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Exacavated Rock

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jaf15l

Structural
Oct 18, 2009
3
I'm building a house in southern CT and in digging the foundation we hit rock ledge, a lot of it. As a result, I have a huge pile of boulders (supposedly over 200 dumpsters worth). I've been trying to give it away to builders/masons/excavators but haven't had much success. Any ideas on how to get rid of it. The idea of paying $40k to remove it is driving me insane.
Thanks
J
 
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In our neck of the woods there is lots of bedrock close to the surface and no one likes to dig it. However, there are areas here such as sloping lots where fill is needed for say some guy wants to build a garage and he needs good fill.

These types might go for a deal where you pay half the cost to load and truck it and he pays the rest.

Then let him spread it and compact it.

Sometimes building inspectors and home builders may have an idea as to likely needed persons.

I'd never use dumpsters. Small time excavating contractors may be able to do it much cheaper. What's with the guy who dug it? What is his cost?
 
The excavator gave me a price of $250/load to haul it out of there, which would be over $50k.

Maybe I could split the cost with someone which is a good idea.
 
Why not put an advertisement in the paper - or through other media offering it free to whoever wants it? It could be used for rubble masonry retaining walls - or for making planters around houses, someone might even be ingenious enough to think that he could use this as a base for a new driveway (in old England times, the road base was actually "laid" rock). Someone might even consider making a house out of it . . . mortar rubble - thick meaning good insulation (harken, again, to England). Lots of uses for it and if it were free, you probably will get takers - it may not all go in a week, but . . .
 
Call a local concrete recycler. They might take it away for the aggregate value. Assuming 200 loads at 14 to 16 cy per load, then you have somewhere around 3000 cy of rock. It will probably yield about 1200 to 1400 cy of crushed aggregate.

$250 per load seems a bit high. I would also question the estimate of the number of loads. 3000 cy of rock would have come from a hole at least 8 feet deep and 10,000 sf in plan area. That's a big hole!!

Assuming you have a "normal" size house of no more than about 60'x60', and you excavated 10 feet for a basement, that would be 36000 cubic feet or about 1300 cubic yard. That would be about half the number of loads estimated.

Do some more checking.
 
thanks Ron,
It is a 7000 sqr ft house, 9+ ft basement, plus all the trenching/drainage in front of the house has hit rock as well. I think the number is approx right. Danger of buying a teardown is its hard to know where the lodge starts and ends. expensive/painful leasson!
I will look into concrete recycler.
 
if you are founding this house on bedrock, maybe you can limit your excavation depth. There should be no problem with frost heave on a bedrock foundation.
 
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