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[w3526602]

So it costs extra to get the builders/labourers to clear the rubbish.

Hi Alan,

My builder is Irish ... with a degree. His "side kick" when we met them, seems to have become a full time partner. £150 per day, each. Nothing is too much trouble, frequent "freebies" appearing unrequested, they tidy up behind themselves, but getting rid of stuff is down to me ... provided I'm up to it.

About this big pile of excavated "spoil".  Is it top-soil? It ain't sub-soil, but it doesn't look the most "fertile", but hey, what do I know? Reminds me about the two farmers arguing about which was the better of two bales of hay.   If the horse doesn't eat either, it's going to starve.

Doh! I did all my initial calculations/comparisons, based on the cost of a GRAB LORRY verses a SKIP. The grab lorry was too expensive, and decided to use the 3ft x 3ft x3ft HIPPO bag, which came free with the last bag I bought, but will cost about £140 to be craned away, but includes another free replacement bag. Cheaper than a skip, if you only need ONE "yard" taken away., and cheaper than a GRAB LORRY, regardless.

Oops! I forgot,    , to compare HIPPO bags with a traditional 6 yard skip, at a bit over £200 with 14 days to fill it. I'll let you do the Math. I reckon it took me two 1-hour stints to fill the HIPPO bag, so I reckon I can fill the skip in under a week, "hands in pockets, whistling". If there is room, it would make sense to empty the HIPPO bag into the skip, but as the skip will need to be some distance from the bag, that will entail walking ... which hurts.

Wouldn't be nice if skips had a socket at each end, so they could be lifted (and pushed sideways) with A FARM Hi-lift jack.

A bloke working from the quarry, at the end of my lane, in the Swansea Valley, made a "skip" out of a old central heating oil tank ... used his HI-AB to lift it onto his lorry, and again, to tip it out, in the corner of the quarry.

So, tomorrow, SWMBO will be ordering a regular skip. I'll let the driver decide where to put it.

Quick mental doodle. How long will it take you to fill a 3 gallon builders bucket with recently disturbed soil? Three gallons of water weigh 30 pounds, so let's assume that 3 gallons of soil weigh 50 pounds. That's 45 bucketsfull to the ton., which at 5 minutes to fill and empty each bucket, will take 225 minutes, or about 3 hours 45 minutes.  FIVE minutes? I must be slacking.

Perhaps I should buy Barbara a drum, to keep me in time, like they did on slave galleys? Knowing Barbara, she will want to go water skiing. 

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[Wittsend]

Back in the day when we were renovating out 1st house we ordered up skips with a drop down front.

You could barrow in many loads and build the waste up at the back, before closing the door and using a scaffold plank as a ramp.

[w3526602]

Back in the day when we were renovating out 1st house ....

Hi Alan,

Similarly with us in South Wales.

I knew where to go, and who to ask. A bus driver laid bricks for my 2400 sq.ft, 3 storey edifice. My electrician was an Instructor for the apprentices at the Ford Axle plant, and my plasterer was a fireman who was only on duty four days a week. The day I was ill, my mate brought his wife along to mix cement. The Plant Hire firm let me self-drive a tracked excavator, and a 4-ton tracked dump truck. My mate brought his wife to mix cement. I could just walk into the LA Planning Office, and talk to the Head Honcho. First name terms. Similarly with the Local Land Registry. Three cement mixer lorries queuing up in the lane ... gang of unemployed teenagers ready to hump cement into the foundations _I bought them each a new wheel barrow, and I stood there handing out ten pound notes like confetti. One hundred double 13 amp sockets. Getting thirty-two 32ft wide, by 15ft high roof trusses up on top of the brick work, stopped me for a couple of days. I told a couple of riggers that I would pay them £100 each. They smiled, but not for long. Probably the quickest, and hardest £100 they ever earned. It took them all afternoon. My overdraft hit £55,000 ... and I didn't have a job. A bank manager called, he said to make  sure that I hadn't bought a Mercedes. He seemed happy.

I'm lost in Milton Keynes ... way to civilised.

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[w3526602]

Hi,

An update for anybody who is still reading this ...

Well, I filled my first HIPPO bag ... 1ton/1cu.yard. Probably two X 2 hour stints. Its going to cost me £145 to have it taken away. Easy process, but only worth it if the job can be done with just one bag. There is a bigger bag, 1.5ton/1.5cu.yds.

However, when I clicked on HIPPO this morning, I found that they are now doing 6 yard skips at £232.

Dillema! Do I get the bag taken away, and then order a skip?

Or, do I order a skip, and hope the pile that is left will all fit into, and leave room for what's already in the bag.  £145 saved for fours hours graft. Seems a no brainer.

Of course, if I need a second metal skip, I'm guessing that the bag will go easily into the second.

That's settled then, I won't return the plastic slip until I can see what's happening .... save the "domestic" for a later day. 

Watch this space!

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[Genem]

Noting that sand, as a rough equivalent to the debris you are moving, has a density roughly 2 or even 2.5 times that of water. 1 cubic metre of water, slightly more than 1 cubic yard, weights 1000Kg, one metric tonne, slightly less than 1 "imperial" Ton. 

I suspect that if you've filled it brim-full with "spoil" your "1 ton" bag weighs at least twice that...

Well done on shifting it.  ....and recall the spoof H&S poster I saw once " Save your back, get someone else to lift it".   

[w3526602]

Hi,

The skip is virtually FULL, and the Jiffy bag is now half empty. Barbara has just phoned for the skip to be taken away.

No doubt some neighbours would appreciate some of the small amount of free top-soil, and carry it away. If not, I've bought half a dozen rubble sacks, and will use the Freelander to carry it to the amenity centre.

Branches and roots have been sawn into manageable lengths (a few still need to be sawn) and chucked into the then empty rubble sacks, and carted to the Amenity Centre ... unless anybody wants them   I'm happy to saw them into 12" lengths.

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