Hiring a mini digger. Worth it?

[ukracer]

Were are you in the UK?

 

[marlinspike]

We are in Sale, Cheshire. Thanks for all the responses so far. I think I need to do some accurate measuring and calculating to see what the true overall cost would be. It's not a huge garden but having half of it as an overgrown flower bed makes it look smaller than it is.

 

[MCKDAVID]

the first time, I hired the machine myself, had to, needed to have a go, big boys toys and all that.... then spent an hour figuring out the controls and getting to a kind of rythm, reckon you'd need a decent weekend at it to get to a point of actually being relatively efficient.
The next time I needed the digger got the digger plus driver, yes was obviously more expensive against hiring it directly, but by the time you add delivery (unless you've got a big enough trailer), fuel, and the longer rental because you have the loss of production as you learn to do it, it's more economical with the driver, and the works are definitely better finished. Especially if the local guys will do half day hire with driver.

Other than that, if you've never driven one, do it, great laugh..... then once you've done that get the boys in to do it..

 

[ukracer]

We are in Sale, Cheshire. Thanks for all the responses so far. I think I need to do some accurate measuring and calculating to see what the true overall cost would be. It's not a huge garden but having half of it as an overgrown flower bed makes it look smaller than it is.

I can put you in touch with a guy who does this and has his own diggers. PM me if interested.

 

[Bobtail4x4]

if its half decent topsoil, people will take it for free, a local farmer will probably take it too.

 

[dannyp]

if its decent soil why not just spread it out. i've managed to looose some massive tumps of soil by makeing everything an inch higher

 

[outofthefire]

if its decent soil why not just spread it out. i've managed to looose some massive tumps of soil by makeing everything an inch higher

That's what I did, dug a massive pond about 20' x 6' x 4' deep and spread all the soil around the rest of the garden. If your not sure whether you can drive one or not get over to diggerland and have a play, in fact i'd recommend diggerland anyway.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

You could always dig a massive whole and bury the dirt in it!

 

[dannyp]

but the next hole allways ends up even bigger

 

[marlinspike]

Thread resurrection.

I thought I would update this. We decided in the end that it was beyond us in terms of time to dig out and level the garden. We got a quote from a local company who had done a friend's drive and this is the result. Here's our bunny enjoying his first go on the grass:

The before doesn't really show how uneven the grass was or how much soil needed removing.

We had a drive paved at the front too, and a path round the house and a large patio in black limestone near the lawn.

The whole thing took about 3 weeks with 4 guys on the job most days. The grabber truck came at least twice for the soil and debris.

 

[rtbcomp]

OT - is that top photo taken with the CCTV system out of the box in the picture?

 

[Migmac]

Nice job, take more than one rabbit to keep the grass down though!

 

[marlinspike]

No, the pics are from my phone. But this screen shot photo is from just now on the cctv. You can monitor the cameras from your phone.

Having the garden done makes the back drive look worse than ever lol. Now the garden is done we need to get the other cameras up.

 

[rtbcomp]

Thanks

 

[Cobbler]

Looking how your son? is standing, is the rabbit radio controlled?

 

[marlinspike]

Haha. It does look like that, doesn't it? Believe me though, no-one controls Smudge. He's a free spirit lol. He is litter tray trained, but otherwise the little rascal does what he wants.

We did have another one, my daughter's bunny, but sadly that one died in the autumn. Couldn't bear the thought of Smudge being outside on his own over the winter, so he lives inside now. I'd get him a friend but Smudge is nearly 8 so he's on borrowed time. Average life span of a pet rabbit is two years apparently, because they are often so neglected.

 

[Migmac]

What you doing with the Saab?

 

[marlinspike]

We are restoring it, very slowly. Usual story - needed a lot more work than expected. We have done the sill, 3 wheel arches and the front now, so as soon as the weather improves a bit we will start on the rear driver side wheel arch. It also needs welding in the boot, which will be tricky as I think the fuel tank will need to come out.

The driver door and front wing were beyond saving. It's our third Saab 900 turbo. It was in the yard of a Saab specialist awaiting breaking for spares. Amazingly a bit of welding got it through the mot by the garage, but what was intended to be a rolling restoration ended up being an off road job. I should have just enjoyed it for a year, then started the welding, but you think, 'I'll just do this bit'. Next thing you know it's in bits on the drive. I think they call it project creep.

It's the reason why I joined this forum lol.

 

[Migmac]

I like the 900 turbo, was one of the cars I wanted to own when I was younger.The closest I got was a 99, which needed a fair bit of work. The drivers side had been dragged along a bale trailer. Two replacement doors, the rear panel pulled and filled and the side of the bonnet filled too.

 

[mike os]

30x6 is 180..180 qubic feet is 5.097 square meters of soil...so a good size skip will do the job...get the machine level ..start at top..dig down a foot in one corner and work your way across and back....one you have a corner dug use that as your guide ...dont try and rush .take a steady pace..you don't want to have to go back over a dug area and re dig.....nowt worse...

So a total of at least 7.5m3 allowing for bulking.

If you have to move it ...if can't get skips next to where you are digging hire a mini dumper as well