This is by far, the best basement dig out video, I have seen. You are a genius. I am going to learn so much from your example. Thank you for this education!
It was dry, for sure, but when we bought the place, there were so many spider/ cob webs and little boxes of junk that I could not throw a baseball the length of the house. And this city has a code requiring a concrete floor in a crawl space. Thanks for watching
You sir are my hero. I have been thinking about doing this myself and many say to not bother. So far you did it the same way I imagined myself doing it. Thank you for taking the time to video a great example.
Thanks but, no hero on this end - just a guy who builds stuff. Very glad you're here and found the information helpful. If you proceed, please share your experience so the next lunatic will know what to expect. Best of luck with your project.
found you thru researching my own retirement project. I started mine by hand, so far have an 8x8x8 square dug out. The conveyor would be the best addition to my shovel collection, lol
I wish I had neighbors like you this is the same kind of projects I do. Always thinking about building or rebuilding. Life is great. Stay safe and good planning.
Beautiful work and masterful patience, however, if it was me, I would’ve just bought another house! I can only imagine the final $$ receipt tally. The house must be sentimental to you.
Thank you for the kind words, Pete. Re: the rest, the inverse is true. I bought this house with this retirement project in mind. It was fun, challenging, satisfying, and a good workout as expected. re: financial; we got a $70k US discount when we bought it because of the crawl space. We spent about $50k putting the basement in, and we raised the value of our home $87k. It's all good. Thanks for watching.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 WOW, I was imagining $100K+. You obviously did your homework, and as a retirement project with that level of discount, you are nothing short of genius! Kudos to you! 🍻
Not many years, and it never felt like work. Had fun w/ the challenge, got a great sense of accomplishment, & added significant value to an investment.
What a great operation you have going. Love the electric mini ex, and the power buggy too! I wish I had dug mine out more and underpinned... but I was concerned about digging to close to the foundation as it is field stone with no footing, so not so easy to underpin. Great job!
Thank you, Driver. I wouldn't have underpinned a stone foundation w/ no footing either. We were lucky - this house, site, and soil made it a perfect candidate for an underpin. The project finished beautifully. You can see recaps and detail videos on the channel. I posted everything I practically could, hoping the next lunatic would realize how much work a dig-out and underpin is before they start theirs. Thanks for watching and participating in the discussion. That too will help the next guy.
I love a good project like this. Were it mine to do it would've been the perfect excuse for me to buy the little Yanmar track dumper that I've always wanted for taking the material across the street. Nothing wrong with the mudbuggy of course :-)
I worked for a company that did dig outs.this was before bobcats.he had two ww2 airbourne mini bulldozers with buckets.we would make a ranp on the outside of the house take our 6ft of the foundation and tunnel in.we used steei beans to support the house.we went down about 8ft on average. Finished the basement with cement blocks poured solid.after awile we bought better tools and equipment to make the job easier..he even bought a bobcat when they first came out.but you know he never got rid of those little dozers.
lee are you sure theres not a bank a couple 100 meters away and your secretly documenting an epic heist...cuz that actually would make more sense haha...nicely done sir I'm impressed
Admire your ingenuity, but feel you went about that the hard way. I have personally done that twice. We just punched a hole in the foundation and dug it out with a skidsteer.
I had to make some trade-offs. The only place for the skid steer ramp would make a 400 yard round trip to the dump site running (compacting) around some BIG oaks, since I don't have a crew, the ramp & the foundation hole would have been open for 8 months while I dug & underpinned, the site has a hard sand bottom that would liquefy with wheels, I didn't want an IC engine running under the house, & since it is a retirement project, I took a more surgical approach, so I could walk away for a few days & not have an evident open hole. And, I love to build equipment/ shop time, so there's that. If I had a crew, contract, & definitive schedule to meet, I would definitely have used the method you used.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 Nice call on protecting the oak trees. I was watching and arborist channel and he couldn't complain enough about new construction killing old trees.
We considered it but decided against because we'd be stepping over it and moving it too many times. Thank you for your input. It's sure to help the net guy.
I'm an engineer Lee, and to be honest, at 50 years old "I've done about everything." I mean, I literally have about done it all, operated it all, oversaw it all, and managed it all. YES I also dug out the basement of my Georgian Colonial built in 1823 which is 3 stories. We however did not employ any engineering 10 years ago, we just did it by hand, I did have about 6 guys to help and we did it in 2 weeks or less, I forget. Even broke up the concrete floors by sledge hammer. I'm too old and grumpy now at 50, and with my back and such I would probably do it all differently. When I say I've nearly done it all, that DOES NOT MEAN, that I "know it all." Maybe I missed it, but how did you get the electric backhoe down there without cutting an opening outside? How did you dig the mine shaft? By hand yes? Anyhow, LOVE your engenuinity. Love it. I will certainly watch the rest of your videos.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I envy you your formal education. I never had the chance - When you get to the video titled "phase 1 Recap,' You'll see the sequence where I got the iron down the hole. We excavated 360 yards. Of that, we hand shoveled only two, and that includes mixing and placing 36 yards of concrete. You'll see a batch plant we built later as well. Thank you for joining us. Very glad you're here.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 Really enjoying, I DID then see that video of how you got it down there, brilliant. You have NOTHING to be jealous of, your education was EXCELLENT, trust me. You did good for yourself. Stay safe, and healthy my friend. You provided me with some great entertainment, and mental stimulation. Brilliant.
I estimate 200 hours. excavating to date. Sanity check - that would be 1 guy working 5 weeks, so it sounds about right. It was never boring, the scenery (in both in the cut & the disposal site,) changed a little every day, & the excavator is fun to run. Note finished project took about 2k man hours total.
We spent $50k DIY for 1,960 sq. ft., but we didn't need to deal with water. Our house is on top of a gravel ridge in Green Bay. I was told that if a contractor had done our job, it would have costed $100k. Also, we had $0 cost to haul spoil away. The neighbor across the street used all 330 yards we dug out.
That was a JCB 2k# mini converted to electric by a company in Cincinatti, named Crete Busters. I built the phase converter / power cart so I could run off single phase household current, and I modified a spare bucket so it could work like a shovel. Follow the link to my channel at the end of this video. Go to video titled "phase one recap." to see how I got it in the hole. Other videos show the interim steps and the end result in addition to subsequent work. Thank you for watching.
Best way to go is go under and in the garage. Make a work pit there where you have a braced gargae floor when you are done. 10 minute oils changes. How many cubes did you remove waht time & cost. A vac is a better tool to siphion dirt out to the screws or conveyors.
We removed 360 cu. yards sand, clay rubble, & gravel. A vacuum wouldn't have handled all the stone & rubble. This was a retirement project completed over two summers. End cost was $45k US w/o the in-floor heating system. Thanks for watching.
Wow that is really cool, I am not sure what impresses me the most but looks like a lot of hard work.Did you find anything in the dirt? I dug up some bottles with my machine when doing a sewer pipe repair from 1880-1890's during the summer.Thanks for posting the video.
It is a lot of work. I am in better shape now then I have been in 20 years, lost 35# since I retired. Didn't find anything when digging, except a remarkable structure that the glaciers left here. Hard clay & hard sand marbled together. Even with a buster, the clay looks like cornflakes when rattled out of the bank. Some seams of sand/ clay are vertical. Never saw anything like it.
It took about 3 months to find the conveyors on Craigslist, and I bought the electric mini at a Chicago contractor's retirement auction. No, we are not in a HOA. Thanks for watching.
Funny..I have a basement that i want to get rid of . I would never buy another house with a basement unless it is sitting high on a hill and has a sump pump at each corner...even then I would think about it .
I understand how you feel, but this house is sitting on top of a glacial ridge of course sand. Sump pumps in the neighborhood are in per code, but haven't run in 25 years. We did this project during the wettest year on record, & never had a drop of water in the basement. That & more made this a great candidate for an underpin. Thanks for watching & for your input.
Yup, 'twas I, at 67 years. Once the cut was a little longer, we used the blue Georgia buggy. It hauled more, big wheels carry the load, & it just rocks forward to dump.
That would be a fun contest. The excavator rips out & loads a 6 cu. ft. wheelbarrow in about 50 seconds. A man shovels 1/4 cu. ft. per shovelful, so he would need to pick the wall and load out 24 shovelfuls per minute. This excavation is 360 yards, so that guy would need to do that for 38,880 shovels full. And do that at 68 years old like I am. Sorry to say, I just don't have those kinds of arms anymore, but there was a day -------
First, I had a chance to apply what I learned in my careers. I don't do golf or fishing or birdhouses, & I get a terrific sense of accomplishment out of building stuff, even more so if I can re-purpose some big junk. The challenge was great for my brain & my body (lost 25#), & it never felt like work; not for a minute. On top of all that, it paid very well. We underpinned for far less $ than the discount we got because the house only had a crawl space. Last, I had a fun, eventful career. Now I can say I had an eventful retirement, too. It's all good. Thanks for watching.
Fair question. If we were to jack the house, everything would need to be moved out, including family, for a 10 month duration. Jacking & a new basement was quoted at $130k, & the lot would need to be re-landscaped after that. We stayed in the house for this project, it had very little impact on the neighborhood, & costed just under $50k US. not including my labor.
Excavator is slower than normal here because there was only room to swing the front journal, & not the machine body. Also, I dump somewhat slow so I don't kick up too much dust. We considered running a trunk line conveyor through the site, but we'd need to move it and step over it too many times.
How did the trees at the dump site fair? Looks like the roots would have been smothered out under all that fill. Thus causing the tree to go into decline and dye.
Good question - in this video it shows hauling with a power buggy, which had almost no brakes. After I moved the pile there it was dozed down to a ramp. I changed equipment about then, & could maintain the ramp. We did not fill around any trees.
The need for a cellar (basement here) didn't drive this. It was a retirement time burner that would keep us active, and provide a very good return on investment.
Sure Beats A 5 Gallon bucket and a hand shovel--Thanks for posting I was wonder; Living In Michigan here I would been scared of running into a 10 foot bolder because of the Glacier during the Ice age. Were you ever concerned about that?
There's not much glacial till around here, but south of us there are boulders the size of barns pushed here from Canada. If you do hit a rock, you could try the stuff we will be using to shear the old foundation stub off. Research Dexpan demolition grout. Drill a hole, pour in grout, comeback next morning to find the part all cracked to hell.
I would not pick the wall, shovel into buckets, and carry those many thousands of buckets to dig this 360 yards of clay, sand, and gravel, since I was in my late 60s then, and smarter than that.
I dug about 2 feet under the house footings (one corner of the house) to pour 40cm of deep concrete than put a concrete block 30cmx30cm of diameter to jack up the house levelling but at this depth clay is softer than where the original footing is. If l pour concrete than level it would it be ok or what is your advice? I need help. Thank you
Without looking at it, and assuming your new base is softer, but dry & stable, my first inclination would be suggest wider footers than original to spread the weight over more area. On our project, we went through clay to a soft sand base. Where center post pads here (north central US of A) are normally 16" square x 8" thick, we went to 36" square x 12" thick and added (6) rebar. Hope this helps. LA
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 Yes you are right about the soil, is softer but dry. Footings of the house is depth 25cm x height is 45cm which l dug 75cmx75cm L shape widht 50cm depth is 50 cm lm not sure if this is enough. But l have 2x 3m tall angle line lm thinking to hammer it down with a slage hammer to the refuse point.(if l'm lucky) :))
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 l did wider footers to spread the weight like you advised. I have to do 3 pins (concrete blocks) the corner which is the main one and 2 at each side which is about 10 feet away from the corner of the house. Should I do the corner first and do the sides after or do 3 of them at the same time starting from the corner?
If it were mine, I'd finish the corner first, since the load will be cantilevered until you get new support under. Do not make the common mistake of over excavating. Your house weighs about a ton per lineal foot of foundation wall. That weight needs to be applied on something.
$40k for me, anyway. I am retired, so no labor cost for me. The other guy in the video (Joe) is also retired from commercial construction. He is my brother in law, & we have been friends for 50+ years. He does get paid something. Material, Joe's wage, & subcontract = $40k. I built a lot of the equipment myself out of junk. That equipment, plus the bigger ticket items I bought, will be sold for what I have in them (as I have always done,), so no cost there. Thanks for watching
We were told that an older couple originally contracted to build the house. Husband died right after contract was signed, and builder did a lot of stuff to "save" the elderly woman some money. Rumor is they knocked off only $5k to go to crawl space.
What a grand undertaking! Super Engineering. Speaking of Engineering, did you do some? To check the support of the original house footing? Also, how did you get around city inspection. I cant fart without the city inspector sniffing it! Haha
Before we started, we dug an outside test hole to learn what the substrate was. There was a band of clay and below that, beautiful granular compacted sand. A commercial general contractor determined that the existing reinforced poured wall & footing could span a 14' wide cavity under the bearing wall side. We needed to span 7' at the most. We didn't try to get around inspections. I did a detailed project plan & prints, pulled foundation & fill permits, & complied to the letter. Inspectors never pinged us on any aspect. Thank you for contributing
Why? You should have moved if you wanted a basement that badly. You destroyed a perfect crawlspace and replaced it with a basement that isn’t water sealed on the outside?
1. Houses on crawl spaces do not sell here. This one was for sale for 16 months in a hot market. 2. I was looking for a retirement time burner that would add value. This fit perfectly. 3. This neighborhood is on top of a large sand/ gravel ridge. Sump pumps have never run in this neighborhood. There is no water in the top 40'. 4. The project was funded 120% by the discount we got when we bought the place. 5. Yes, it would be easier to move, but that's not how improvement projects work.
We spent $50k US including radiant heat in the new basement floor, so about the same as adding on, but we have a nice wooded lot, and didn't want to lose trees. Adding up would have been very difficult and VERY expensive.
A second story would have costed twice as much, and the tax man, the insurance guy, and the utilities would have all added perpetual monthly costs. The basement on the other hand, added storage and rec space with no additional monthly expenses. There are lots of two story houses for sale around here, but we had nine inquiries to sell our tricked out ranch.
The basis - my brother-in-law and I are both retired after careers in heavy commercial construction (him) and construction/ machine building (me.) We did all the work except pouring the concrete floor, plumbing, and heating. Cost was $44k US complete, plus $8k for in-floor heat and the boiler. I bought & built some equipment, and that was all sold for a little more than I paid.
The one we used here was converted to electric by a company called "Crete Busters." There aren't too many of these around. All the big manufacturers and some bigger rental shops offer them now.
This was a jcb modified to electric by a company named Crete Busters in Cincinnati. They run on three phase power, so I built the power cart to convert from household single phase current. Sometimes used ones can be found in northeast US. I found this one in Chicago. Cat, John Deere, and most imports make electrics now. Additionally, some rental companies have imports that switch from electric to diesel. to Google - key words electric mini excavator
If so might have been able to rent a 3 phase generator or use some solar chargers or hybrid to create the 3 phase at about 12,000 watts though it would have taken 2 or 3 to do this. Great work overall. So I guess the power cart acts as a large transformer to convert 240v split phase to 240 volt 3 phase unless you actual have non us 230volt single phase power at your home ?
Power cart converts USA 220 vac single phase 50 amps to real 3 phase with a rotary phase converter. Not split phase. I mis-spoke in the first reply. It does not convert to single phase. Single phase is converted to 3 phase. Sorry for the curve ball. The mini & power cart are currently for sale @ $16k US. Loaded in Green Bay, WI.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 I understand your answer but standard USA power is split phase 240 volt not really single phase . On an oscilloscope there are two sine waves 180 degrees out of phase thus split phase , it might be clearer to call it 2 phase but thats not the standard terminology. Thanks for reply.
Very impressive but couldn't you have put the powered wheelbarrow under house and use hydraulic jack to raise a platform it is driven on up to the floor/ground level and not need the conveyor or the wheelbarrow and much less human effort just fill powered wheelbarrow directly from excavator ?
Could have, but I didn't want any gas or diesel engines running under the house, it would have needed a substantial lift system to raise 1/2 ton 8' vertically, and the tracks would have turned the sand base to powder.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 not sure what you mean by tracks It doesn't look like the powered wheelbarrow has tracks. I understand the not wanting to run engine under house but with ventilation shouldnt be much odf a problem. Something like a home garage car lift would work but I get it.
There is no help to be had. Everyone is working around here, & every business of every kind has help wanted signs out. But no worries, since I am retired, there is no cost for my labor, & I did phase one almost entirely working alone. We are 70% along in the project today, working with me & one other capable/ fit old guy. You'll see later where we automated mixing, etc. It's all good.
If you are willing to load and haul 360 cubic yards of material up a ramp using a pick, shovel, and buckets, you are a better man than I am, Gunga DIn. That would be about 12,600 buckets full, at about 2 minutes time per bucket filled & hauled.
Of course. They needed all that fill and more to prevent a slide under their footing where an old, wood retaining wall was rotting. I brought the fill over & we dozed it down to a ramp & grade. The fill plan was drawn, & city fill permit was pulled.
In this area, it's tough to sell a house with major modifications done and not having permits and city inspections tied to it. We did pull permits and get all inspections for both the underpin and a fill permit for the disposal and reclaiming work across the street. It's fair to say the inspection department was fair and easy to work with, and we did not get any dings on anything we did. Thanks for watching.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 Hello sir May I ask how much did permits and inspections kost you ? You see I live in EU and would like to see the diferents between USA and EU . If you dont want to tell me I will completly understand. Wish you all the best. Greetings from Slovenia EU
@@karelmarx8899 Great to talk with you, Sir. We live in the USA, near the Great Lakes, state of Wisconsin, city Green Bay. The building permit for the general construction was $350 US, and that included three inspections. The fill permit where we placed the spoil and reclaimed the site across the street was $150 US and included two inspections. The guys and their departments were very pleasant and easy to work with.
I guess expensive is a relative term. We know that this home improvement investment makes financial sense, and it has allowed me to apply what I know & stay active in retirement. That said, if you'd like to chip in a little anyway----------
The neighbor had an 8' high retaining wall that was rotten. He needed the material to backfill the failing wall. I started the project with a power buggy that had no brakes, so the haul road was almost level, but soon after dozed the material down to a ramp (shown in later videos). Neighbor needed the fill, I did a detailed plan, pulled a fill permit from the city before we started, and shaped the grade and restored the area when we finished.
If they wanted to save money, why the heck did they bother to put down a concrete slab in a crawl space?! I was expecting to see dirt. I've never heard of such a thing ever. Why would they do this?
Your enunciation is so poor many words are lost. Also you need a better mic that captures high frequencies. The sibilence in your voice is lost because of the garbage mic you're using. Talk a little slower, it will help a lot. Also add subtitles. You're obviously very bright with good design ideas. Now you just need to present them properly to the world.
I appreciate your input. I will consider it. A little background, as information (and these are not excuses) - I build stuff, and am no one's idea of a producer. This video was originally made for a few friends that requested it so they could see what the project was about, and I did the voice over without a script while I shot the video with a cheap phone. And I never produced or posted anything before this. On top of all that, I made the mistake of not wearing a dust mask when I started, so I was dealing with shortness of breath because of fine clay dust. Add my husky voice, Wisconsin USA accent, and the result is an agricultural presentation of an otherwise cool project. Thank you for watching, and for your input.
@@diycrawlspacedigoutunderpi4201 I find voiceovers are seldom used on RU-vid but they are very smart because it allows you to focus only on the video initially instead of trying to do both the narration and the camera. Especially important when you're around noise as well. Interesting you mention dust. I watched a few underpinning videos and was surprised at the amount of dust they were exposed to and none were wearing even dust masks. We don't know what is in that earth we're digging up so a dust mask is probably a poor choice. Full face (or half face with good eye protection) respirator should probably be used. I know breathing through them isn't fun. But your lungs are just more important. I knew you were creative. How many people repurpose machines designed for a specific task? That's incredible. In the last video I watched I asked why they are hand shoveling a basement. It would take forever and it did. You asked the same question and mechanized the process as much as possible. So impressive. Getting the loader next to the machine digging is brilliant. Probably difficult in some layouts of course but it just shows you what happens when people really try to do things better. So many houses are cursed with ridiculous basements that only a dwarf could be comfortable in. People like you are changing that situation. So good for the housing market, especially as many will get much more revenue from their rental and many more units will be added to the supply increasing availability and, after a while, lowering their cost. Volume always improves efficiency.
