Big Multi Year Project About to Begin...help!

[KLMandW]

Just a thought.....you might think about finding a used older model motor grader. We lived down a long drive like what you discribe when I was a kid in Ohio. We had a motor grader which proved invaluable for keeping the road in good shape all year long and keeping the snow plowed back in the winter. Would work wonders for bringing your drive to final grade.

 

[dave1949]

There are two or three really wet parts, but even they have a base as I can drive over them in my truck. It's lifted six inches and the ground does scrape but I can get through.

The plan is as follows, so far. Dig out the mud with my DK45 and loader. There is enough mud for it to be work but not enough that I don't think the tractor can handle it. Now comes the part I'm still kicking around. I plan to buy/rent a small dozer to dig out the trenches, grade the road and spread the gravel. My thinking is that the dozer can do most of what an excavator can do on the road and for deeper trenching I have the backhoe on my tractor. When the road is done I can then use it for land clearing, more on that in a moment.

Next I need to lay in at least four culverts, probably five. The water breaks are already there so it's just a matter of trenching a little deeper and dropping them in. Right now it looks like 18" plastic with a smooth sleeve to keep It from clogging up too fast. Then comes the gravel. Unless I find some on the property, the plan is to buy about 30 truck loads of inch and a half and another thirty or so truck loads of three quarter inch. The local company will truck it in as I need it. When its spread I'll rent a roller and pack it in.

Some details. There is one spot where I'd like to reduce the grade. I'm thinking about dumping some rocks in there, cover it with at least a foot of fill and then putting down the gravel. I don't have to tackle this but it will be an issue in the future. I should mention that I plan to put Geotechnical Fabric between the ground and the gravel.

Thanks all.

Some pix would help of those really wet spots. If you can drive over them with your truck this time of year, you may be better off building up with stone, kinda depends on the soil type too. As wmonroe said, digging down can help, if you find something solid below. Sometimes you just make a deeper wetter hole.

I would use much courser stone than 1-1/2" where you see any moisture issues, more like 4"-6" with fines for a base. A light topping of 1-1/2" with fines over that is drivable, you can always add the 3/4" later after the heavy trucks are done.

For the places you are changing/filling the grade, I would start with fill dirt, put down fabric, then the rocks, then gravel.

When setting your culverts after trenching, a layer of 1-1/2" minus makes a good bed to set the culvert on that you can rake out level so the culvert is well supported. Then set the culvert, get the slope good, and bury it with more 1-1/2" minus to protect the culvert from larger rocks. Then cover that with your course base.

If you hand rock the inlet end of the culvert ditch a bit and dig a little pool below each culvert end to catch sediment, you will reduce erosion and make it easy to clean - just take a your backhoe bucket and scoop out the little pools when they fill in. After a year or so, with a few rocks in the ditch, it all settles down and you probably won't have to clean out the culvert. Plus, you always have a place to toss rocks :laughing:

Note:
1" minus is 1" stone down to sand.
With 'fines' is everything smaller than the max stone size is included. This helps it lock up tight and makes it plowable in winter.

I don't have an opinion of the bulldozer aspect. My belief is a dozer is great to grade out a large rough area, an excavator is the better weapon for rocks and trees or trenching. You can do a good bit of grading/smoothing with your DK45, back-drag your FEL bucket on loose stuff or use a box blade with scarifier teeth.

They lifted the posting on our road a week ago, but our elevation is only about 500'.
Dave.

 

[MikeD74T]

Sulla, While all the advice you're getting here is well intentioned, many know little of the terrain you're in or your availability of resources/abilities. ( i.e. dozers cannot come close to what a big excavator can do when road building or buying a grader & running one are two different things entirely. )
Get in contact with a local forester. He'll know of local biomass loggers that can both clear some of your land AND build an acceptable 80,000 lb road including bridges. These loggers deal with the permit process on a regular basis. He can also advise you re: other logs that you can sell when the market is good. You can strech your dollars a long way and leave yourself time & energy for other endeavors. If you were on the north side of those mountains I could hook you up with the right people.
On the housing front -I saw a couple that built a large (50x100) barn and pulled a used mobile home into it. Jacked the home up to second story level & parked under it. Home was used, cheap, inside a building so several common problems were averted. Plan was to live there until they could build a house but needed the barn right away. Looked like a very practical solution to me. There's lots of nice older trailers around, including camper sizes.
MikeD74T
BTW northern NH starts on the other side of those hills.

 

[groundcover]

You named the thread well , That is a big multi year project ! Good thinking on the fire sprinklers. Might want to look into some first aid classes and supplies as well, 911 looks a long way off up there !

 

[forgeblast]

Just wondering would geo-tex fabric be recommended for him? With the wet and grade will it hold the stone better?

 

[MarkV]

Just wondering would geo-tex fabric be recommended for him? With the wet and grade will it hold the stone better?

I sure don't think it would hurt but I sure wouldn't want to pay the bill for a mile of it.

MarkV

 

[Sulla]

I sure don't think it would hurt but I sure wouldn't want to pay the bill for a mile of it.

MarkV

Come on, it's only three quarters of a mile!

Actually I'm only planning on using it for the really wet portions. At $265.00 for four hundred feet it adds up fast.

 

[wmonroe]

I would definately use it on the wet spots as it will keep you from continuously losing rock down into the mud.

 

[Sulla]

Well it's still raining up here meaning I haven't done any work on the land. Folks In the South and Middle of the country have it a lot worse so no complaining from me. Instead I just keep looking for deals on things I need. The most interesting one is a free barn!

The catch? It's a 1792 structure that is for the most part still standing. The deal is I take it down and truck it away and it's free. Parts of it need to be replaced, mainly the North side clapboards up close to the roof. That's to be expected.

All the support beams and foundation rails are in good to excellent condition no rot at all. You can see these beams' where cut with an axe or some other hand tool. The whole building is a testament to what determined people our ancestors were. How they built this with the tools they had so that it would last over two hundred years is mind boggling.

I think I'm going to take the offer.

What besides a man lift, small crane, big truck and a could of pry bars do I need?

I've seen those electric shingle removal things, do they work?

The roof is metal, almost certainly of later vintage. It's rusted but looks salvageable. If not we'll toss it and put a new roof on.

Yeah I know, my wife already told me...I'm nuts. But man this thing deserves to be retained. If they could build it with out power tools of any kind I should be able to take it apart and put it back together again.

Thanks for suggestions you can make.

Did, I mention it was free!

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I'm learning that free is often pretty expensive. That being said, it's a matter of what you have more of, money or time. Even if all you salvaged out of it was a handful of beams, it may be worth the effort. It would be very nice to be able to restore the whole thing at your new place.

Take a lot of come-a-longs, ropes, cables, etc. Be safe! Don't go cutting out structural support until you are done with the other stuff.