Dirt: One expensive variable

April 10, 2010

It should be noted that if one is building on an "infill" lot, one should account for dirt to be imported and exported. Please read and repeat the previous sentence until it sinks in.
There has been a lot of dirt thrown around between the architect and the builder and the excavator regarding the basement, grade, floor joices, etc (I am going to save that post for after this whole thing is over). The implications this had was vast and varied.

Regardless of the 'blame', let's just do some elementary problem solving. If you have an area of 30'w x 40'l x 13'd, and the lot is 1650sf, how much dirt do you think the lot can hold and how much do you think has to be taken away? Also don't forget to account for the fluff factor in which compacted dirt gets released from the earth and has a bit of air in it.

First of all, this isn't even anything i considered. And I didn't find out about it until the night before we started excavating. Then I didn't realize the cost that would be incurred until the invoices rolled in. [read here: pissed]. If someone gives me a bid to do a job and they don't account for 6k worth of dirt to be hauled away- not my problem. The excavator indicated a number on site of $30/load- there were 103 loads. First of all, that is a crap ton of dirt and secondly shouldn't someone have raised a red flag on getting dirt exported? hmmm. I wont get into the rounds and rounds of debate and fighting over estimates vs. invoices. Let's just say it didn't end pretty, the project got backed up two weeks while we looked for someone else to do the backfill. Oh yeah, the backfill.

So, it just so happens that our recommendation to do the backfill and sewer work (now that we've fired the original guy that was going to do it) is the 'dirt' guy. Let me just say that my experience with the 'dirt' world has been dirty- enough said. The lot got backfilled, but not before we had to IMPORT(and pay for) dirt to come back in. Do you see a racket here?

It got done and we have moved on, but not without a handful of lessons.

  • Get all bids in writing and sometimes blood (even if it is the guy thats been digging your basements for 30 years
  • Get a foundation and flooring detail from your architect
  • Make sure your contractor gets change orders acknowledged and signed before work is incurred
  • Trust no one, get it all in writing.
  • If red flags are going off for you, STOP everything and analyze until you are clear about the implications

 

Budget overrun: 6,500