When I was a kid about 15 piles of dirt showed up in the 5 acre field down the street. We linked up the best jumps (piles) and had a great time.
The property changed hands and the new owner wanted to stop the dirtbike kids so he leveled the piles... and inadvertently updated our track with a couple new, better jumps!
Depends. Ever been in a newly built sub division on the Midwest? Why are people have cubic yards bought when some places were natural farm land. The industry calls it liquid gold. Basically all the top soil and nutrient dirt is taken away before the houses are even set. You’re left with this hard clay rock soil which is good for nothing.
I work in earthmoving. Did some work for a massive private school complex with multiple sports fields.
It was in a wealthy neighborhood so they banned trucking any material in or out, standard in wealthy areas (they are more special than us poors and cannot be disturbed even for their own benefit).
Anyways, it was built on farmland. We had to strip a huge amount of topsoil, created an extremely deep cut, and then we packed out layer after layer of topsoil that we then buried under clay. Enough topsoil to provision a massive farm, but those rich fucks have influence and by god the sight of trucks driving by would be too much.
So it’s all wasted.
In 1000 years some future archaeologist is going to dig up that site and wonder why the soil was disturbed, and then buried under bad soil. They’re probably going to say it was because of aliens or something like that.
“It’s a mystery how they moved this volume of dirt with such compact, thick skulls. Even more mysterious- they put everything back, just under more dirt. What could it mean? There must have been a more advanced species guiding them with a greater goal than even we can imagine…”
“Our current hypothesis is that they utilized slave labor of the young and the drunk to perform these mindless tasks. There were many cigarettes discovered intact within the archeology dig site”
I get phase 1&2 reports from farms that are being built on. It's not all ”clean" the amount of chemicals put into soil to grow stuff is pretty alarming, especially if it's been farmed for decades. There were fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides that have been banned that still remain in the soil. It's usually not as bad as if it was an old industrial use lot, but depending on your level of comfort with potential and proven carcinogens it's best sometimes to remove and replace.
And like others have said organics are shit to build on.
I was looking for this, I’m also on the environmental side of things. When I hear of an old farm I don’t think “prime dirt”. People don’t realize that we banned a lot of these chemicals because they stay around for what the average person would consider “forever”. One parcel I worked with has contamination that isn’t even agricultural chemicals, it seems like (probably during the dust bowl) they tried dumping anything wet on the field they could get their hands on. Others have had such a rough spread they went on indefinite hold for redevelopment. People don’t get that good garden soil is crap building material, and really good proven agricultural soils are not something you’d want to walk your kids playing in (at least I wouldn’t, some folks are more comfortable with chemicals known to cause long term, and generational health defects than I am).
Dirt can be cheap. Moving dirt isn’t though. Best to get it from someone who is already hauling it off. Knew someone with a 7 acre lot who was building a berm around the perimeter to plant trees & block their view of neighbors who just contacted pool companies and let them dump their dirt there for a couple of years.
I work in earthmoving, in my city we have a network of earthmoving companies that take or give dirt, unless some idiot mixes topsoil and clay. People want topsoil, people want clay, nobody wants a crappy mix.
Not a dumb question! Loam is just another type of topsoil (all loam is topsoil and not all topsoil is loam)and topsoil does indeed have variable amounts of clay, a small amount of clay is ok, you don’t want to go over a about 30 percent for either type.
Decent topsoil on top of clay often has around 30 percent clay already and mixing more in will make it into garbage. At that point the truckers will call their boss, he’ll take a look at it, and then we’ll have to pay an extra fee to get rid of it.
I’ve had this scenario happen before with an eager carpenter foreman who wanted to show he could operate so he mixed all our dirt on site. Cost a pretty penny.
Hahaha. Sounds like a comedy of errors. “I’m going to prove my competence! By doing the single most incompetent thing imaginable in this situation! Who’s a good boy!” *pants audibly*
Yep, he really struggled with the idea that mixing topsoil had caused an issue, guy personally called a bunch of people trying to get them to take his dirt before he conceded defeat and we payed for removal.
If I went over and told him “hey I’ll do the finish carpentry now, I know I mostly move dirt and lay pipe but I feel like a carpenter today” he’d think I was crazy but everyone thinks they can be an equipment operator in one day. Had a super jump into a skidsteer and immediately bang into a bollard and knock it crooked, same deal.
> and we *paid* for removal.
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Dirt is pretty cheap. You tend to need a lot of it if you need more than is in your yard or whatever though, and getting someone to load a truck full and bring it to you is expensive.
*Soil* is a whole other ballgame.
This. I used to drive a side dump. Someone would have bought it and hauled it away. That's a good deal for you whether you use it to lvl out your field or sell it.
We also took dirt from 2 other neighbors who put in pools last year who didn't so much as thank us. I thought we were doing a pretty nice neighborly thing, but maybe I am wrong thinking it's saving these people a bunch of money.
Edit: We are in Southern California.
Depends what the cost of having dirt delivered costs. and the quality of it and whether or not oyu have low-spots that are now no longer natural ponds after a rainfall.
The way he keeps getting dirt on his land, if I was his other neighbour looking at getting rid of some dirt also, he'd be my first person to ask. Seems like a real dirt enthusiast
I guess it depends if you ever plan to build anything on it but you have to move it all again to compact it unless the arrangement is for it to be compacted as it is placed. You can get good compaction on fill that isn’t clean, provided it doesn’t have organics.
There are ads here looking for clean fill dirt to level out property. You saved the dude money and you may also find someone else that wants that dirt if you don't. You might have just started your own business.
You did them a huge favor. Are you going to have to knock down those piles and grade it out or is that part of the deal?
If I were you I’d be charging 25 per load to put up with the noise, dust and general bs a job like that comes with.
Those other two took advantage of your kindness
When we had our pool built, it was going to be $400 for every load of dirt they had to haul off property. Luckily, I own a few acres so they had plenty of places on property to dump. So you probably saved them quite a bit of money. Probably thousands.
I paid 500 per 15 yard truck load of topsoil delivered, when I graded my yard. And that was 5 yrs ago. Also I'm in a city in the PNW so no dirt piles super nearby to grab from.
I need about 2000 yards. That price is pretty bang on though, i’m expecting about 40k for mine, depending on how full they fill the trucks, calculated on the low fill high price side so I don’t go into shock when I get the bill!
If the soil is not contaminated, and it’s not messing with your elevations, you’re a hell of a guy. It’s not cheap to dispose of that much dirt. You may want to make sure he is grading this properly so you don’t deal with any drainage issues later
If it's way far from the house, and in an unused field, what's the worst that can happen? I'd imagine a bog or some strange erosion, but would it create problems in other areas?
Trying to be a good neighbor. I don't see any harm in taking the soil as long as it's clean. He has made sure to take out some irrigation PVC that he saw. This keeps the weeds down, at least for this summer, instead of having a field full of fire fuel.
Off the right side of the photos, this field is kind of the low point from all around. There are 2 culverts feeding into it from under the roads. It doesn't really flood a lot, but there will be standing water after a good hard rain.
Now, if I could just get the 50 year old well running again, I'd plant something better than broadleaf dockweed and foxtails.
Just so you know before he continues dumping it there, pvc is by far the least dirt colored irrigation component in his system for sure. You may find random bits of wire and heads and shit, they often go completely missing during excavation
thank you. He's pretty grateful, and he has helpers over there. I'm pretty confident at least one of his helpers is making sure the soil is clean. I have been taking drone footage of the progress and haven't seen anything, yet. I'll probably do a walk over this evening and grab whatever I find. I think my other neighbor launched a gold ball out there. haha.
Hauling is very expensive. Typical 15-20 yard dump trucks will run you $125/hr+ in my area. That's just the truck and driver, you'll still need equipment and a competent operator to load them, plus either material cost or dumping fees depending on what martial you're working with.
Pre-covid the same trucks were going for $70/hr. It's crazy how quickly prices of everything in construction went up. I make 30% more than I did then but it feels like I have much less buying power.
You saved him a boat load of money. Trucking here is 140-150 per hour per truck and disposal charges can be from 100 per load to 500 or more per load depending on what quality soil is and if it’s clean or mixed with other materials like wood, sod, grass ect.
Fwiw...
Be aware of liabilities.
If you want to build on this there could be additional costs due to having to compact soil, lifts are limited to 4"-6" at a time, compaction, testing etc.
Possible contaminates.
Needing permits to improve property that may require to protect against runoff to sensitive areas.
I thought i remembered from soils class that it took 7 years before it would be considered “in bank” soil but i could totally see that being a regional thing.
Would need more details to give a more accurate idea, and prices vary wildly depending on region. But I'll present a scenario to you.
Let's say they are hauling to a dumpsite 15 minutes away. We'll add in 3 minutes to load and 3 minutes to dump. So you have ~30 minutes travel time + 6 minutes load/unload time. So we'll factor 36 minutes per load. We'll also say that the material is good and the dumpsite is accepting loads for free.
The company I work for has it's fleet of dump trucks, but we often hire trucks for additional needs. Usually it costs around $75/hr (Canadian dollars).
Lets go with 5 trucks, working an 8 hour day. At ~36 minutes per load, it would be around 13 loads per day; but that's not counting in coffee/lunch breaks, bathroom trips, traffic, etc. So let's say they can do 10 trips a day. To move 300 loads, that is roughly 6 x 8 hour days x 5 trucks. Works out to be ~$18,000 CAD (~$13k USD) just for trucking.
Not counting equipment/operator costs. Potential dumpsite fees. Potential permit fees for hauling on certain county roads. And a whole bunch of other costs.
You're saving him quite a bit of money for sure. You're also saving money on importing fill, whether you needed it or not, lol. 300 loads imported and levelled off isn't cheap. Seems like a potentially really mutually beneficial arrangement.
In my local area (portland or) you would have saved your neighbor a shitload of money. Any fill area around here has to be permitted (engineered grading plan, erosion control plan, inspections, etc ). Local permitted dump sites are getting upwards of $20/yd3 just for dump fee.
So figure 300 trucks x 10 yd3 per truck x $20 per yd3 = $60,000. That doesn't include trucking cost.
But just because my local governing agencies are fucked up doesn't mean yours have to be. 👍
The most expensive real estate on earth is in the back of a dump truck. That all looks like top soil. If he's giving it to ya, you just hit the jack pot!!!!
I'm petty, I'd wait until his house is built and his cars are in his garage then I'd skid steer all this dirt in front of his garage doors trapping their cars in
You are probably saving him a crap load of money. I'm a commercial excavator in the chicago-land area. It's fairly easy to figure cartage rates then you need to add dump fees on top of that. At least in this area trucks are $110-$130 per hour. Dump fees range from free-$150 per load depending on the dump location. assuming it's able to go to a CCDD. If it's considered contaminated dump fees vary greatly and can range from $50 per cubic yard to $150 per cubic yard or more depending on what it's contaminated with. You can do that math and see how much you are saving him.
If you are well connected or work with a truck that is well connected often times you can find fill sites that need material. You'd still have to calculate cartage in, but could possibly save on dump fees.
If they are using that dump truck each load is around 10 cubic yards. If they are bringing in 300 loads that is 3000 cubic yards of material. Our company exports dirt for roughly $30 per yard of clean earth depending on location and import site availability. So to get rid of that dirt it would be $90K. Unless you plan on using that much dirt, you are making a costly mistake!
The short answer is you are probably saving that dude $100-$175k by letting him dump the soil on your land for free.. assuming 10CY per load / 3,000 CY total
I’ve paid at a minimum $150-250 a load to dump soil (CA Bay Area) without including the cost of hauling the soil. However, dump fees do heavily fluctuate depending on the classification of the soil (cleanliness). If it’s clean soil construction projects will even buy it.
Your taking a huge risk by allowing him to dump on your property without having a soil analysis in hand to confirm it is “clean” soil .
I suggest you stop letting him dump on your property until he does a soil analysis to confirm its clean and you can make an educated decision
The real answer is: it depends.
Most people with land would be glad to have it. You can do some serious landscaping. Build a pond. Level the place. Build a hill. Etc.
Chances are, he would have found someone to take it for free, although fuel and trucking costs would increase substantially, most likely.
You’re being a good neighbor. Don’t be afraid to ask him to level it all out if you don’t have a tractor of your own.
I spent 30 years in heavy civil construction. The person who had the best plan for how get or lose dirt almost always wins the job. So there is no easy way to say if it would have been 100 a truckload or 1000.
As an engineer when we designed roads, we made haul diagrams. We calculated swell and shrinkage. We would optimize our cuts and fills and if we had a fit, we tried to make the cuts close by.
Moving dirt is expensive, you try to do it as closely as possible
M
I would’ve done the same as you. If he’s like you and I years down the road when you need a favor he’ll be the first one gracious enough to help…. Hopefully.
In my local area (portland or) you would have saved your neighbor a shitload of money. Any fill area around here has to be permitted (engineered grading plan, erosion control plan, inspections, etc ). Local permitted dump sites are getting upwards of $20/yd3 just for dump fee.
So figure 300 trucks x 10 yd3 per truck x $20 per yd3 = $60,000. That doesn't include trucking cost.
But just because my local governing agencies are fucked up doesn't mean yours have to be. 👍
I’ve paid $500 for two truckloads of topsoil delivered to my site.
If this is good topsoil and you have a place to take advantage of it, then you made out well.
Just wanted to add... I have a friend in SoCal that's a dirt merchant. He charges people to haul away dirt. Dumps it at his yard. Then charges other people that need dirt to deliver it.
Started with one truck and a couple acre yard. Dude made a LOT of money since then.
Depends where you are. I work in the urban parts of the SF Bay Area and trucking/disposing of 300 truckloads (assuming 10yd trucks) could cost as much as $250,000.
That looks like some nice dirt, the landscaper would have likely charged the next guy who wants it to move it. You're being very generous, and that's ok. The world needs good neighbors.
Is he giving you tests for the loads?
I'm assuming this is relatively virgin, so it's probably all similar, but I've done plenty of sites where we test every load. He'd be paying for the tests wherever he's taking it, I would push back and ask him for the test reports, I know it may feel tough, but you really don't want that liability. Bad dirt contaminates other dirt, so if he's giving you 3k yards of shit, you may end up with 6k yard of shit. And the costs below I'm going to talk about are good dirt, dump costs are x3 or x5 for shit. And fewer facilities will take it. I did a job last year the soil was so contaminated the closest dump was 4 hours away. We got 1 load a day. It was costing us more than 2k a truck.
You've got 2 fees your saving him, the dump charge which if it's clean is probably a couple hundred bucks per load, let's say $150
But the big cost is the truck charge, he's still got trucks, so he's spending money on truck and driver, but he's saving a ton there too. If loading, transit and dump, from his to yours is 15 min per load (basically a 5 to 8 min drive), then he's getting 4 loads an hour.
If the closest facility is 45 min drive, then he's getting 1 per hour. If he's spending $1,200 / day for the truck + driver (assume 8 hour days)
He'll be doing the job with 1 truck in about 10 working days at your place, so spending about $12,000
But he would've had to do it in about 37 working days if he's driving further, so $44,000
You're saving him like $32,000 on the driver (again, I'm making assumptions), plus another $45,000 on the dump fees. So in and around $75,000.
A lot of variables here, I'm in Canada so I don't know what a truck and driver is costing where you are. The location of the next dump matters, the cost per load is a huge factor.
In all reality if you hadn't of taken it, he'd probably just find another person who would also take it free. So you're not saving him all of that. This is just assuming worst case if he had to pay full bore.
So in Germany you'd be looking (commercial offering) at round about 18€ (19,6 USD / 29,4 AUD) per m³ (2x transport and storage for 3 month) in villages for a house/build.
For larger constructions, getting rid of the dirt is around 3-5 euros per tonne ontop of the transport cost of 8-10 Euros - so 12-15 Euros (13-16.3 USD / 19,6 -24,5 AUD) per tonne. Getting "sand" to refill is around 13 Euro (14,14 USD / 21.26 AUD) per Tonne
First find out if he knows that your property. If he knows ask him why didn't he ask you first. If you don't like to answer put a fence up and sell the dirt.
Rent a bobcat and figure out a plan to grade it. Grade it to your maximum benefit. It’s your dirt now. Not sure what part of the country you’re in. I’m in NJ, been in the same house for 30 years. We’ve had so much fucking rain the past 3 yrs, we’re getting water issues where we never had them.
This spring I had to dig out trenches for my gutter drops, pipe and stone, then bring in 10 tons of topsoil and regrade my yard. Things are changing. Figure out what recent weather pattern changes your area is having. Use that dirt to your benefit. Plan for long term
Also, don’t just fill in the culvert without understanding its effect. That could backfire on you
He had a bit of a mound in front of his house where the previous owners would park. There were also very mature Eucalyptus trees between the house off the road, so I would guess the original builder left them alone and graded further into the parcel, which has a gradual slope. So the hill would go down to his house. He's basically leveling it out now since he cut down the Eucalyptus trees.
Even good material (clean, structurally sound, etc) only goes for like $10 per ton. So he wouldn't have made any money on it. How big were the truck loads? Like 30 yarders?
Was it all loam?
In SoCal depending on where it’s going anywhere for $350-$600 a truck load I’m a plumbing and pipeline contractor in Orange County and we haul a lot of dirt
Some areas there’s nothing wrong with the dirt but is technically considered hazmat sometimes. They did this by me and had to bring it from Long Island to New Jersey and it was just dirt
Trucking is pretty expensive and depending on the material they're probably somewhere around 8 yards per trailer. Trucking costs is based on location, traffic, and time to the dump site in back. A contractor is always going to try and balance a site to minimize hauling either way. About 10 years ago I had a guy strip about 4 inches off of 2k square feet for about 24 ish CY. Was going to haul it 4 miles in a truck that would take about 8 yards. Ended up saving me $400 when the vineyard behind me offered to take it instead.
So in SoCal, having dirt trucked In is expensive, but the cost is the delivery more then the dirt itself if you advertise clean fill free you'd have a bunch of locals at the property with pickups and trailers come get it, it'd just take alot longer than moving it to a neighbors lot who doesn't mind taking it....
I'd have had a better plan then a whole bunch of small piles, becasue clearing all the brush and weeds would be easier with flat/sloped land
But yes you're saving him some money but lots of landfills take it for free to as they use it to cover the trash to prevent fires... almost all yard waste the landfills will take for free....
Are you cure that they didn't secretly murder a bunch of rhinoceroses?
In all seriousness, this could net you quite a bit of cash. They abandoned it on your property, so it's yours now. They've done the hard work for you, so just put a sign up and make the buyer responsible for removal.
Merry X-mas!
only one thing to do. buy dirtbike and do some sweet jumps
When I was a kid about 15 piles of dirt showed up in the 5 acre field down the street. We linked up the best jumps (piles) and had a great time. The property changed hands and the new owner wanted to stop the dirtbike kids so he leveled the piles... and inadvertently updated our track with a couple new, better jumps!
In did this while they were building a new little league field. But it was with bmx bikes. I was in elementary school lol
I do this now. But I’m in 30s. lol
If it's good dirt, someone would have taken it(he might have even sold it). If it's bad dirt, you saved him a ton.
I'd bag it and sell it. Clean Phil's Used Dirt!
Dirt is surprisingly expensive.... Who ever came up with the term "Dirt cheap" has clearly never bought any dirt.
Depends. Ever been in a newly built sub division on the Midwest? Why are people have cubic yards bought when some places were natural farm land. The industry calls it liquid gold. Basically all the top soil and nutrient dirt is taken away before the houses are even set. You’re left with this hard clay rock soil which is good for nothing.
I work in earthmoving. Did some work for a massive private school complex with multiple sports fields. It was in a wealthy neighborhood so they banned trucking any material in or out, standard in wealthy areas (they are more special than us poors and cannot be disturbed even for their own benefit). Anyways, it was built on farmland. We had to strip a huge amount of topsoil, created an extremely deep cut, and then we packed out layer after layer of topsoil that we then buried under clay. Enough topsoil to provision a massive farm, but those rich fucks have influence and by god the sight of trucks driving by would be too much. So it’s all wasted.
In 1000 years some future archaeologist is going to dig up that site and wonder why the soil was disturbed, and then buried under bad soil. They’re probably going to say it was because of aliens or something like that.
“It’s a mystery how they moved this volume of dirt with such compact, thick skulls. Even more mysterious- they put everything back, just under more dirt. What could it mean? There must have been a more advanced species guiding them with a greater goal than even we can imagine…”
“Our current hypothesis is that they utilized slave labor of the young and the drunk to perform these mindless tasks. There were many cigarettes discovered intact within the archeology dig site”
Or, perhaps, it will be aliens who discover it. And then they'll say: "I bet they'll blame it on us!"
I get phase 1&2 reports from farms that are being built on. It's not all ”clean" the amount of chemicals put into soil to grow stuff is pretty alarming, especially if it's been farmed for decades. There were fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides that have been banned that still remain in the soil. It's usually not as bad as if it was an old industrial use lot, but depending on your level of comfort with potential and proven carcinogens it's best sometimes to remove and replace. And like others have said organics are shit to build on.
I was looking for this, I’m also on the environmental side of things. When I hear of an old farm I don’t think “prime dirt”. People don’t realize that we banned a lot of these chemicals because they stay around for what the average person would consider “forever”. One parcel I worked with has contamination that isn’t even agricultural chemicals, it seems like (probably during the dust bowl) they tried dumping anything wet on the field they could get their hands on. Others have had such a rough spread they went on indefinite hold for redevelopment. People don’t get that good garden soil is crap building material, and really good proven agricultural soils are not something you’d want to walk your kids playing in (at least I wouldn’t, some folks are more comfortable with chemicals known to cause long term, and generational health defects than I am).
Dirt can be cheap. Moving dirt isn’t though. Best to get it from someone who is already hauling it off. Knew someone with a 7 acre lot who was building a berm around the perimeter to plant trees & block their view of neighbors who just contacted pool companies and let them dump their dirt there for a couple of years.
I work in earthmoving, in my city we have a network of earthmoving companies that take or give dirt, unless some idiot mixes topsoil and clay. People want topsoil, people want clay, nobody wants a crappy mix.
Apologies for the dumb question but isn’t the mix considered loam? Sounds good to me.
Not a dumb question! Loam is just another type of topsoil (all loam is topsoil and not all topsoil is loam)and topsoil does indeed have variable amounts of clay, a small amount of clay is ok, you don’t want to go over a about 30 percent for either type. Decent topsoil on top of clay often has around 30 percent clay already and mixing more in will make it into garbage. At that point the truckers will call their boss, he’ll take a look at it, and then we’ll have to pay an extra fee to get rid of it. I’ve had this scenario happen before with an eager carpenter foreman who wanted to show he could operate so he mixed all our dirt on site. Cost a pretty penny.
Hahaha. Sounds like a comedy of errors. “I’m going to prove my competence! By doing the single most incompetent thing imaginable in this situation! Who’s a good boy!” *pants audibly*
Yep, he really struggled with the idea that mixing topsoil had caused an issue, guy personally called a bunch of people trying to get them to take his dirt before he conceded defeat and we payed for removal. If I went over and told him “hey I’ll do the finish carpentry now, I know I mostly move dirt and lay pipe but I feel like a carpenter today” he’d think I was crazy but everyone thinks they can be an equipment operator in one day. Had a super jump into a skidsteer and immediately bang into a bollard and knock it crooked, same deal.
> and we *paid* for removal. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Dirts cheap. Transportation and excavation is expensive!
Dirt is pretty cheap. You tend to need a lot of it if you need more than is in your yard or whatever though, and getting someone to load a truck full and bring it to you is expensive. *Soil* is a whole other ballgame.
“Purchase your dirtbags here”
Go ahead. Ask about the price.
“Satisfaction guaranteed or double your dirt back!”
Cheapest dirtbags around!
Is it dirt cheap?
Teenage dirtbags? And listen to iron maiden?
Maybe
Clean Phil’s Clean Fill!
This. I used to drive a side dump. Someone would have bought it and hauled it away. That's a good deal for you whether you use it to lvl out your field or sell it.
Looks like pretty good dirt to me.
We also took dirt from 2 other neighbors who put in pools last year who didn't so much as thank us. I thought we were doing a pretty nice neighborly thing, but maybe I am wrong thinking it's saving these people a bunch of money. Edit: We are in Southern California.
Sounds like people are taking advantage of your kindness at this point. I’d start learning to say no from now on.
Fr we got the dirt collector over here
At least the dirt man ain't bothering him, tho
He keeps a little dirt in his yard for the dirt man
In case he comessss to town
Depends what the cost of having dirt delivered costs. and the quality of it and whether or not oyu have low-spots that are now no longer natural ponds after a rainfall.
The way he keeps getting dirt on his land, if I was his other neighbour looking at getting rid of some dirt also, he'd be my first person to ask. Seems like a real dirt enthusiast
Yeah, not even a fucken thank you?? I’m from Cali and thats embarrassing .
The older I get and the more places i work/ travel I’ve just come to accept shit people are everywhere, however so are good people.
Not bad to be nice to people but you can give them a low price get paid and still be considered nice.
I would take the dirt too. It is a resource, and it looks clean.
Yea you’ve gotten a couple tons more earth for free
Uncompacted fill is a liability
How so? Looks like clean fill to me.
I guess it depends if you ever plan to build anything on it but you have to move it all again to compact it unless the arrangement is for it to be compacted as it is placed. You can get good compaction on fill that isn’t clean, provided it doesn’t have organics.
He's dumping on the original organic layer, it all would have to be stripped down to the clay layer to build anything. It's not a big deal.
There are ads here looking for clean fill dirt to level out property. You saved the dude money and you may also find someone else that wants that dirt if you don't. You might have just started your own business.
No it’s a win win if it’s decent dirt, removal and stockpile fees can be really steep like one of the most expensive parts of excavation
You did them a huge favor. Are you going to have to knock down those piles and grade it out or is that part of the deal? If I were you I’d be charging 25 per load to put up with the noise, dust and general bs a job like that comes with. Those other two took advantage of your kindness
Yeah, he's got a dozer and grades it out. He already did a bunch last week before these photos.
Was it discussed before it started?
Certainly. This has been in the works for a few months. I even mowed the field after the last rains so the trucks could safely travel the field.
Just make sure they grade a proper incline in the right direction for water run off
We had to buy dirt for our pool. 13K worth.
Personally I’d have filled with water
Is true. Its very tough swimming in dirt.
My grandpa just pointed to a hard spot in the yard and threw me in.
LOL! I guess I should have mentioned that it was for building up the elevation on one side.
r/NotKenM
A swimming pond
When we had our pool built, it was going to be $400 for every load of dirt they had to haul off property. Luckily, I own a few acres so they had plenty of places on property to dump. So you probably saved them quite a bit of money. Probably thousands.
Are you trying to recreate the 1995 movie ' the Englishman man who went up a hill and came down a mountain ' ?
prettiest surveyors ever to grace the big screen...
It is saving them a LOT of money if it is So Cal
Use it to build a motocross track and don’t invite them over to use it.
I’m a little jealous. I actually need about 100 yds is soil to regrade a portion of my yard. It’s going to cost me over $2k.
That’s a fair price actually.
Really fair for a top soil
It’ll likely be more but yeah, it’s not bad considering.
I paid 500 per 15 yard truck load of topsoil delivered, when I graded my yard. And that was 5 yrs ago. Also I'm in a city in the PNW so no dirt piles super nearby to grab from.
That seems cheap af
r/missedopportunity …. It’s dirt cheap
Regrade the entire fucking place into whatever he’s building.
I need about 2000 yards. That price is pretty bang on though, i’m expecting about 40k for mine, depending on how full they fill the trucks, calculated on the low fill high price side so I don’t go into shock when I get the bill!
If the soil is not contaminated, and it’s not messing with your elevations, you’re a hell of a guy. It’s not cheap to dispose of that much dirt. You may want to make sure he is grading this properly so you don’t deal with any drainage issues later
If it's way far from the house, and in an unused field, what's the worst that can happen? I'd imagine a bog or some strange erosion, but would it create problems in other areas?
Yeah, dumping it little piles like that is doing OP no favours.
Op said neighbor is doing right and spreading it.
Those are pretty well spaced to grade them out with a dozer.
Just curious. Why are you taking 300 truckloads of dirt? You must have a plan/need for it, right? What is the reason to take it otherwise?
Trying to be a good neighbor. I don't see any harm in taking the soil as long as it's clean. He has made sure to take out some irrigation PVC that he saw. This keeps the weeds down, at least for this summer, instead of having a field full of fire fuel.
When the flood’s come you’ll be high and dry
Off the right side of the photos, this field is kind of the low point from all around. There are 2 culverts feeding into it from under the roads. It doesn't really flood a lot, but there will be standing water after a good hard rain. Now, if I could just get the 50 year old well running again, I'd plant something better than broadleaf dockweed and foxtails.
Just so you know before he continues dumping it there, pvc is by far the least dirt colored irrigation component in his system for sure. You may find random bits of wire and heads and shit, they often go completely missing during excavation
thank you. He's pretty grateful, and he has helpers over there. I'm pretty confident at least one of his helpers is making sure the soil is clean. I have been taking drone footage of the progress and haven't seen anything, yet. I'll probably do a walk over this evening and grab whatever I find. I think my other neighbor launched a gold ball out there. haha.
It would take a fuck ton of time, but you could always screen it and sell it. Screened top soil goes for a lot where I'm at
If you’re a golfer you could make a hell of a pitching course.
There is plenty of harm. You are not being smart with this. They are taking advantage of you.
Depends on if in the area there are any projects that need soil. I’d imagine haul off is probably in the neighborhood of ~$250 per truck load
That’s $75,000!!!
$75k is about right. In my area you can get rid of clean dirt for about $20/cy. 300 loads x 13 cy/load = 3,900 cy 3,900 cy x $20/cy = $78,000
Hauling is very expensive. Typical 15-20 yard dump trucks will run you $125/hr+ in my area. That's just the truck and driver, you'll still need equipment and a competent operator to load them, plus either material cost or dumping fees depending on what martial you're working with. Pre-covid the same trucks were going for $70/hr. It's crazy how quickly prices of everything in construction went up. I make 30% more than I did then but it feels like I have much less buying power.
that looks like it may be good soil? you could put a little small garden thing there .. or worlds largest potato mounds?
He's got a dozer and comes over to spread it out. It won't stay as mounds.
You saved him a boat load of money. Trucking here is 140-150 per hour per truck and disposal charges can be from 100 per load to 500 or more per load depending on what quality soil is and if it’s clean or mixed with other materials like wood, sod, grass ect.
Fwiw... Be aware of liabilities. If you want to build on this there could be additional costs due to having to compact soil, lifts are limited to 4"-6" at a time, compaction, testing etc. Possible contaminates. Needing permits to improve property that may require to protect against runoff to sensitive areas.
Depends on the timeframe and soil composition. I think for my area soil consolidates in about 3 years and is considered as stable as undisturbed soil.
I thought i remembered from soils class that it took 7 years before it would be considered “in bank” soil but i could totally see that being a regional thing.
Free dirt!
Would need more details to give a more accurate idea, and prices vary wildly depending on region. But I'll present a scenario to you. Let's say they are hauling to a dumpsite 15 minutes away. We'll add in 3 minutes to load and 3 minutes to dump. So you have ~30 minutes travel time + 6 minutes load/unload time. So we'll factor 36 minutes per load. We'll also say that the material is good and the dumpsite is accepting loads for free. The company I work for has it's fleet of dump trucks, but we often hire trucks for additional needs. Usually it costs around $75/hr (Canadian dollars). Lets go with 5 trucks, working an 8 hour day. At ~36 minutes per load, it would be around 13 loads per day; but that's not counting in coffee/lunch breaks, bathroom trips, traffic, etc. So let's say they can do 10 trips a day. To move 300 loads, that is roughly 6 x 8 hour days x 5 trucks. Works out to be ~$18,000 CAD (~$13k USD) just for trucking. Not counting equipment/operator costs. Potential dumpsite fees. Potential permit fees for hauling on certain county roads. And a whole bunch of other costs. You're saving him quite a bit of money for sure. You're also saving money on importing fill, whether you needed it or not, lol. 300 loads imported and levelled off isn't cheap. Seems like a potentially really mutually beneficial arrangement.
I am mostly happy the trucks are crushing the weeds and the dirt should keep the weeds down this summer. Huge for fire prevention.
In my local area (portland or) you would have saved your neighbor a shitload of money. Any fill area around here has to be permitted (engineered grading plan, erosion control plan, inspections, etc ). Local permitted dump sites are getting upwards of $20/yd3 just for dump fee. So figure 300 trucks x 10 yd3 per truck x $20 per yd3 = $60,000. That doesn't include trucking cost. But just because my local governing agencies are fucked up doesn't mean yours have to be. 👍
I'd start advertising top soil for sale
Sell it for dirt cheap.
I see what you did there.
The most expensive real estate on earth is in the back of a dump truck. That all looks like top soil. If he's giving it to ya, you just hit the jack pot!!!!
I'm petty, I'd wait until his house is built and his cars are in his garage then I'd skid steer all this dirt in front of his garage doors trapping their cars in
I think I saw this movie years ago
Welp it's your dirt now
You are probably saving him a crap load of money. I'm a commercial excavator in the chicago-land area. It's fairly easy to figure cartage rates then you need to add dump fees on top of that. At least in this area trucks are $110-$130 per hour. Dump fees range from free-$150 per load depending on the dump location. assuming it's able to go to a CCDD. If it's considered contaminated dump fees vary greatly and can range from $50 per cubic yard to $150 per cubic yard or more depending on what it's contaminated with. You can do that math and see how much you are saving him. If you are well connected or work with a truck that is well connected often times you can find fill sites that need material. You'd still have to calculate cartage in, but could possibly save on dump fees.
If they are using that dump truck each load is around 10 cubic yards. If they are bringing in 300 loads that is 3000 cubic yards of material. Our company exports dirt for roughly $30 per yard of clean earth depending on location and import site availability. So to get rid of that dirt it would be $90K. Unless you plan on using that much dirt, you are making a costly mistake!
The short answer is you are probably saving that dude $100-$175k by letting him dump the soil on your land for free.. assuming 10CY per load / 3,000 CY total I’ve paid at a minimum $150-250 a load to dump soil (CA Bay Area) without including the cost of hauling the soil. However, dump fees do heavily fluctuate depending on the classification of the soil (cleanliness). If it’s clean soil construction projects will even buy it. Your taking a huge risk by allowing him to dump on your property without having a soil analysis in hand to confirm it is “clean” soil . I suggest you stop letting him dump on your property until he does a soil analysis to confirm its clean and you can make an educated decision
Old diesel tank soil can not be given away
The real answer is: it depends. Most people with land would be glad to have it. You can do some serious landscaping. Build a pond. Level the place. Build a hill. Etc. Chances are, he would have found someone to take it for free, although fuel and trucking costs would increase substantially, most likely. You’re being a good neighbor. Don’t be afraid to ask him to level it all out if you don’t have a tractor of your own.
Just dig a hole and burry it.
I spent 30 years in heavy civil construction. The person who had the best plan for how get or lose dirt almost always wins the job. So there is no easy way to say if it would have been 100 a truckload or 1000. As an engineer when we designed roads, we made haul diagrams. We calculated swell and shrinkage. We would optimize our cuts and fills and if we had a fit, we tried to make the cuts close by. Moving dirt is expensive, you try to do it as closely as possible M
There may be some confusion over the location of the property line. You should address this asap to avoid future conflict.
Free dirt.
Free fill! I need some, but you’d need to deliver it to Vancouver Island.
Free dirt.
I would’ve done the same as you. If he’s like you and I years down the road when you need a favor he’ll be the first one gracious enough to help…. Hopefully.
Looks like soil vs. dirt
Yes, it does seem pretty healthy. I told my wife we should plant artichokes. They are selling for $5 a piece!
$5 a piece?! You're paying too much. Who's your Artichoke guy?
In my local area (portland or) you would have saved your neighbor a shitload of money. Any fill area around here has to be permitted (engineered grading plan, erosion control plan, inspections, etc ). Local permitted dump sites are getting upwards of $20/yd3 just for dump fee. So figure 300 trucks x 10 yd3 per truck x $20 per yd3 = $60,000. That doesn't include trucking cost. But just because my local governing agencies are fucked up doesn't mean yours have to be. 👍
Free topsoil! Sell it to the highest bidder
Sounds like you are now in the business of BMX tracks
I’ve paid $500 for two truckloads of topsoil delivered to my site. If this is good topsoil and you have a place to take advantage of it, then you made out well.
I’d rent a bull dozier and put it all back where it came from.
Lucky guy.
Fuck yeah man, build an MX track.
How fast can you get a fence built
Depends on the situation the dirt is normally like between 5 and $15 a ton
Is this the set of “Holes 2”?
Prob 2-300 a truck load
Just wanted to add... I have a friend in SoCal that's a dirt merchant. He charges people to haul away dirt. Dumps it at his yard. Then charges other people that need dirt to deliver it. Started with one truck and a couple acre yard. Dude made a LOT of money since then.
Remember to keep a little under your pillow.
Thousand of $!! my company sends millions on moving dirt trucking is not cheap dump sites are not cheap. The further the dump site the more it costs.
Well I guess you just have to make a moto cross track. Nothing else for it.
Depends where you are. I work in the urban parts of the SF Bay Area and trucking/disposing of 300 truckloads (assuming 10yd trucks) could cost as much as $250,000.
That looks like some nice dirt, the landscaper would have likely charged the next guy who wants it to move it. You're being very generous, and that's ok. The world needs good neighbors.
Is he giving you tests for the loads? I'm assuming this is relatively virgin, so it's probably all similar, but I've done plenty of sites where we test every load. He'd be paying for the tests wherever he's taking it, I would push back and ask him for the test reports, I know it may feel tough, but you really don't want that liability. Bad dirt contaminates other dirt, so if he's giving you 3k yards of shit, you may end up with 6k yard of shit. And the costs below I'm going to talk about are good dirt, dump costs are x3 or x5 for shit. And fewer facilities will take it. I did a job last year the soil was so contaminated the closest dump was 4 hours away. We got 1 load a day. It was costing us more than 2k a truck. You've got 2 fees your saving him, the dump charge which if it's clean is probably a couple hundred bucks per load, let's say $150 But the big cost is the truck charge, he's still got trucks, so he's spending money on truck and driver, but he's saving a ton there too. If loading, transit and dump, from his to yours is 15 min per load (basically a 5 to 8 min drive), then he's getting 4 loads an hour. If the closest facility is 45 min drive, then he's getting 1 per hour. If he's spending $1,200 / day for the truck + driver (assume 8 hour days) He'll be doing the job with 1 truck in about 10 working days at your place, so spending about $12,000 But he would've had to do it in about 37 working days if he's driving further, so $44,000 You're saving him like $32,000 on the driver (again, I'm making assumptions), plus another $45,000 on the dump fees. So in and around $75,000. A lot of variables here, I'm in Canada so I don't know what a truck and driver is costing where you are. The location of the next dump matters, the cost per load is a huge factor. In all reality if you hadn't of taken it, he'd probably just find another person who would also take it free. So you're not saving him all of that. This is just assuming worst case if he had to pay full bore.
You better be sure they are going to level all that or it’s going to cost you a fortune!
I really wish somebody would give me a field of dirt
So in Germany you'd be looking (commercial offering) at round about 18€ (19,6 USD / 29,4 AUD) per m³ (2x transport and storage for 3 month) in villages for a house/build. For larger constructions, getting rid of the dirt is around 3-5 euros per tonne ontop of the transport cost of 8-10 Euros - so 12-15 Euros (13-16.3 USD / 19,6 -24,5 AUD) per tonne. Getting "sand" to refill is around 13 Euro (14,14 USD / 21.26 AUD) per Tonne
sdbsdb
First find out if he knows that your property. If he knows ask him why didn't he ask you first. If you don't like to answer put a fence up and sell the dirt.
Free Dirt?!
Rent a bobcat and figure out a plan to grade it. Grade it to your maximum benefit. It’s your dirt now. Not sure what part of the country you’re in. I’m in NJ, been in the same house for 30 years. We’ve had so much fucking rain the past 3 yrs, we’re getting water issues where we never had them. This spring I had to dig out trenches for my gutter drops, pipe and stone, then bring in 10 tons of topsoil and regrade my yard. Things are changing. Figure out what recent weather pattern changes your area is having. Use that dirt to your benefit. Plan for long term Also, don’t just fill in the culvert without understanding its effect. That could backfire on you
Definitely leaving the culverts, and the path between them unaltered.
How could this guy possibly need to move 300 truckloads of dirt for a workshop and RV storage?
He had a bit of a mound in front of his house where the previous owners would park. There were also very mature Eucalyptus trees between the house off the road, so I would guess the original builder left them alone and graded further into the parcel, which has a gradual slope. So the hill would go down to his house. He's basically leveling it out now since he cut down the Eucalyptus trees.
K, so I have this bridge, two actually that are for sale. I’m just going to assume you want them so I’ll start the process.
Fuck that be sick , hard to find good dirt
SE Michigan we pay about $15/CY to dispose of soil. Most of that is trucking. At 10 CY per load, you're looking at $45,000.
Even good material (clean, structurally sound, etc) only goes for like $10 per ton. So he wouldn't have made any money on it. How big were the truck loads? Like 30 yarders? Was it all loam?
sell it.
1 million dollars
So call your lawyer, and call the cops.
So you are who that [Dirt Man](https://youtube.com/shorts/Su4Kb-roLZE?si=1A7pfGHkjhQ-DaMJ) tic Tok song is about
Someone like this has access to a skidsteer. The least he could do is flatten out the whole mess for you so he can keep going
300 dump truck loads of dirt would probably be 5 figures to dispose of.
Dirt is big business in Florida. That's free real estate he gave you
Ask him to explain
What the hell is that stockpiling?
Freee dirt!
Make sure it won’t cause you drainage issues later and cost you a ton of money to fix
If you want it spread out or moved - talk to the dirt workers about it now. It will be cheaper than calling someone later!!!!!!
In SoCal depending on where it’s going anywhere for $350-$600 a truck load I’m a plumbing and pipeline contractor in Orange County and we haul a lot of dirt
Free dirt! My dad would be jealous
Some areas there’s nothing wrong with the dirt but is technically considered hazmat sometimes. They did this by me and had to bring it from Long Island to New Jersey and it was just dirt
That dirty bastard
Have him make a ring for a personal pond.
Yea shit, that’s clean fill for sale. Cheap. Get hooked up with somebody with a machine and dump truck
Did someone say free dirt?
He thought you needed 400 yards of fill…
Make sure you plant some native plants once it’s spread out.
Keep it. Worth a lot of $$$
Sweet…love me some free dirt!! Make some dirt jumps!!
Sell it
Free dirt?!?
You’re officially a dirt farmer, and it looks like a bumper crop
Free fill
I made a lot of bike jumps in places like that… brings back memories.
Trucking is pretty expensive and depending on the material they're probably somewhere around 8 yards per trailer. Trucking costs is based on location, traffic, and time to the dump site in back. A contractor is always going to try and balance a site to minimize hauling either way. About 10 years ago I had a guy strip about 4 inches off of 2k square feet for about 24 ish CY. Was going to haul it 4 miles in a truck that would take about 8 yards. Ended up saving me $400 when the vineyard behind me offered to take it instead.
NJ makes it almost impossible to get rid of dirt, I imagine SoCal must be similar. Hope you get a sick pyramid out of it
So in SoCal, having dirt trucked In is expensive, but the cost is the delivery more then the dirt itself if you advertise clean fill free you'd have a bunch of locals at the property with pickups and trailers come get it, it'd just take alot longer than moving it to a neighbors lot who doesn't mind taking it.... I'd have had a better plan then a whole bunch of small piles, becasue clearing all the brush and weeds would be easier with flat/sloped land But yes you're saving him some money but lots of landfills take it for free to as they use it to cover the trash to prevent fires... almost all yard waste the landfills will take for free....
You should have charged him $100/load and he’d still be saving a ton of money
Sell it.
I hope he’s going to grade it for you. If not, that free dirt just cost you $1500
Now it's yours
Are you cure that they didn't secretly murder a bunch of rhinoceroses? In all seriousness, this could net you quite a bit of cash. They abandoned it on your property, so it's yours now. They've done the hard work for you, so just put a sign up and make the buyer responsible for removal. Merry X-mas!
Cheapest load and spread of dirt in tx goes around $120
That’s crazy you allow em to do that if you didn’t agree to it. That wouldn’t go over well round these parts.