Anyone have experience with a Bobcat MT50?

[DaveRR]

I bought an old house recently, and I'd like to dig out a crawlspace under an addition.

The house is located on a 6' stone foundation, with a rear addition on concrete footer wall. The plumbing for the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry is located under this addition, which was remodeled just before I bought the house. Unfortunately, there's not enough room underneath to access the plumbing or install any insulation. If there's a problem (like a burst pipe), I would have to remove the floor. I live in the northeast, so this is a real issue.

The addition is 20' x 30', and I'm looking for an alternative to digging the crawl space entirely by hand.

One very rough idea I have is to use an MT50 or similar machine. I have an outside set of stairs (concrete, accessed through a bilco door) leading to the full basement. There's a strong carrier beam above the stone foundation which I could support so that I (or a contractor) could remove the stone wall and access under the addition. I was thinking I could dig out the middle of the addition to the depth of the basement and install retaining walls around the excavation. Near the concrete foundation, I could then excavate by hand to a depth of a foot or two above the footer wall.

I have lots of questions, for someone who has experience with an MT50. I would really appreciate the help!

Would the MT50 be capible of doing this sort of work?
If I put a ramp in place of the stairs, would the MT50 be able to go up (loaded) and down an incline?
How much room does an MT50 need to turn around?
Am I crazy? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

BTW, I believe the soil to be all/mostly sand.

Sorry for such a long post, but I really appreciate the help!

 

[jim_wilson]

I have never used an MT50 but of all your mechanized options it is probably your best choice because it is the shortest (height wise) of anything that will do that type of work. With the treads I would imagine you should be able to climb a pretty good incline with it. You might want to try looking around at rental places and see if you can find one that has an MT50 for rent - I have seen them in a quite a few Taylor Rentals in my area. Use one for a day and see how you think it will do.

Digging out under the house is not crazy - I have seen a number of threads here on TBN of people who have done it and I work with somebody who had digging done under his house to add a garage. It will still be a lot of work - but using equipment sure beats doing it by hand.

 

[RonR]

My uncle did that to an old farm house. Not sure why, but he wanted/needed a basement under half the house, so he rented a bobcat, dug a trench next to the foundation for a ramp, then started digging.

I'm not sure but what he didn't narrow from the foundation about 4-5 ft so he could leave the foundation as is.

My parent's house had a hand dug basement like that. It was concrete floor, but it was about 5.5 ft to the floor beams. Don't know if someone screwed up or what! They left the foundation as it was, then poured concrete about 5ft high around the sides.

I was probably 20 yrs out of the house before I figured out that's what had been done to the house--I thought most houses were built like that!

ron

 

[wejones]

Dave, My brother and I excavated under the old homeplace to increase the crawl space depth using a full size Case skid steer loader. We found the real challenge in a project like this was shoring up the existing foundation or flooring sufficiently so you can excavate beneath everything. Also, the shallower you make your entry point the less of a foundation wall that you need to replace. The MT 50 would do the job Just be sure you have a good hard hat! However, you may want to consider a larger machine as a room that size will generate an amazing amount of dirt that has to be handled. But if you plan to use the existing basement access to get to the crawl spacearea which pretty much limits you to the use of an MT 50. What ever you do use be sure you have plenty of ventilation to remove the exhaust fumes. Willie Jones

 

[DaveRR]

Thanks very much for the replies and the advice. I'm not sure I would've thought of the exhaust issue.

I'm really tempted to do this myself if I can use a machine. If I have to dig by hand, it's just going to take me way too long. My only hesitation is that I don't have any construction experience; I don't know how to support the carrier beam or the existing foundation. I think I could figure it out, but I'm still hesitant with no experience.

Before I decide, I guess I need to get some more estimates for the work. I've had one estimate by a general contractor to dig the crawlspace by hand...$6,000 - 8,000 for labor only, not including removal of the soil. I've had a hard time finding someone to even look at the project, but I should turn to an excavation/foundation contractor to see about digging out with a full size bobcat, as was suggested above. I'm trying to avoid using credit for this project, so I'm guessing the cost of doing that will be prohibitive.

Anyway, thanks again! This is going to be an interesting experience, so I'll keep you all posted. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jim_wilson]

If it was me I would do it myself - but I will attempt pretty much anything myself on the premise that I will save $$. Buying even a used MT50 is probably going to cost you in the $8000 - $10000 range ( try checking ebay - they do show up there pretty regularly ) - and you will have to put in all the labor yourself - but if you are trying to save money you are essentially trading sweat equity for $$. And you will have a piece of equipment that you can either sell and get most of the money back out of or use for other jobs.

If you are looking for info on how to shore up your house while doing the construction I would suggest checking out either www.finehomebuilding.com or The Journal of Light Construction at www.jlconline.com - there are tons of good articles on the JLC site and I have learned a lot from that site.