Digging out my drive and back garden.

[bigegg]

I am intending to get my garden sorted out this summer - finally!

There is a "driveway" which starts at 13ft wide, and drops to 8ft at the rear corner of the house, and is about 30ft long. It was "tarmacced" by itinerant road menders about 25 years ago, so not a lot left.

The back garden to be cleared is around 10ft wide and about 20ft long.

I want the lot digging out 8" deep so I can lay 4" of MOT1 + 4" of concrete.

I reckon there's about 60 sq m in total - about 6 cu m of MOT 1 and the same of concrete.

Not a job I fancy doing by hand!

I can get 20T of MOT1 delivered for about 300 quid.
I can get 6cu of concrete for just under 500 quid.

but...
what's the best way of clearing the top soil?

A grab+tip wagon is £170 a load
A maxi skip is £160.

JCB 3xxx is £250 a day
mini digger is £150 a day. (or £60 if I drive it myself).

Would a mini digger do that much in a day?

I can arrange access to all the site for a 8 wheeler wagon, so shifting the MOT1 and concrete isn't a problem - it's really only to clear the soil/tarmac, although I could hire a mini digger for a week for £350

Don't suppose there's anyone in the Leeds area got a JCB they fancy lending me for a week?

 

[Kent]

consider selling top soil and the turf if its any good. Personally I dislike a lack of real grass and soil around a home

 

[Appyasme]

I reckon you should call for Bob the builder

 

[sparkysy]

The job we are on at the moment used the soil in the drive I don't know how it works but they used a tractor with a hopper on to add lime and cement mix into the soil then another tractor went over it to blend the mix together and finally one with water, a few hours later they power floated the lot. It's nice and flat and solid! Never seen it done before but doesn't give a bad finish at all!

 

[Spark plug]

I would go with the 3cx and grab wagon that way the grab wagon can take the soil away and bring back the hard core for the 3xc to shift and grade.

I think this would be the fastest and cheapest option. Unless you want to make friends with a shovel..

 

[doubleboost]

We are having some work done at the rear of the house
12 metres of muck to shift
Only way is wheel barrow through the garage
Bricks & flags in the same way

 

[Mikey D]

I reckon decent size mini digger 3 tonne+ for 2 days self drive , strip off the Tarmac keep separate , next strip off subsoil ( it's not going to be topsoil under Tarmac surely , mind you did say our travelling friends did the job )
Get grab wagon in if there's a full load of Tarmac it may be cheaper to take that away in one load then another for subsoil ?

Either that or jcb for a day with operator and 8 wheeler as he can load that with jcb and can carry more than grab wagon . If your not experienced machine operator it may work out cheaper with second option ?
Mind you I like playing with machines so I'd go for option 1

Bring mot stone with truck then backload with the waste going to be more cost effective , well if you have the room on site that is

 

[gerrymoore]

Just do what I did...make your own mini digger (only took me 6 months!!)

 

[marlinspike]

I will be interested to see how you get on, Bigegg. I posted a few months ago about hiring a mini digger for a similar but smaller project and most people seemed to think it was doable.

Worth doing it yourself if you can - the quote we got for digging out a soil bed about 40' by 6', 8" deep, and digging up and flagging 2 drives was £17k.

 

[bigegg]

I will be interested to see how you get on, Bigegg. I posted a few months ago about hiring a mini digger for a similar but smaller project and most people seemed to think it was doable.

Worth doing it yourself if you can - the quote we got for digging out a soil bed about 40' by 6', 8" deep, and digging up and flagging 2 drives was £17k.

Ouch!
I've got a budget of2k and that includes 25m of 6ft fencing/ wall.

 

[GrumpyOne]

I just had a 20' X 12' concrete slab laid for my new workshop, cost me £1000.

 

[Rig Pig]

Just do what I did...make your own mini digger (only took me 6 months!!)View attachment 64028

I considered doing that, but my wife said NO!

 

[marlinspike]

When you do get round to doing it Bigegg, it would be great if you could post an account of how you did it, photos etc. Our garden/drive revamp has gone on the back burner for now.

 

[octo0072000]

Ouch!
I've got a budget of2k and that includes 25m of 6ft fencing/ wall.

quote for my 6ft fence 5 years ago was £1500

15 5ft panels 16 posts 30 gravel boards lots of earth on one side so hence double gravel boards

 

[stormin]

A JCB 3CX is probably a bit big and overkill for a driveway job. Minidigger, 1.5 tonne, is the way to go to my mind. Should dig 6 cube off in half a day easily even with hard digging. Just make sue you get a toothed bucket for the breaking out as well as a ditcher for the moving of the bulk. Anything bigger will struggle to spin and manouvre on the narrower parts of the drive.
If you can get your MOT delivery timed correctly after the muck is shifted you should be able to complete within two days machine hire even with a bit of a learning curve.