Dirt Moving best way to dig out area for future shop

[Taters525]

at some point I will be building a shop on my property. the area where the shop is going needs to be dug out. some parts need about 12 inches of dirt removed to make it level. Ive got a tractor with a FEL a backhoe and box scraper. I actually have most of it done. what seemed to work best was using the tines on the box scraper to tear the ground up then scooping it out with the FEL. Anyone have any other recommendations. I did some dirt moving with the box scraper but its kind of a light duty one and didn't go very fast

 

[4570Man]

A tooth bar on the bucket works wonders. Other than that you went about it the best way with what you had available.

 

[bcp]

First time I've read of work being done with a None tractor. Most None owners never do anything.



Bruce

 

[Wagtail]

First time I've read of work being done with a None tractor. Most None owners never do anything.



Bruce

Maybe it's a None and the SAME?

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Taters525, you're pretty much doing it the same way that I levelled for my 5-bay shed. Only I used a 655 tiller to break up the ground.

Slow work but it is the best way to eye-ball the level of the job.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Yup.. tiller & a bucket..
That's how the concrete people did mine.. had a dedicated tiller on a Ford tractor along w/ a bucket on the front..
Tilled the snot outta it & turned around & scooped it up..

 

[powerscol]

Don't forget to put a good free draining gravel base under everything. I would recommend at least 6". Also dig wide enough to be able to grade around the future structure for drainage. Worst thing yo can have is water getting in from the outside. Your backhoe would be good for this.

 

[skipmarcy]

I dug this out for my storm room with my 41 hp Mahindra just using the FEL, boxblade and my subsoiler plow from TSC. Had to hire a backhoe for footer & drainage trenches though. That's Tn. red chert - layers of sedimentary rock and red clay mixed with some rather large rocks throughout too.

 

[mopardude318]

I dug this out for my storm room with my 41 hp Mahindra just using the FEL, boxblade and my subsoiler plow from TSC. Had to hire a backhoe for footer & drainage trenches though. That's Tn. red chert - layers of sedimentary rock and red clay mixed with some rather large rocks throughout too.

wow. nice job. This gives me confidence to dig out my 24x24 area for a slab. There's only about a 2 foot elevation change the length of the 24 feet... because I don't have a backhoe for the footing, I was thinking of using my loader mounted auger to do that..it'd probably be tedious, but it'd save me from renting a backhoe.

 

[4570Man]

I dug this out for my storm room with my 41 hp Mahindra just using the FEL, boxblade and my subsoiler plow from TSC. Had to hire a backhoe for footer & drainage trenches though. That's Tn. red chert - layers of sedimentary rock and red clay mixed with some rather large rocks throughout too.

It looks like you managed, but a tooth bar would have made it go a lot faster.

 

[bdog]

The easiest way is to break up the ground first. Use the scarifiers on your box blade, a chisel plow, subsoiler, whatever then it just is a matter of scooping up the loose dirt. When we started digging my pond which is roughly 100' x 200' we would make 3-4 passes over it with my farm tractor and chisel plow and then use a skid steer to scoop up the loose dirt. Once we got down to the hard ground we would plow it up again and repeat.

I have no idea what your site is like but make sure you want to be digging down the high side and not adding dirt to the low side. Think about water flow you don't want your shop to be the low spot. When I had my 50x50 shop built nearly ten years ago one corner was low. Instead of digging down to make it level we hauled material in to make it higher.