Could I build a house dirt pad with a L3400 with FEL and box blade

[newbury]

Laser levels are nice but pricy. To determine level I used garden hose filled with dyed water with a piece of clear plastic tubing jammed in the ends so you could easily see the water level. I've also used a LONG run of aquarium air tubing with a jug of water and red dye, but the narrow tubing doesn't react as quickly.

 

[LD1]

With all of these new laser levels and crap now, the old ones are pretty cheap. The old transits or old sight levels can be had for ~$100. I got a david white sight level at a pawn shop for $80. Sure they arent as nice as a laser, but are a handy thing to have for any kind of building.

 

[jimgerken]

I did similar last year. Made a spot for a 36x60 building, somewhat cut into a sidehill, and additional material imported from 600 feet away. I have a JD 3720, 44 hp 4400 lbs with loader and ballast. As said above, part of the trick is to get it level, and the other trick is to actually have it compacted properly. As I went thru this, I eventually bought a self leveling rotary laser for about $250 recondtioned from CPO. Before I got the laser though, my procedure was:
Move material for the afternoon ( a few hours), spreading it in thin layers and driving over it with the tractor. Put away the tractor and drog over the garden hose and lawn sprinkler. Turn it on for the evening, turn it off just before bed. Come back in the morning and when the mud was gone and there were puddles, spray paint a line around the puddles. Later in the day when the puddles are gone, fill the spray painted outlined low areas with fill and compress with the tractor. Start again with a general lift of fill across the entire area. Each lift was only a few inches across this big of an area in my case.
Repeat.
Its amazing how close it will end up for you.
Choice of what you fill with is important. Rock would be best. In my case, I was ripping out an old overgrown driveway in aonther area, and using that fill, so it had a lot of rock and was mixed with dirt. It compacted wonderfully. Dirt alone would not bear the weigh of wall foundations later. Clay would be worse. If you have to buy rock and mix it in, do so.
Later on, as I started needing to be accurate and work alone on foundation forming, I needed and purchased the rotary laser. I don't know how I would have gotten along without it. I use it for every large project now. Best tool investment I ever made. CPO (online) sells new and reconditioned tools of every kind. Sometimes the prices are very reasonable. Watch their webiste, inventory changes.

 

[k0ua]

I built a pad out of rock about 18x36 this summer.. it is maybe only 3 inches deep on one side, and about 6 foot deep on the other .
I used 0 to 6 inch rock then topped and leveled with 0 to 3/4 inch rock. I used a cheap craftsman laser level on a photo tripod. I got to within about 2 inches with that. Which is all I needed for a Carolina Carport barn. I had as much money in the pad as I did in the barn.

James K0UA

 

[timberland]

Well I started the pad today.I'm in no hurry. The area has about 18 inch slope, thats my guess. Will get a traansit level and put up some grade stakes at corners shortly. Anyway I got to break in my new lanpride rtr58 tiller. I tilled an area about 60 X 150 this morning, awesome tiller. The rest of the day I attempted to drag/push dirt off the area. Got about half done. Moving dirt is a pain. Anyway I moved a lot to the low end of the slope also a lot to one side that is lower than the other. tomorrow I plan on removing the rest of the tilled soil, which is located on the high end of the tilled area. Then I plan on putting grade stakes at the corners. Pad will be about 55 wide and 65 deep. After I get all the sandy tilled soil out of the way I will use the scarifiers on box blade and drag dirt from high side of slope.

Any suggestions. First attempt at this, will takes some pics and post.

 

[sdkubota]

If you can level the area 12' outside of the house footprint to allow for scaffolding, etc during the construction. You will need the soil there for grading anyhow when everything is done. Moving dirt turns from fun to work in a hurry.

 

[SPIKER]

I had to move a LOT of dirt for my 50x50 barn pad and built berms (2 of them) out around 2 sides up hill one inside the other both to divert water away from the high side. My place is on the side of a large rolling hill and the drop is deceiving as it is fairly low but adds up fast. I needed ~24" fill on the low corner and took out about 12" clay/soil on the top side all way down so once done I put in about 20" of fill in the bottom corner using rock sand & gravel mix.

to see ALL of the build up photos to date here BARN photos pictures by WPSPIKER - Photobucket

this is the base

the point I took pic from is the higher point of the property. like I mentioned a lot of the dirt was roto-tilled to pull off the top soil and moved away using FEL and BB & a Dump Wagon.

I left a LOT if the dirt work until AFTER the barn was up and kept the Grass intact for the construction so less disturbed dirt at this point. I added a bunch of gravel to help getting the barn erected. The outside dirt work was deceiving how much I ended up moving estimated 500 yards of dirt. It can be done as you see that is a JM284 tractor 3800~4000 lbs 28 hp 4x4 I bought new and used mostly as bulldozer for first 3 or so years I owned it. Concrete been in for ALMOST a year now and not a crack the start was 2002 November on the barn construction and dirt work started in Aug that year.

I used roller on rider and the tractor FEL and a lot of fuel moving leveling compacting and cutting to get it there used a HF laser level and water line level.



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