How many of you found garbage buried around your place from past owners?

[ponytug]

And the future archeologists can develop a complex theory of human worship of thatch ants and the human desire to protect and view them as guidelines to living?

All the best, Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Sounds like this guy did that with his wife !

Man accused of killing, dismembering wife searched ‘how to saw a body,’ investigator testifies

Prosecutors Monday argued a Massachusetts man was responsible for the grisly murder of his wife who disappeared more than two years ago while his lawyers insisted the man panicked after she suddenly died in bed.

www.foxcarolina.com

Yikes!

 

[MossRoad]

We frequently do "shallow removal" on signal pole foundations. Meaning, 5 ft diameter, concrete shaft, often going down 18+ feet; and we chip it down 48" and cover it up. I dont really "like" it, because my worry has always been, your doing an HDD through the area, and there is no way to know there is 18 cubic yards of reinforced concrete right there... But, it's not my call, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than removing the entire thing.

Reminds me of my last employer... they were having fiber internet pulled in to one corner of the building. Drilling company got to about the end of the run from the street and hit something metallic. Our boss says "I was afraid of that." Legend had it that an auto dealer across the alley had buried a railroad tank car under the alley to use as a fuel tank for the dealership, and yep, that legend was true!

They found the lid, hired a company to investigate environmental issues, they sopped up what was left in the tank, drilled holes in the bottom, took soil samples, all good. So they filled it in with soupy concrete. I left after the 3rd truck was empty and the tank wasn't full yet.

So someday, someone else will run into a THUMP! underground, and try and figure out why?

 

[civilian]

Reminds me of my last employer... they were having fiber internet pulled in to one corner of the building. Drilling company got to about the end of the run from the street and hit something metallic. Our boss says "I was afraid of that." Legend had it that an auto dealer across the alley had buried a railroad tank car under the alley to use as a fuel tank for the dealership, and yep, that legend was true!

They found the lid, hired a company to investigate environmental issues, they sopped up what was left in the tank, drilled holes in the bottom, took soil samples, all good. So they filled it in with soupy concrete. I left after the 3rd truck was empty and the tank wasn't full yet.

So someday, someone else will run into a THUMP! underground, and try and figure out why?

And then how would any one remove that is it was filled with concrete? Jon

 

[paulsharvey]

And then how would any one remove that is it was filled with concrete? Jon

How would you remove it once filled with concrete? Well, first, it sounds like flow able fill, which comes in excavatable and non excavatable types. Either way, even if concrete, same as you do a big rock; a big hoe, a big hydraulic hammer, or both. Regardless, its cheaper to fill today than remove tank today, and thats what matters; let tomorrow worry about tomorrow's removal....

 

[goeduck]

I have a property that had two dug wells that were abandoned by a previous owner when the County piped water to the road nearby. The County code at the time apparently required that the wells be filled with concrete to a couple of feet below grade. The county has some fuzzy pictures of approximately where they were, referencing a shed that is no longer there.

 

[oosik]

The previous owner was the original homesteader. 160 acre government land grant - 1893. So--- no electricity - no running water - no indoor plumbing. And - actually no driveway. My 80 acre parcel is one mile west of the county road. The homesteader drove across the neighbors fields to get to his property. My driveway is on the section line easement. 30 feet by one mile.......

About the only thing of his - still remaining....... gobs and gobs of square nails and big 'ol spikes. There wasn't a nail or spike that he didn't like. Fortunately - it's all on about one acre of land where the old homestead buildings were.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I have a property that had two dug wells that were abandoned by a previous owner when the County piped water to the road nearby. The County code at the time apparently required that the wells be filled with concrete to a couple of feet below grade. The county has some fuzzy pictures of approximately where they were, referencing a shed that is no longer there.

I have at least seven wells on my property. Three I still use. One was capped by a previous owner and one was filled with stones. I've filled two. One I filled with sand, just got a truckload delivered and used the tractor to dump it in. The other wasn't very deep, every time I had some broken up concrete that I wanted to get rid of I dropped it in the well and now it's full.

I just can't imagine putting wet concrete into something like that, you're just creating a problem down the road. The thought that keeps going through my mind as I clean up the tons of junk left on my land is that it always gets more expensive with time. It would have been a lot cheaper just to take this stuff to the dump when it was fresh.

 

[Sportsman762]

I have at least seven wells on my property. Three I still use. One was capped by a previous owner and one was filled with stones. I've filled two. One I filled with sand, just got a truckload delivered and used the tractor to dump it in. The other wasn't very deep, every time I had some broken up concrete that I wanted to get rid of I dropped it in the well and now it's full.

I just can't imagine putting wet concrete into something like that, you're just creating a problem down the road.

Many jurisdiction require abandoned wells to be filled with bentonite or portland cement. This is to prevent the well from allowing contaminates to travel between aquifers. If the wells were filled with sand then any contamination from surface water, or contaminated aquifers could go down the well and introduce contaminates into clean aquifers. Portland cement and bentonite seal the well so contamination does not have a shortcut to the next aquifer. Most of the time you seal the well to 4' or so below the surface then cut the casing off so it reduces the potential to cause problems in the future.

 

[paulsharvey]

I have at least seven wells on my property. Three I still use. One was capped by a previous owner and one was filled with stones. I've filled two. One I filled with sand, just got a truckload delivered and used the tractor to dump it in. The other wasn't very deep, every time I had some broken up concrete that I wanted to get rid of I dropped it in the well and now it's full.

I just can't imagine putting wet concrete into something like that, you're just creating a problem down the road. The thought that keeps going through my mind as I clean up the tons of junk left on my land is that it always gets more expensive with time. It would have been a lot cheaper just to take this stuff to the dump when it was fresh.

Was there a reason you filled the wells? Was it a permit issue, or was it you didnt need them, or where they actively collapsing or similar? Unless forced too, I wouldn't full them, id just leave them be

 

[ericm979]

Fence wire is probably worse though.

There were so many old fences on our place in CA. I made a lot of dump runs. Old air photos showed that a lot of it was pasture in the '40s and 50s. It's forest or thick, and I mean really thick, brush now.

When we moved in we went exploring. My wife discovered a trash pile under some bushes. It was winter so there were no leaves, making it easier to see. She had to crawl through the bushes to get to the pile. She found some old pots with holes in them and a 1946 license plate.

Then a week later she found that the bushes she'd been crawling through were poison oak.

 

[ponytug]

There were so many old fences on our place in CA. I made a lot of dump runs. Old air photos showed that a lot of it was pasture in the '40s and 50s. It's forest or thick, and I mean really thick, brush now.

When we moved in we went exploring. My wife discovered a trash pile under some bushes. It was winter so there were no leaves, making it easier to see. She had to crawl through the bushes to get to the pile. She found some old pots with holes in them and a 1946 license plate.

Then a week later she found that the bushes she'd been crawling through were poison oak.

What a welcome to the neighborhood! I lived for a while in your old neighborhood, and looked after my parents cocker spaniel for a year. (Well, ok sent it through canine boot camp for the year. Ill behaved doesn't begin to describe it.)

On one of my first hikes with him towards the coast, as we got back to the car some folks turned up with a big, not very friendly Rhodesian ridgeback cross, so I scooped my dog up and held on to him tight to keep him from getting into trouble, or eaten, as neither dog looked particularly well behaved. Two days later, I had a six inch wide three inch high smear across my stomach as the dog had gotten into some poison oak sap. Being used to toughing it out with poison ivy, I thought no problem. Mistake. I went through a couple ounces of topical steroid cleaning that up, and I have had an eagle eye for poison oak ever since.

All the best,

Peter

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Was there a reason you filled the wells? Was it a permit issue, or was it you didnt need them, or where they actively collapsing or similar? Unless forced too, I wouldn't full them, id just leave them be

I was worried about someone or something falling into them. These are old hand-dug wells. Not very deep, it's rarely more than 12' to bedrock here. The one I filled with sand was about 8' deep and 3' in diameter.

 

[Captain Dirty]

One of the misconceptions of my youth was that those 3' diameter, stone lined wells were dug by a 4'10" tall well digger using short-handled picks and shovels. I now realize a hand-dug well was usually an open pit, the diameter of which was determined by soil conditions (see angle of repose) so that the risk of collapse was acceptable. Once water was found, they would continue digging as long as they could practicably remove the water (by buckets or pump). At some point the diggers would lay a stone base and start constructing a cylindrical stone wall, backfilling with stones on the outside (in the pit). This stone provided voids to hold a reservoir of water larger than the diameter of the casing and provide scaffolding for the stone-masons laying up the lining. As the height rose they would use smaller and smaller stones, finer and finer sand, and then clay (if available) or even a tar-paper membrane in a cone around the lining to keep surface water from flowing into the well along the lining. An earthen cone was often extended above the surrounding surface grade depending on the finances of the owner or the patience of the crew.

 

[goeduck]

Was there a reason you filled the wells? Was it a permit issue, or was it you didnt need them, or where they actively collapsing or similar? Unless forced too, I wouldn't full them, id just leave them be

A neighbor still has a dug well unfilled, fortunately there are no young kids nearby. How many critters are at the bottom of it, I don't know. It does have boards partially over the raised portion.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

One of the misconceptions of my youth was that those 3' diameter, stone lined wells were dug by a 4'10" tall well digger using short-handled picks and shovels. I now realize a hand-dug well was usually an open pit, the diameter of which was determined by soil conditions (see angle of repose) so that the risk of collapse was acceptable. Once water was found, they would continue digging as long as they could practicably remove the water (by buckets or pump). At some point the diggers would lay a stone base and start constructing a cylindrical stone wall, backfilling with stones on the outside (in the pit). This stone provided voids to hold a reservoir of water larger than the diameter of the casing and provide scaffolding for the stone-masons laying up the lining. As the height rose they would use smaller and smaller stones, finer and finer sand, and then clay (if available) or even a tar-paper membrane in a cone around the lining to keep surface water from flowing into the well along the lining. An earthen cone was often extended above the surrounding surface grade depending on the finances of the owner or the patience of the crew.

Before I filled that well I rented a trash pump and pumped it out, then put a ladder in and climbed down to check it out. What I noticed is that while there was room to stand, it was almost impossible to move without bumping my butt against the wall. The wall was cold and my butt got cold.

There's a Tom Waits song where he talks about it being "colder than a well-digger's ass." I think I know what he means.

 

[paulsharvey]

Before I filled that well I rented a trash pump and pumped it out, then put a ladder in and climbed down to check it out. What I noticed is that while there was room to stand, it was almost impossible to move without bumping my butt against the wall. The wall was cold and my butt got cold.

There's a Tom Waits song where he talks about it being "colder than a well-digger's ass." I think I know what he means.

There is a reason many utility company's have a max manhole riser rings on top of the eccentric cone. Many MH lids are 24" and if the riser rings add up to much, it becomes impossible to bend your knees on a ladder. You can physically fit, just not move the legs.

 

[Jstpssng]

Now you guys are giving me claustrophobia!

 

[paulsharvey]

Now you guys are giving me claustrophobia!

We left a laser target for a pipe laser in a dead end run of 18" storm drain. Not truly dead end, but laid to the edge of asphalt for next phase of traffic shift. Anyways, we were going to just dig it back up, and one of the guys actually crawled it, about 48 ft, to get the target. Its not so much a crawl, as a worm action, and then the same in reverse... Im not as skinny as him, but not just No, but Heck no... 24" yeah, id crawl, 30" sure, but 18", naa

Had a helper crawl between plywood and metal building panels, 8.5" wide... to get a screw gun he left in the wall, only 8 ft into the wall, but still

 

[KennyG]

When I worked in a shipyard I could go through a 15 x 24 man way. Probably not now.