Limbic Acres... | Page 3 | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

Ok, day two was a good day.

This was just after sunrise, I got to the farm before the Excavation Guys and snapped a pic.

We switched from a wide shovel bucket to a narrower bucket with teeth.  In this back corner we hit some sedimentary ledge that we had to chip away at.  Thankfully there wasn't much and we got it out.

Load of #1 stones arrives.  When laid/raked out the stone and shot it all with the laser level.  The # 1's are considered to be 99% compacted.

Here is a close up of the #1's

Getting 4 inches of stone on top of our excavation. We used about 1 and 1/2 truck loads of the stone.  The extra will be used for the backfilling the footers.

Got the stone done.  Nice and uniform.  The pad in the back is 8 inches higher than the one closer to us; the lower one is where the garage will be and that will give us a 1 block difference.

Just a little better picture of the elevation change where footing will be between house and garage.

While we had the skid steer and plenty of fill on hand I had the guys fill in and grade off a decent size area by the brook.  It filled in real well and it took about 65 buckets from the skid steer to fill up the area.

Hi K...

Very pleased with the work. 

I don't really know what he will be charging me yet.  He is an honorable man and he is a very efficeint operator.

3 or 4 of the piles are heavy gravel and are of no use to me, in the spring he is going to take them (about 3 or 4 10 wheelers) and bring me 3 or 4 dumps of dirt for grading and berming...no charge for that...he is going to use it for base for a drive way.  I don't need it for a base since we have that gravel all over my site, he will just skim off the top 4 inches or so and we will dress it with washed stone.

As for the charge, I get a cash discount, a generous one.  Plus on day 2 I was in the hole spreading and leveling the stone with his helper, I put in a good six hours...I know that he will take that into account.  Plus...this is a lot of horse trading going on...I have a 10 acre gravel pit and told him he can have all the bank wash he wants for base material...that will help on price.  Plus...I got him with my neighbor the dairy farmer who is hiring him for two weeks...so in the end the price will be the friends and family deal. I will know in a few days or weeks the charge...not worried about it...he is one of a few people that you can do a handshake deal with.

He is also slow about billing...hate that...I like to pay and be done with it...so I will bug him.

...the guy also is letting me run my concrete through his account at the batch plant he gets about 20% off since he does so much business there...so, how the heck did I get so fortunate to make a friend like this and have his help in so many things with this build...this is saving me at least a couple of K on the concrete alone, plus the free dirt.

...then, while were digging, the dairy farmer/neighbor stopped by...he saw that a couple of acres that we cleared for the building site last year was growing great grass, but the rocks were poking through every where and I could only mow it with the bush hog...he offered to come down and spread another 6 to 10 inches of rotted silage on it all....the stuff breaks down by spring and covers up a lot of the gravel and stones...helps with the 'lawn mowing'...the rotted silage is about 50% composted before he even spreads it.

...again...we feel very fortunate to be so blessed with quality people that are very giving...guess I haven't been too miserable around them.

I am keeping a Excell spread sheet of everything I spend...Not sure I want to know the final numbers....lol.