Feeling ripped off.....fill dirt

[pmsmechanic]

You guys are doing it all wrong.....

I wanted a pond hole on my yard filled up around the half way mark. I waited till the local municipal district was looking a place to haul fill and asked them to dump in my pond. Every time they work in the area I'll stop and chat and let them know that I'm looking for fill. It doesn't need to be perfectly clean. It just needs to be fill. I'm estimating that I'm at about 150 loads now, all delivered for free. It's to the point now that the guys will phone me asking if they can deliver fill. The project is close to being finished.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

You guys are doing it all wrong.....

I wanted a pond hole on my yard filled up around the half way mark. I waited till the local municipal district was looking a place to haul fill and asked them to dump in my pond. Every time they work in the area I'll stop and chat and let them know that I'm looking for fill. It doesn't need to be perfectly clean. It just needs to be fill. I'm estimating that I'm at about 150 loads now, all delivered for free. It's to the point now that the guys will phone me asking if they can deliver fill. The project is close to being finished.

It doesn't get any better than that. Do they spread it too?

Ron

 

[4570Man]

I wish I could land a deal like that. The only free fill I’ve been offered was sawed concrete. If it was jackhammered concrete I would have probably taken it. My uncle got paid a sizable amount of money by the state to dump dirt on his property so it does get better than free.

 

[CalG]

My question is how can it be OK to sell by the cubic yard (volume), but some feel it is OK to deliver by the ton (weight)

Makes no sense at all.

It would be like ordering a chord of hard fuel wood and getting 2 ton of pine.

 

[4570Man]

Scaling dirt hardly ever happens here. The dirt places don’t have scales available. Maybe if a quarry was expanding you could get a load of scaled dirt. How do you measure yardage? By the scoop or appearance in the truck bed? Neither is very precise.

 

[pmsmechanic]

It doesn't get any better than that. Do they spread it too?

Ron

No I spread it. I honestly never thought of asking them to do it!

It's interesting. I'm thankful for the fill and they are thankful for a place to dump it.

 

[bcp]

Remember the swell factor. The loose material in the truck has the swell added, once you place it and compact some you delete the swell so you actually put less in place than was in the truck. Folks tend to forget that. Same when you excavate; a certain size hole measures out a cube. Dig that out and it takes up a lot more space. There are tables that show the swell for for various materials in civil construction manuals.

Ron

But, there is a shrinkage factor, too. Whenever I plant something, I dig a hole, place the plant in the hole, scoop the dirt back in around it, then have to go get some more dirt to fill in the rest of the hole.



Bruce

 

[ddbackhoe]

There are two ways to charge for materials. By the yard, or by the ton. When it's charged by the ton, it tends to get water added to it. Gravel and sand are almost always watered once loaded with the excuse being that the water holds it together better while driving and it doesn't blow away out of the truck. In my opinion, the real reason is that water weights 8 pounds per gallon, which makes it a very easy way to add weight to the load.

I've never heard of or seen anybody add water to a load that is sold by the yard.

I have never seen that done. When I mentioned weight + water its because the places where I deal with, it depends on how much rain we have had, not because they are irrigating. When placing fill, we try to account for moisture content for compaction rate also.

 

[TheMan419]

But, there is a shrinkage factor, too. Whenever I plant something, I dig a hole, place the plant in the hole, scoop the dirt back in around it, then have to go get some more dirt to fill in the rest of the hole.



Bruce

Yep. Just planted some posts. Added concrete as well. The dirt that came out of the hole was just enough to refill the hole after adding the post and the concrete....

 

[ddbackhoe]

Scaling dirt hardly ever happens here. The dirt places don’t have scales available. Maybe if a quarry was expanding you could get a load of scaled dirt. How do you measure yardage? By the scoop or appearance in the truck bed? Neither is very precise.

You may not be seeing the whole picture. Some places use scales on the loader, some use scales on the truck, some use average weighting. 1 cu.yd. Of clay is about 1700 pounds, one cu. yd. of sand/clay is about 2500 pounds. One cu.yd. Of mulch is about 1000 pounds. A tri-axle dump averages out to 22 cu. yds. But is limited by weight more than volume. 22 yards of mulch wouldn’t be a weight issue but 15 yards of sand is.
L