Installing 54 tons of dirt - Grading around renovation to improve drainage and correcting grade 

I was just getting ready to do dinner dishes. Boy is my wife going to be upset with you! Thanks for posting!

I love when I can see the street signs so I know where you are in town. I had guessed over by 29, but man, they are right on top of it!!

Everybody needs a Ronald in their life. Fine work, fellas!

I agree with your assessment re: grinding stumps vs digging them out. However, I'll just say that most stump grinders will grind to at least 4-6 inches below grade which is more than plenty to not have the issue that you ran into. So, the problem wasn't that the stumps were ground (grinded? grinden?)...it was that the contractor who did it sucked and just did the bare minimum to get paid with the owner none the wiser since it was covered up with chips. All that said...yes...if one can afford it and the conditions allow...digging them out is almost always a better solution if backfilling the holes etc can be done as part of the job.

Your videos are awesome! I’ve learned so much from them and can’t thank you enough for posting them.

Poor owners. Cant imagine how awful loud it would be 24/7 living in the middle of a highway. Great work as always though!

Sean that Recovery went perfect. I did one last winter on a dead wheeled John Deere Skid Loader using a Cat 303.5 Excavator to do the pulling.

We grind stumps, that person who grinded those knew it was bad job. You can tell for the most part. We always use a pitch fork to move some chips to get to everything and see whats up

Great video and recovery job, See ya on the next one .

That was one massive job to do. The Bobcat dead sled was interesting. I didn't know that was even possible. The only issue I saw was using the cable winch to pull it unto the trailer. By this I mean if the cable would have snapped it would have smacked your helper. Use a longer chain and shorten the cable and stand further away from the cable.

Recto very looked good great job

Great video and quite the transformation! As an avid Drain Addict viewer, I think you guy might have been using that jetting head backwards. It looks like one designed to cut and pull material back toward you but its more ideal to pull it back toward the sewer away from the house.

I did not think that dead sled was going to work. I was wrong! Lol. Nice job!

Battery & battery connections should be checked first, then fuses. Ignition on and hot wire starter solenoid. Injection pump solenoid power, for fuel. These are a few steps I would take before calling a garage. However, if your not familiar with any of these, call for a mechanic. Well done as always.

Awesome! Been looking forward to a new GCFD video!

Bobcats are nothing but a pain, much prefer others . Glad you got it loaded and fixed.

AS normal, above and be-yound. Your 'boys' are priceless.

I can't imagine living in the middle of two highways, it is so loud, but also the air quality from all those cars would be terrible.

Shawn, watched pretty much all your videos last two years and it helped me learn how to address drainage issue on my new homestead property in east Texas. Wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise, I really appreciate it!

Where I used to live there were a bunch of old tree stumps several inches below grade. After a few years, depressions would appear, and in the process, giant beetle grubs would feed on the rotten wood and then emerge to leave a thumb-sized hole. The holes would become a home for rodents, also, Bumble Bees and Yellow Jackets would make nests. If left unaddressed, rabbits and larger animals would move in. I found that the best course of action in my case was to make a planting bed out of the affected area, this way it would not interfere with lawn maintenance.

That fence was hairy hop each time. Enjoyed this one.

I remember my neighbour went to do some landscaping, basically blue metal rock along his house. He had a tree cut down 30+years before, no stump removal. As soon as he started work he found the stump/roots had rooted away leaving a huge water sump hole. He spent a fortune getting that hole filled. at the time I thought it lucky nobody had ever disappear walking through there.

Wow a massive difference from before to after. To bad you don’t have a camera to send down the line. Love to see all of the different types of jobs that you do. Great idea to use the plywood to slide the bobcat, I would never have thought of it. All Good 👍!

Very clever idea with the sled recovery. That whole job turned out great. Love your work 👌🇦🇺🍺

Awesome job done Shawn, that was a great recovery of the bobcat well done on another excellent video 👌👌👍👍

Great job - so much better

Another Feature length film, Wow what a mess....Total transformation, at least the owner knew what to expect, Sorry for them on getting screwed over live & learn, Great job on the pull not having the final drives taken apart, luckily it wasnt the computer & a major repair. Glad to see the fence install for some kind of privacy division being right there that strange corner lot.

This was a long job. Too bad about the bobcat. I kind of figured you'd be putting out some new videos with the rain we've been having.

Saw a comment on Andrew's latest video where someone mentioned your channel! Told him that you'd school him on drainage, basically. Thought that was funny.

Such quality work. Excellent project. Thank you for sharing.

Excellent method of recovery.

Nothing grows under wood chips. I had no clue, but it makes sense, considering people use chips to keep weeds and grass away from their plants.. Thank you.

That road noise is nuts - man having that 18 to 24 hours a days must deal your sanity!

Nice video Shawn. Bobcat recovery looked like you had done a million times before, it went that well. Terrific work on the property, great tidy-up and finishing job.

You are right, we had a tree taken down and stump grind. About ten years later a big sink hole appeared near the corner of the house where the tree once stood.

Top job 🎉

Love this channel. I used to watch a similar channel Andrew Camarata but I don't think he does much excavation anymore. Keep it up!

Impressive with that dead sled. Good Stuff!

You might want to get a snatch block for your winch. I’ve broken and mangled cables before

I bet the customer knew the line was clogged. Thats why he wanted you to run the jetter.

I know it costs more, but a Starter fertilizer with crabgrass preventer Tupersan! It doesn't kill the seed. Lime or JG Love mysoil. I know that was coated seed. Real smart you can see where you put it. What is mostly the ph of that dirt? Would you broadcast (light coat) compost to help the lawn? I think its real smart to call a drainage guy to redo the lawn and regrade for drainage and a healthy lawn. I would spray that condensor with water after the dirt work. Nice job, sad on the bobcat. I like that JCB with the telescoping boom!

Just came across your channel today. I subscribed. Good work and Great videos. Thanks.

Nice to see you back. The recovery was pretty neat. Was a really smart idea. You cleared the fence like Spider-Man anyway, happy new year to you and your crew.

Every time the customer gets stumps ground out before we get there, we have to get them reground. My uncle is in the business and has a Bandit Sg75. Makes quick work of most stumps.

Nice work!

Nice job. A 4 in 1 bucket is ideal for cleanups like that.

Nice Job!

God it would suck to be that close to the freeway 😮

When you're winching something heavy, put a heavy moving blanket (or similar) to prevent cable from flying back if it breaks.

Job well done ...it is shame a brand new bobcat break down and it had only 1600 hours on. it...keep up the good work and good luck.

Good job to have never did that before.👍👍

Another great one.

Well at least you had plenty of parking with that dead end no worrying about traffic trying to get thru

Result looks good even on google maps ;) Looks like a noisy location, i guess you don't get quite time here. Good you have second skidsteer, you can use as backup, so you can continue working.

Great improvising! Thanks for showing us another way. I could be wrong, but I don't think that a person should be standing in the direction of a pull.

Might suggest to the manager to get some lime or other organic substance to change the Ph ofthe soil. The chips are way too acidic for grass growing. Might think about getting a tiller for your machine and bringing in organic compost from a poultry farn in the area and mixing it in the soil for optimal grass growing.

The water jet nozzle is designed to go the other direction (from the basin to the house). Perhaps you could try that next time. Thanks for the video, Shawn.

Damn, I just had an EAB ash removed last summer, with stump removal, and had him leave the woodchips in my front yard where the stump was! 😢 Nothing will grow? Maybe it'll kill the Buckthorn that was also growing around the tree?

I've learned never to say never again. Rather case by case after thorough accessment. If you would've run water over that section, you would've discovered its reluctance to drain.

Those bushes near that manhole need tidying up looks a mess

Power Lines 😱

Instead of a reindeer sled, a bobcat sled.

You could tie a go pro on that water jetter (no water) and watch on your phone to find the break.

Although this recovery went well, I would have to think that t450 would have a dump valve that would allow drive motors to bypass so it can be towed when in need of recovery. Usually it’s a quarter turn of a wrench.

i like

That's clay. You need decent top soil and also who put a sewer pipe halfway up the manhole that will block up quickly it should be at the bottom of the manhole

But how do you really feel about stump grinding 🤔 😂😂😂

Loving Ms weekly GCFD hit Can I respectfully suggest something? Could you of jetted from both instead of one? That way you would have guaranteed to of cleared anything (if present)

I just had 28 trees removed. Ground all the stumps. The stump grinder kid was a moron, and I had to tell him stump grindings were toxic. It seems people do not understand the stumps will rot in the ground as well. It’s all about client expectation. I am aware that the grindings had to be removed (or churned into the ground with an excavator which is what I did). Also, topsoil is different than dirt. Regular dirt has no nutrients or organic material to facilitate growth. The dirt you got looks like foundation dirt not organic topsoil. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with stump grinding if handled correctly and the client is fully informed. It seems lack of knowledge if the overall problem in society today.

If someone only needed to grade a small area of their foundation, like a corner, could one just dig down from another part of the yard and take a few shovel fulls of clay/subsoil and use it for drainage?

As a European it amazes me how dead-set Americans are about not having open ditches on their property. "Oh, the lay of the land is bringing surrounding rain water right into my yard. It's too bad that my lot isn't surrounded by a contiguous low point that collects and redirects water, that would be a super convenient thing to have. I guess I'll just have water in my basement, then."

Where would a homeowner go to get some clay soil like that delivered to their home?

56:40 water is clean so I guess no dirt.

seems a shame they didn’t bottler to water the grass seed after all that work

I wish you could come to Texas and fix my drainage issue. Question, by chance you know anyone or company thats trustworthy as you, and does good quality work like you’re team. Im in Fort Worth, Texas.

Me assuming those trees don't have any toxins... The PH is probably just too high in those clippings where they should have added elemental-sulfur in hopes it'd lower the PH over the summer, the process doesn't convert well in winter temps under 84f. You could/probably-should be checking the native soil PH using the USGS's soil-web-survey. If you are doing jobs in spring that have a high-native-PH then adding elemental-sulfur will darken the green of everything. High-organics is High-PH, those wood chips will offer a PH of 8.1 where the grass wants a PH of 6.3-6.8. If you teamed with a soil-expert you could offer elemental-sulfur or lime depending on the native soil-requirements to convert it into a lawn, for jobs that aren't getting new top soil. .

You should have run the snake above ground to see if the snake should have come out the other end, it didn't look 50 feet from where it was going in to where it should have come out.......any blockage would make the snake coil inside the pipe would it not?........'m assuming here,......would it coil in the pipe?

Why not just disconnect the Bobcat's final Drive's in each track hub so it would free-wheel? Then the winch alone (plus maybe a snatch-block or 2) should be enough just roll it up the ramps onto the trailer, no plywood needed... The Winch is NOT a safe or Legal Cargo Securement Method according to any DOT Regulation I'm aware of...

That's one noisy road next to those houses

😊😊😊😊😊

A REPUTABLE Stump Grinder will grind the stump down at least 8-12 inches below ground level and will scrape up most of the chips for off-site disposal... Anyone with a chainsaw could take out the stump to the level this hack did...

What location is this and what was the cost for this job ? Roughly

What do you do if the grade is downhill towards your house - the road being higher than foundation.

Curious 38:05 Why you didn’t remove the rock boarder before piling dirt over it? Great video. Challenging piece of property.

I don't get why you couldn't leave the chips and put top soil over everything, the chips are biodegradable. Not saying your wrong, just trying to understand the thought behind it.

Just a quick question: Are you the only qualified operator for the earthmoving equipment? It strikes me as odd that there would only be one operator for all the machines on most if not all of your videos. You may want to consider getting some of the other blokes their machinery tickets. Just a thought.

I would have probably just left the trees. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I would get rid of that bobcat as soon as possible.

You need to fabricate an attachment to dig out the stumps and large roots out of the soil...of course that will be another billable charge. You should have a dedicated root/stump tool to attach to your most powerful skidsteer...there's no such tool on the market, so you will have to fabricate this tool yourself. Question: is there a market for such a stump/root tool in America? Everyone else has the same root/stump problems. You need to design, fabricate and then paton it for worldwide use. You have a gifted brain---and lots of spare time in the winter. Design, test and then fabricate such a tool for worldwide distribution. You could become a millionaire if you patoned a great tool+++back to work!!!

35:15 You should NEVER leave a winch line under tension like that... If the Bobcat bounces due to a bump in the road, it can jerk the line and either snap the line and/or damage the winch... The PROPER way to do it is winch the cargo into the trailer, secure the cargo to the trailer with straps (or chains & binders as appropriate), then slack off the winch line at least 3-4 inches...

The proper way to spell bobcat is Takeuchi.

Yup. Stump grinding is totally overrated.

What do you mean, "the guys were willing to work today"? You commented on it being hot a humid. Do you mean that because it's hot and humid you give the guys an option to work that day or not? I don't get it.. I'd think the only option would be dependant on if they want to keep their job or not. Not on how hot and humid it is. Hydrate!!

Man I’m sorry but here in New England you already out business. You need spread real top soil for the new grass easily 3 inches, shame the result your job.

So why remove the chips of the top and dress with dirt. Wasted time and money. Spread them out and dress with dirt.