digging out basement

[MossRoad]

If you do not want to bust up the basement wall to fit a conveyor, try finding a smaller one that will fit through the window. Something like this might be available from a local rental yard.

Belt Conveyors, Conveyor, Dirt Conveyor, Incline Conveyor, Excavation Conveyor

I used to work with a woman whose husband did that kind of work for a living... crawling under houses and installing basements and/or replacing bad foundations. He had some small conveyors, short shovels, lots of buckets and a dump truck. He also had a back back, stiff joints and walked like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

As someone mentioned, a vacuum truck will work. Several commercial roofers in this area took old sewage VACTOR jet rodders and just added hose to them. They sucked the 2" rocks off of our 4th floor roof this summer. Last year they did a one story roof. I think it was about 50' wide by 150 long. One guy did that whole roof in one day.

 

[vicar]

The latest issue of Fine Homebuilding (March 08) shows a very simple setup using a roller conveyor and a plywood box sized to just fit through a basement window. Box is pulled up rollers with a rope. I suppose if you were working alone you could use a large box that could be pulled up with a winch or tractor, or a few decent sized ones lined up like freight cars. In the unlikely event i were to do this i would rig it so that boxes could fall off the conveyor and dump right into the FEL on my tractor if I couldn't get them right into the truck.

 

[MossRoad]

I found a picture of the vacuum truck sucking rocks.

 

[akpilot]

I work on the North Slope (ALASKA) in the oil field, we routinly use "Super Suckers" to remove large amounts of solids including Well "cuttings" and digging around utilities. If your area has an oil field service co, check with them. Also a lot cities/counties use them for storm drain clean out. JOT

I have carried a few buckets in my life as well

 

[wedge40]

This has been a pipe dream of mine since I bought my house over 12 years ago.
My crawl space is 8" going under the floor joists and about 16" when moving between them. Yes the distances are correct. I have some issues that really need to be taken care of but since it's so small, I avoid going in there at all cost. I've alway figured I'd hire someone to move the house out of the way, dig a REAL crawl space or better yet a basement, then put the house back. I think in about two years when to mortgage is almost paid off, I'll use the home equity to make this a reality.

Wedge

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

if you've got the room to do it, I suggest you dig and pour a basement about 20 or 30' from the house.
move the house.
it'll be quicker and less costly in the long run (and you won't be out of the house as long).

good luck.

 

[tommu56]

The latest issue of Fine Homebuilding (March 08) shows a very simple setup using a roller conveyor and a plywood box sized to just fit through a basement window. Box is pulled up rollers with a rope. I suppose if you were working alone you could use a large box that could be pulled up with a winch or tractor, or a few decent sized ones lined up like freight cars. In the unlikely event i were to do this i would rig it so that boxes could fall off the conveyor and dump right into the FEL on my tractor if I couldn't get them right into the truck.

I think this is the best idea but pitch the rollers out so the loaded buckets or boxes leave on their own power!

tom

 

[vettemanwight]

My brother did this to a house he owned 25 years ago. He opened up the end and dug it out with a skid steer loader. Seeing he didnt have a footer as deep as the future basement he kept the inside wall that he was digging about 2 feet away. When he got it all dug out he poured a footer all around where he had dug then layed up a block wallto the height of the dirt floor of the old crawl space then he poured a floor on the old loor after he put 2 inches of graveldown.His basement was smaller than the house but he had lots of room for the washer and dryer wood stove and he had a nice ledge all the way around the basement for storing things. When he closed in the wall he made an outside entrance. My nephew , his oldest son just did the same thing to his house and it works great for them. V

 

[KYErik]

vetteman- I am curious, did he backfill behind the block wall? Was that void filled when he packed gravel on the top?

I am just wondering if a person should be concerned about the 2 ft of undisturbed crawlspace dirt slumping over toward the block wall and possibly causing the house footer to sink or shift?

 

[hankus]

I used to work in an 33 story office building in downtown Seattle. The building had a planter just outside the windows of the employee cafeteria which wrapped around the entire building on it's second floor level. After about 20 years it started to leak into the lobby beneath it. To facilitate repairing the planter the contractor brought in a VAC truck and sucked that dirt out slicker than slick.

It would sure make removal of the spoils easy, getting the ground broken up would be the time consuming part.

 

[BucketHoe]

hankus,

I have had contractors use VacAlls for major excavations and on some of them a couple of jackhammers couldn't keep up with how much material the truck could suck up.

In the basement that Jerome wants to excavate the material is more than likely nice and dry, having been covered by a building all these years, so a couple of electric jackhammers and a VacAll and that basement would be done in no time, as long as Jerome has someplace on site to dump the material rather than have to haul it somewhere offsite as the truck fills up.

BucketHoe.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

I'm curious to know how the jackhammer -- or boxes on conveyor belts will fit in the 8" crawlspace Wedge has between the ground and the bottom of the floor joists.

 

[PAGUY]

When looking for my first job after graduating from high school I was sent to a home of a mason with a good reputation for his work. I thought I might have a crack at being an apprentice brick layer. It was a rainy day and when I got there I was shown the basement where a pick and shovel with a wheelbarrow awaited me. I was to fill the wheel barrow with dirt and run it up a wooden ramp that had a pickup truck backed up to it with no tailgate. I was to dump it in there and when filled drive down to the end of the property and shovel it off all in a pouring rain. Being 17 yrs old I lasted till lunch time when I left to go to lunch and never returned. Soaking wet and tired I never went to another job that the unemployment office offered.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

and I thought bucking alfalfa bales was bad!

 

[diyDave]

One option that I haven't seed mention of in this thread, is that of the silage wagon unloader conveyor. I used one of these to dig out behind a retaining wall. What it is is a small conveyor with metal paddles, connected to hammer link chain, like that used on old manure spreaders. The conveyor is flat for about 8', then elevates at about a 30 degree angle, about 3' to 4' off the ground, where it dumps the load. I bought one of these things in like new condition for $10.00 at an auction, wore it out throwing dirt through it, took it to another auction and it sold for $45.00. Look around these old conveyors are as common as politicians at election time!