How to Dig a Basement 

Great point Jay! Thanks for the comment!

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Thanks for watching! Glad the videos are helpful!

You got it brother, every Monday!

Thank you!

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching brother!

Anytime!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you so much!

Create some benches for yourself as you work down the slopes. That should help you dig level

Thanks for watching my man and thanks for the comment!

Happy New Year my man! I appreciate you commenting all the time!

Let me see what I can put together. For getting into your pile I would recommend a couple things. First, take the time to actually work the pile with your bucket. Instead of getting focused on getting a bucket to put into the truck, work the pile and soften up the material so you can make your time count. The added weight in your bucket will give you increased traction to get further into the pile. The second tip is to work the pile with the corners of your bucket. The less surface area you have pushing into the pile, the more force you will have to penetrate the hard pack. As for back dragging muddy lots, this is a horseshoes and hand grenades scenario. Get it as close as you can while realizing close is good enough. You can only do so much with soup.

Yes, 100%. I didn't get into benching in this video but if the dig goes over 4 feet deep then you will need to bench the hole back accordingly.

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As much as I would love to give you a good trick, the real answer here is practice. Before I start a basement dig I get out and paint lines on the ground. As you setup to dig make sure your track is lined up along the line so you can continue to track back using your line on the ground as a guide.

The challenge was fitting it within the camera viewing area!

Thanks for the comment! I truly appreciate the feedback! Where are you from? I'm originally from Dripping Springs

@@DieselandIronI'm from the big city f Fredericksburg LOL. I went through DS a couple of weeks ago on my way to Austin.

Most likely you would go about it with the same approach. You want to stay pretty inline with your dig area to give you the straightest lines possible. Elevation differences are pretty easy to handle assuming you've sprayed your lines out ahead of time and have references to work off of.

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If your site has a fair amount of topsoil, yes. But if your sit has an inch or so of topsoil and you're bringing more in anyway, I don't mess with it.

Give it a good slope depending on the material just keep the overdig correct on the bottom.

If you start going over 4 feet deep then yes, I would bench the hole back. Don't start your bench until you are deep enough that you can keep your line. If you bench down too early you lose your slot that keeps your bucket exactly where it needs to be. Treat the bench the same way you treat the main area of the dig.

@@DieselandIron That was my approach, thanks for sharing

if it’s an 8’ foundation, dig should be less than that so you have 12-18” of concrete above grade. So if footing is 10” you would only dig between 7-8 feet?

Call a dirt company in your area. There are a lot of factors that play into that number. Is the dirt staying onsite or being trucked off? Is there a possibility of water infiltration? What kind of material?

@@DieselandIron right, I do know there are factors at play. I’m speaking just the hole itself. Let’s exclude factors such as hauling or spread backfill things like that. I’m just trying to figure out more so is it best to be figured on a per cubic yard bid or is it likely better let’s say to do a estimated one/two day trackhoe hourly charge. Then anything on top of that and the other outside factors can be implemented. I’m a framing contractor and most of my jobs are GC related for the full scope of project and I have discussed it a couple times but it seems the bid process gets wonky when I ask the simple basic question to get that answer. Let’s just say for argument sake how does one guy price it 10k per the plans on a flat piece of land and the next is 3k. My understanding is one priced it per sf or cubic yard high and the other priced according to a 1 or 2 day dig with basement footing also dugout and porch footing. Main question here is example project 36x60 w 36x30 garage at end of it. Without holding you to your charging rate. What would you figure something like that to be. I’m in NE Ohio. Pretty fair soil. Middle of a corn field. Nothing likely to obstruct. Most digs I’ve seen first hand maybe a shale rock layer. Pretty solid not much soft soils falling in or hard rock layers. Just simple basic hole dig. Prime time kinda easy cake job with no necessary requirement where to slap the piles at for a final grade and backfill. I’d like to know what range you’d price something like that. If you’re willing to explain the way I can bid such said project along with all of my sf or per scope jobs. Most always in the country and minimal extra and always stays on site.

@@nickjames7704 I plan on sitting down a recording some Down & Dirties this afternoon. I'll go over my logic when bidding a basement dig and how I throw together pricing. By showing you my process you should be able to calculate this out for your own setup (aka - factoring in machine rental etc)

@@DieselandIron awesome. Thank you!

We are based out of Howell. Where is Oakland City located?

Oakland county, guess not.. Probably too far away to Pontiac/Waterford area.

The dirt is thrown beside the hole and there is no need for a second machine onsite until you go to perform the backfill. If you've planned your dig correctly then you should have very little balancing to do with the dozer when you go to backfill. Excavators are the most efficient and cost effective tool for digging basements, hands down. There is a decent swath of the country that thinks track loaders are the go to machine for digging a basement and I can tell you factually, they have never done a operations cost calculation to compare the two. It's not a competition. Track loaders are 3 times more expensive to run per hour than an excavator. Your dirt guys were leaving a shitload of money on the table and you were overpaying to get your basements dug.

@@DieselandIron Thats simply bs. We built hundreds of houses and a track loader dug all of them in one day or less.

@ernieforrest7218 go re-read my comment. I'm confident you were able to dig them in a day with a track loader. I don't dispute that at all. What I dispute is the cost and that is factual and can be easily calculated.

@@DieselandIron Fact is that you can only reach so far with an excavator, and thats where you pile the dirt. Unless you have a second machine. and operator for moving it. And thats a big problem for other phases of the job. We put crushed stone in all our basements under the concrete floor, and that was just backed down the ramp and dumped right in the basement. Sitto for the block delivery for the basement as well as the concrete for the footing. We never back filled untill the framing was at least partiapa on rtiaally complete and weight was placed on the walls. So it should be easy to see why the dirt from the excavation should be piled well awway from the foundaation so that the job can progress. Im very much aware that especially today with the smaller excavators being so popular thaat that some builders enjoy pretending they are an operator. And thats BS as well.

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I love track loaders but unfortunately we just don't see them enough around here. They are really popular in the central states.

You can but it gets a lot more expensive!

Thanks for watching Dave!

Shovels will work but it will take time!

Thanks Jay! I'm working through some of the topics that make sense to do with the diecast models since it is wintertime here.

Stay tuned!

Delivered with gusto!

I've been wondering what happened to you my man! Just the other night I was curious where you had been. Hope all is well with you and good to hear from you again Phil!

I would imagine that would only take 20 minutes to dig with a 349😂😂

Absolutely! Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment!

Make sure your excavator has a full tank! 😁

Dig the first basement, climb your machine down in the hole and dig the second basement! Who is digging multilevel basements?

@@DieselandIron must be a border crossing job 😁

@@littlefinkle7757 🤣🤣

Good suggestion!

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I'm glad it was helpful, thanks for watching!

A large part of a basement dig is planning on where the material will need to end up for the backfill. You could dig the majority of this basement and throw the material to one side out of convenience. When it comes to the backfill you are now forced to push all of that dirt around the house to backfill the other 2 or 3 sides (depending on where you left the dirt). Dozers drink fuel and are expensive to run so you wan the dirt as close to home as you can get it when you do the initial dig. Hope that answers your questions!

😆

15 ton excavator. It's a good size for most work in that space while still being light enough you don't need a lowboy.

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Unless you are expecting some pretty torrential rains I wouldn't worry about covering the dig with tarps. The rest of your plan is solid, it will just take a hot minute!

There are certainly times where you will have no other option but to double touch material. The key is to think ahead so you do this as little as possible.

Obviously you have to take into account soil conditions and what you are working with. The key is to be as accurate as the conditions allow. If you dig your initial slot first and keep it deeper than the soil around it, that will help with the push you get as you encounter rocks. Instead of keeping the slot a foot or so deeper than the surrounding area, in rocky conditions I might keep it 2 or 3 feet deeper so my bucket stays wedged in place as I hit rocks. Now instead of getting a 2 foot wide push you can keep it closer to 10 inches. Again, it all depends on your conditions.

This is very true. Rick also agrees that it would have been a train wreck....

Thanks for watching, glad the videos are helpful!

G.I. Joooooeeee

Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment!

I appreciate the feedback! I've been trying to do more die cast model videos since it let's you see things from a unique angle you don't get on the job.

We don't do a ton of footing digs. Let me see what I can come up with.

If you want to get technical I would respond it depends on the size of machine you have. I would say for a standard 15 ton machine you could dig around a 3500 square foot basement in a day

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching!

Thanks for the comment!

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Thanks for watching Jimmy!

This technique is common in michigan. Our footer is about 6 to 8 in deeper than the middle of the dig or what we call the crown. This saves on concrete when you go to pour the main slab of the basement

Thank you! It's easier than trying to fly a drone over the same spot for 6 hours

Good luck and feel free to reach out with questions!

@@DieselandIron I will. Do you have a email, I can send you my plans.