[Code54]

If you decide to not do a ditch witch, go with the Mini Ex. We own a BX (and love it) and I did a 150' trench 4' deep this year with it but could have done it on a mini Ex about 4-5 times faster. If you hit rocks the mini will out do the BX 10 to 1. The BX CAN do it, but it just is not the best tool for the job.

 

[MossRoad]

Make sure you're allowed to do the work yourself. Some areas require a licensed contractor for trenches deeper than X feet. Also, goes without saying, but don't get in the trench, especially if no on else is around.

 

[David Devuono]

I am looking at something similar. I am with OLDNSLO, don't rely on someones advise if they are in an area without inspectors. For electrical, it must have clean sand below and above for about 6 inches, 4 Ft deep (1.2 metres) other utilities have to have separation. You would likely need at least a 16 inch bucket to get the side clearances with 4 inch conduit. (no KX008). Anyway up here in our super heavily regulated country, they will not connect you to the grid if your trench does not meet specs.

 

[EddieWalker]

What underground utilities are you putting in the trench? Are you allowed to put more then one line in the same trench? Here, water and electricity have to be in separate trenches. Water lines that long need to have a flat bottom, which is pretty hard to do with a trencher. Especially that deep. Are they inspecting your trench before you bury it? For electricity, I would rent a ride along trencher and be done with it in half a day. For the water lines, I would also use the trencher if I was allowed to. If not, I would rent either a full sized backhoe or an excavator. It's not a deep trench, and you'll have it down in an hour, but you have to have enough power to get the job done. Too small of a machine and all you will do is spin your wheels.

Go to the rental yard and ask what the pros use. Most contractors rent what they need. Ask them what they are renting to do trenches in your area.

Eddie

 

[yellowdogsvc]

6k? Are you trenching through granite? Even in hard Texas caliche, if you wanted to go 42", you could get that done in a day with a 6' x 48" trencher. If you are in dirt, figure on a half day. I trenched 100', 3' deep in less than hour with my Bobcat high flow trencher. I trenched over a 1/4 mile, 5' deep exactly, through dirt, caliche, and mixed rock with the same trencher and it only took about 16 hours and part of that was backfill time. Even at that depth in pretty hard ground and including backfill, if my math is right, 600' should take just over 7 hours. If it's all dirt, it should be like cutting through cake.

Maybe I should move to CT and start a trenching service! For about 6k, someone could get me to mulch for almost 5 days if it's local and not too rocky. I charge more for rock (same with trenching) but for a 6k job, I'd have 1/3 of my trencher paid for and it would still take only a day in moderately hard ground. Wow.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Ive done 600' runs three times. Once with a ditch witch and it was miserable because it kept getting stuck/buried in the sand.
2nd time with a backhoe, and that took FOREVER.
Third time with a woods attachment hooked up to my track loader. With the wide tracks I never gt stuck, and with the power the job was done in hours, not days.
Part of the reason I bought the trench was at the price people were charging I knew the trencher would end up costing me nothing.
Only suggestion I have is SOAK the trench path first. Run 600' of perforated hose the length of teh cut and let it drip slowly for a few has. I learned this the hard way.
Without the soak my trench kept caving in as the sand was too loose.

 

[Ford850]

I've used trenchers several times, and learned to go big or go home. Rent the largest trencher available with at least 48" capability and 6" wide with rock teeth. Ride on, 4wd, and diesel. They will have a backhoe on them which makes the start and stop points easy, and lets you dig out large rocks if you hit any. I used a large Ditch Witch for an uphill, 1000' run which worked fine. I started the cut and ran about half way, then my wife ran it from that point while I started laying out conduit. Another time I used a Vermeer which was even larger and made the work seem easy. If you're not going to get the utilities in and the trench backfilled before rain, then I would use a backhoe or excavator. The big advantage of the trencher is the narrow trench and smooth dry backfill, but if it gets rained on, that turns into a huge disadvantage.