Dig out my basement

[Ralco]

My wife and I bought a small ranch house with a large attacted garage, the garage is built so I can drive in on the end of it. My wife is handicapped I would like to build out into the garage for a bedroom and handicapped access bathroom I still have about 20 ft left for our car(van). We have a partial basement at the other end our house the rest of basement 20 ft is about 18" space from ground to floor joist to run plumbing and electrical not much space to work in. I could use the extra space for bedroom and bath for grandchildren. I am retired and have time to work on this project(more time than money):laughing::laughing: I always have been a do it yourselfer. What I need is a belt conveyor about 20' long and run it through a 15" X 28" window opening I could make the opening deeper to accept for one to fit. I am a machinist by trade and could build one, but I don't have the equipment to work with. I thought about renting one, it would get pretty expensive I would need a couple of months to use one so I'd be better to buy a used one if I can find one. I live in central Minn, Is there any places on the internet I could find one?

 

[gghb]

might be able to convert an old hay conveyor to this purpose if you're shoveling onto it there won't be much weight.

Greg

 

[Ralco]

That might work it shouldn't be hard to find one Thanks

 

[bcp]

You could do it like this Guy, using radio control construction equipment models.



https://www.youtube.com/user/LilGiantsConstrCo/videos


Or rollers on a ladder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUu6dIctZRM

Hand truck-ramp-winch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7zQj8npPrY

Bruce

 

[JerryK]

I know a few guys that put their ' Michigan basements ' in by making a opening large enough to wheel a wheelbarrow up a dirt ramp to ground level.. and taking out X amount of wheelbarrow loads out each night after work. Dumping each load out back and returning to shovel another load full. The conveyor thing sound good, especially if you have a tractor to pile the spoils somewhere else after the conveyor gets it up there... Sounds like a young guy job, though... [ or a prime skid steer job ]

 

[GPintheMitten]

So you're biggest need is to create a crawl space right? What is the depth, width and length?

 

[DJ54]

A buddy of mine just bought a real nice 16' harvest handler elevator at an auction for approx. $300.00. I used a similar one 20 years ago to dig out a partial basement under my house. It took it out, as fast as I wanted to dig.

 

[Ralco]

I got 460 sq. ft. that I like to dig about 8' dp. I know how I would reinforce the walls to make the structure safe. If I do a pickup load a day I should be able to get the dirt out. I bought the property reasonable enough to make it work. I got the time to do it. Thank you for your reply
Ralph

 

[roadhunter]

Another possibility would be to build a little track/rail setup and use a winch to move loads up with a cart. Wouldn't take much at all.

Depending on the soil an electric jackhammer with a spade bit can make digging much easier if there is no equipment access. I also suspect a big drill bit would loosen some soil types so it's would be easier to shovel.

If you want a really off the wall option use a little peg pergo electric toy to get the dirt to the cart. I got my daughter one of the little john deere gator vehicles years ago and I had her haul all sorts of stuff around the yard. They will hold well over 100 pounds.

 

[mddorange]

I got 460 sq. ft. that I like to dig about 8' dp. I know how I would reinforce the walls to make the structure safe. If I do a pickup load a day I should be able to get the dirt out. I bought the property reasonable enough to make it work. I got the time to do it. Thank you for your reply
Ralph

Is the foundation and walls already there for a basement or only a few feet down below the freeze line? That is what my parents did when they added a couple of rooms upstairs and later took out the dirt for the basement later. If so, then your support should already be there but if not then you have to be very careful not to weaken the current foundation while putting up the new walls.

 

[ultrarunner]

I made a ramp and used my BX to haul material... worked well but I needed a fan to force fresh air in and I wore a good respirator...

 

[Ralco]

I have no idea, I assume there is just a 4' frost footing. This summer I had part of a chinese elm break apart in thunder storm pulling up some of the roots. I had a tree man topped off the 15' from the bottom. I dug the stomp out, top soil was black dirt a foot down, next 2' clay after that it was gravel and sand. The house is 24' x 30', the partial basement 24' wall is down 8' 1 30' wall in basement goes 12' and other wall goes 8' after that I don't know for sure. there is part of a wall by stairway that doesn't support anything I have to cut out before I dig I only plan to dig out 4' width. I have family that does carpentry construction I will ask them what I should do.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I know this isn't what your asking but it is on topic as another option. I've known 2 people who have rented skid steers to dig out their basement. Dug down from outside, cut through the wall, placed extra supports under the joists and sill in that area, and went on in. Sounds crazy I know. Ultimately saved a lot of work.

 

[square1]

Pay your grand-kids a quarter a day to play in the dirt then direct their activities. I'm only half joking, I know someone that did exactly that with their nieces & nephews. Not sure you could pull it off in today's society of protective services, instant messaging and video games though

 

[bluestem99]

I agree with Wild Bill, you should be able to rent a skid steer for a reasonable price for a few days, talk about saving your back!! My wife worked in excavating and they did this alot in southern Wisconsin.

 

[Everhard]

Most likely your footings won't be down 8' - so assuming that is the case I would support and then dig along each exterior foundation wall one at a time and remove/replace existing wall/footing down to the depth you need. do this for all sides but on one of the walls I'd do as suggested by Wild Bill and make a temporary ramp down and leave one section of the wall out so that you can go in and remove the remaining dirt on the inside. Then once that's removed you can fill in the remaining section of footing/wall.

My previous house before I bought it the basement walls were getting pushed in and the seller ended up having to fix them before I bought the house - that project was essentially that same process bar the digging out the basement bit of course. They had to dig down along the exterior wall as described above and remove and replace the existing wall down to the footings on 3 sides of the house, and then to make sure the same problem didn't happen again proper drainage was put in along the footings. No more wall movement after that. That job cost the previous owner $20,000. (Note that included digging around the whole foundation of the house and replacing 3/4's of it.)

Bottom line though is you have to have your foundation walls going down as far as you want your basement to go before you pull out all that material. otherwise you won't have anything supporting the foundation once you pull the dirt out.

Hope that helps, my 2 cents...
E.

 

[muddstopper]

I can only say how I did something similar for a guy with a half basement. The basement did have a 4ft access door for entry which made for a tight fit, but by removing the door caseing, I was able to take my little 430max stiener tractor inside the basement. The tractor had a scoop bucket on the front. I just drove in, dug out a scoop and drove out to dump. Those little tractors arenot know for tons of power, but they will fit into tight places. It took me a couple of days to do the job, but it got done. You might check out the rental places and see what kind of small equipment they have available, a Stiener, ventrac, Power trac, Dingo, or similar will get the job done and a couple of days rental would beat the heck out of a shovel and wheelbarrow.

 

[bcp]

I wonder if anyone makes a remote control model, so you don't have to stand behind it to operate it in tight spaces.

https://www.toro.com/en/professional-contractor/compact-utility-loaders

Bruce

 

[ray66v]

My family actually dug out a basement by hand, from a 4' crawl space, when I was a kid.

A flat, smooth belt conveyor belt does not do a good job, with big, solid, shovel sized lumps of clay. Much of the time, my brother, and I had to hold them down with our hands, as they went up the belt, to keep them from rolling back down.

It was a winter long, weekend project, and it was hard work. But, it can be done.

We did get about a quarter a day. Which was not a lot of money, even then. :laughing:

 

[Sprinklerman]

We dug a full basement with a tracked toro dingo . Borrowed some big steel beams and supported the entire house . We dug and laid new footers and walls all the way around . Took a week