bgott
Veteran Member
I've spent the last three days filling a swimming pool with dirt at an apartment complex. I took these pictures myself, I couldn't trust anybody there with my camera, so there is no action shots. I didn't do any of the calculations ( guesstimations), which saved my butt from some serious embarrassment. The complex maintenance man called a pool company with the measurements, they said it held 22,000 gallons. That works out to 108 cubic yards of fill. They figured on a couple of extra yards of fill for the depth from the edge to the water level. The complex had a bid of $5,000 to do the job with 11-11 yd. loads of fill. They decided they could save money by doing it themselves and hiring me to move the dirt. They did, but it actually took 209 yards, or 19 truckloads! I'm glad I didn't bid the job, I charged a straight $30 an hour. I had about a 250' run from the parking lot where the dirt was dumped, between a building and the laundry room, across the lawn and then I had to work around the pool apron. 209 yards of dirt with a half yard bucket works out to 418 round trips! I didn't count them, most bucket loads I managed to heap, but some of the fill was wet clay and I'd end up moving 2/3s of a bucket. I had to blade the yard four or five times so the ruts didn't bounce me off of the tractor. After 3 p.m. it was a PITA, school lets out and I was great entertainment. One little turd was chunking clods at my box blade when I would pass by and hit me with one between the shoulder blades, I wasn’t really happy about that. All in all it wasn’t a bad deal. If I could find one of these to do a week it would be a nice supplemental income.
