DIY Grading & Footers?

[rarebreed]

Who here has done their own grading and dug the footers? I am running into some issues with the garage I am going to have built. The one contractor can meet my budget for the structure as long as I do the grading and dig the footers. He says his guy would charge him $3 grand to do the work, but I think that's outrageous. I have access to the needed equipment, but my question is how hard is this to do? The ground is relatively flat with a slight slope and will also require the drainage between the site and the neighbors property to redone to go back behind where the garage will set.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

 

[blkhonda1991]

no idea how hard it would be for you but for me me it would be worth the 3k...i cant even get the grade level for my deck stairs

 

[buddyboy]

how can you say that 3k is outrageous if you don't even know how to do the job.

no offense, but I know what it takes to mow my lawn, so if someone wants to charge me $100 to mow my lawn I can easily figure out if it's outrageous or not.

3 grand is a lot of money, so is 50 grand for an excavator and 5 grand for a trailer and 30 grand for truck big enough to pull it... not to mention the guy that bought all that stuff didn't learn how to do it last week by watching youtube

 

[rarebreed]

Not trying to sound cheap here, but it's only a 20x20 pad with footers and not a lot of grading needed.

 

[homebuilt burner]

I am building a 14 x 26 and I helped with the grading and footings ground prep. Including the trench for the electrical, water, and natural gas, the excavating and three loads of gravel ran me $1400. I did alot of the hand work. So by that measure 3k doesn't sound outrageous.

If you want to do this yourself, you should meet with your contractor and set grade first so you know how much fill/gravel you will need. Then strip all the grass and vegitation away. Then start digging for footings. Then compact everything in 6" lifts for your footings and slab pour. Then have your contractor over to check your work and redo anything that he doesn't like.

 

[buddyboy]

first, mark your corner posts
second, strip off all your top soil and put it in a big pile, (not in the way of concrete trucks)
3rd, find out how wide and deep your footers need to be
4th, ask the guy putting in the footers how wide he wants the trench
5th dig it, put that dirt in a different pile
6th after footers poured, trench drain installed, and block laid backfill with stone
7th spread soil and make pretty

plant some grass

 

[jpcjguy]

I am contemplating this also for a 32x30. Friend down the street just picked up a bobcat mini-excavator I have access to. Being in VA the frost line is not that deep - 18" and this is what the county inspector said regarding footings: 16" width is fine, minimum thickness as per code is 6”, however, never have seen any less than 8”.

 

[Falcon67]

It's really an area specific answer. If it was here, no issue - they scrape the Mesquite bushes off the site, put down some boards, mound sand in the middle, 18" wide trench around the perimeter and pour concrete.

 

[txvwnut]

If your slope is not too drastic you can correct it with your footing depth and cushion sand, that is what I did when I did mine. The slope in mine was just 4 inches difference in 20 feet so I just compensated with the depths of the footers and beams and how much I took out for the flat areas. And since my slab was only a 20 x 26 I did what little dirt grading needed with my lawn tractor and garden box blade then just hand dug the footers and beams. Working just in the evenings and one weekend I had it all done and ready for steel in a week.

 

[T_R]

It really will depend on the area, what type of ground you have and what is in the ground.

I just did mine recently 24x24. The grade had to be raised a good 2 foot on one side, it's on ledge rock and there was a huge boulder in the ground they tried to get out but ended up being too big to pull out with the excavator. It was the size of a small car. Ended up just digging down deeper and burying it. Fill was dug up from another location on my property and moved to the garage site. Then it was all compacted.

I paid $1000 for the work.

Do you have an excavator and a dump truck? If not I wouldn't try it, it looks easy but doing all that work by hand in hard or rocky soil will take forever. If you hit anything big in the ground, you are done and will need a contractor anyway.

 

[sbarshie]

How old are you and how much work are you willing to take on?

My first garage (at 24) I did everything, for the footers I rented a JD110 basically a 70% size backhoe. Ripped the top soil off and dug the footers to depth. It was about $350 for the machine and a trailer for the weekend. Honestly the footer digging is easy, its all the rebar and concrete work that's no fun.

Once you have your lines marked and can use a transit, i's pretty straight forward (ground conditions may vary)

I laid block on the poured footers until I was 2 courses above grade, that took forever, especially since I had a flood and had to constantly pump them out.

Do it yourself, even if you totally screw up its only dirt and can be fixed, just make sure you get down to the correct depth in undisturbed good soil/ground. A few inches deeper is way better then the inspector telling you your not deep enough and the concrete is scheduled for tomorrow morning!