Land clearing for house build, need some insite

[Darren33]

Hey guys, new here. Need some advice on some wet clay land. In the spring I closed on 5 acres of heavily wooded land that im looking to build a house and a garage on. I also own a small bandsaw so I need room for a building for the mill, logs, kiln, drying shed etc. Anyway, up until mid June the land was dry but with all the rain and me digging out stumps and running over all the wet low holes its created quite the mucky area. Im in upstate New York, clay ground that doesnt seem to drain very well and the rain has been insane this year but how do I fix this? I havent made my way to the back part of the property yet but before I do would like some ideas before I get there. Should I get a rake for the tractor? Disc it? Grade it? Till it? Or do I just need to be patient with all the rain we've gotten and then grade and continue filling in holes as I go? It does start to dry after a couple days but then we go right back to continuous rain. Im going to try and attach a couple of pictures. Thanks for any

 

[Egon]

Be patient. Lay out an access plan.

 

[pjbci]

Once the rain stops break or scratch the surface of the wetest spots any way you can and it will dry much faster.

We clear and build house sites for a living. This year has been the wettest I can remember and it has been a chore drying out sites by turning the clay over 2-3 times a day so we can run dumptrucks on them the next day or two before it rains again.

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Darren, welcome to the forum! As Mr. Egon mentions, patience.

I live in northern PA, and we may have shared in some of the same rain storms! 4.5 inches in the last 8 days.

2021 has been a terrible rainy summer...and the tractor is parked for the most part, because I don't want to rut all my clay, errr, I mean land.

This too shall pass!

Walk your 5 acres, memorize and mark out the high spots, the low spots, learn where your keeper trees are. Determine what makes sense for driveways, trails, building sites and drainage.

Determine what needs to be done in sequence...the challenge is trying to accomplish 10 different tasks at the same time, and getting none of them done.

The rains will end soon (hopefully) and you can then go to work with a well thought out plan.

 

[old and tired]

As for photos, just make a few more replies to posts... I think there is a certain number before you can post photos...

You might be help with a Sub-soiler if you have a hard pan / layer of soil that needs to be broken up.

 

[Streetcar]

Stay out of wet areas. Enter when it dries up
Fill holes as you go.
Work on master plan for the site

 

[Darren33]

As for the reply on the photos I didnt realise that until I tried posting some lol. Yesterday I did go ahead and grade off some the slop hoping it would help some. Biggest thing for me right now is to be able to get to the back part of the property. its untouched ground as of now with numerous spruce trees that are overgrown and fallen over. Ive sorta just planned things as ive gone. I did start on a driveway as I had to in order to be able to get vehicles off the road as its a ditch, all the spruce trees ive been cutting and splitting and selling as camp wood out front. Ive been being quite careful outta fear with all the slop I fear that I might flip the tractor as its only a john deere 4410. Ive been looking at a kioti dk4510 so I think the extra weight and wider stance of that will only help. Sounds as tho many others of you are having the same issues as me this year. I will do my best to be patient even if its tough. When it someday does dry up I have a grader for the 3 point hitch I can use to scrape the ground with am I better off with that, a rake, box blade or just turn the ground with a tiller or disc it? Im guessing part of the problem is lack of oxygen in the ground as well?

 

[Darren33]

Mr. Darren, welcome to the forum! As Mr. Egon mentions, patience.

I live in northern PA, and we may have shared in some of the same rain storms! 4.5 inches in the last 8 days.

2021 has been a terrible rainy summer...and the tractor is parked for the most part, because I don't want to rut all my clay, errr, I mean land.

This too shall pass!

Walk your 5 acres, memorize and mark out the high spots, the low spots, learn where your keeper trees are. Determine what makes sense for driveways, trails, building sites and drainage.

Determine what needs to be done in sequence...the challenge is trying to accomplish 10 different tasks at the same time, and getting none of them done.

The rains will end soon (hopefully) and you can then go to work with a well thought out plan.

thank you, great ideas. I see im definitely far from alone here

 

[oosik]

Best idea - develop an overall plan. Otherwise - it will be like a chicken, running around with its head lopped off.

Boy - could we ever use some of your rain. So dry here - the popcorn dried up and blew away.

Welcome to TBN and the forum.

 

[Darren33]

Best idea - develop an overall plan. Otherwise - it will be like a chicken, running around with its head lopped off.

Boy - could we ever use some of your rain. So dry here - the popcorn dried up and blew away.

Welcome to TBN and the forum.

Right now the plan is to finish up on the culvert pipe where I started the driveway. Not much left to i just need to finish off the edges and fill the holes in on the ends of the pipe. Atleast that drains quite well. We are looking at some dry weather after tomorrow for the rest of the week from what I can see so far so im going to give the land a break this week end and do some firewood. I'll let it hopefully dry up some and then my plan is to head for the back part of the property. Its overgrown badly with a lot of blow downs. I think the best plan i can continue with for now is to keep clearing and burning brush as I go. I also need to do a better job of filling in and grading off the holes i make along the way. On a side note for one thanks for the welcome and two parts of the country looks as if there is some brutal heat and fires going on, heart breaking. Pray for all of you, hope you do get rain

 

[kenmbz]

To get my drainage plan I spent some time during and after rains to see flow and low spots.
Google maps can help you look at the area too.

Welcome to TBN and congrats on the new acreage.

 

[newbury]

I come from northern Vermont and am familiar with Darren33's soil types and climate. Glacial and cold.
First thing he should do is get a soil survey linky.
On 5 acres it may all be the same clay, but there might be some area of sand or gravel.
He needs to know what he has for planning.

 

[PuffyC]

I'm not sure there's much "fixing" that can be done besides filling in holes, but one thing I'll say is be very careful about how you and others build on that land. For example, if you have a road built, many will want to bring in a dozer and push surrounding dirt to build up the roadbed. Don't let that happen because if you do your road might end up surrounded by brand new mudholes that will almost never drain. Any earth moving has the potential to create big problems down the road that won't be apparent until the next time it rains. Learn from my mistake

 

[Darren33]

I do have some sand that I can see on the land for sure. No dozers or anything like that coming in all work is being done by myself. Did see where we are in the top 5 wettest july's of all time so in reality its just the year working against me

 

[nyone]

Hey guys, new here. Need some advice on some wet clay land. In the spring I closed on 5 acres of heavily wooded land that im looking to build a house and a garage on. I also own a small bandsaw so I need room for a building for the mill, logs, kiln, drying shed etc. Anyway, up until mid June the land was dry but with all the rain and me digging out stumps and running over all the wet low holes its created quite the mucky area. Im in upstate New York, clay ground that doesnt seem to drain very well and the rain has been insane this year but how do I fix this? I havent made my way to the back part of the property yet but before I do would like some ideas before I get there. Should I get a rake for the tractor? Disc it? Grade it? Till it? Or do I just need to be patient with all the rain we've gotten and then grade and continue filling in holes as I go? It does start to dry after a couple days but then we go right back to continuous rain. Im going to try and attach a couple of pictures. Thanks for any

I also love in NY and have cleared land I own. You need to wait.

The more you drive on things that are wet the worse it's going to get. Before you leave get the surface shedding water. Clay hardly absorbs so let it run down hill and not pool up.

I built a rock solid driveway through a swamp in 2019..they key was building up the surface and letting it sit. Road fabric over cordery road helped too.

 

[Sebculb]

See if you can dig a system of drainage ditches that take all the water to the low side of the property. Or a stream? Wide ditches that don't require constant maintenance. Stay out of the mud holes or you'll mix up a soup that won't dry anytime soon.

What kind of equipment do you have at your disposal?

 

[cliokounte]

Thanks for the sound advice! I am planning to get a new house soon, and I would like to expand it a bit before moving in. The ground around the house is wet for some reason, and I need to understand how I can fix that. The way I see it, the housing market in the US is not in the best state, so I want to have a firm plan of action now to avoid all the chaos that might follow the market crash. According to https://timthomas.co/signs-of-a-housing-market-crash/, this crash is already happening. I don’t know what the possible outcome might be, but I want to invest the money right now.

 

[old and tired]

Thanks for your precious advice! I am planning to get a new house soon, and I would like to expand it a bit before moving in. the ground around the house I will probably buy is wet, and I need to understand what the order of my actions should be.

profile = Tractor: Tractor - - - I smell a spam-bot... digging up an old thread??? Where are you planning to buy land???