Need advice

[kneedeep]

It will clean up with a brush bucket and thumb but will be slow.
I own a cut/backhoe and hired local farmer to bring a big excavator to dig a hole twice the size of the old house here and demo it in
to the hole after I had stripped all the pine & oak t&g, saw mill 1x12 cedar sheathing and as much of the oak 2x framing lumber that was salvageable.
Picked a damp day and all the old oil with some diesel made it go away, stirred it couple times with a old Ibeam using the bh thumb.
There was a 5 hr minimum so got a couple hours cleaning up the ditch bisecting the farm before my hours were up. Took longer to walk the trash 50’ to the hole than the actual demo. $200/hr was quickest and cheapest way to deal with the old .
Took me year to pull all the nails, square cut the ends, wash both sides and dry on slats to get about 3k sf of good lumber. I used every piece to build out the cabin interior.
Hardest part of the whole project was getting help. I did hire the plumbing done by a local contractor.
Im a retired contractor and I swear this is the last big project out of my pocket I want to do. But its done and being well used by family and friends.

 

[etpm]

This suggestion may not be something you want to do or can do but let me tell you what my wife and I did back in 1997. We bought a place that was trashed and it had a building on it that needed to be removed. It was once a cabin and it had been added onto. The original cabin was about 60 years old but the additions were haphazard and I don't know when they were added.
We talked to the fire department and to the department of environmental quality or some such name. I just don't remember. They do a good job, both the fire department and the environmental quality department and I'm very happy they both are there doing their jobs. Anyway, we asked them if the old cabin could be burned as a practice fire for the volunteer fife department, which is what we have here on the south end of Whidbey Island.
We had removed before we asked about the burn all the toxic materials we could find in the old structure. Everybody looked at it and the fire dept. got permission from the state environmental dept. to do the burn. So the burn happened and we saved about 10 grand in disposal costs. This was back in 1997 so it would have saved us way more in today's costs.
Anyway, maybe this is an option for you. The fire dept. jumped at the chance for a controlled burn of a real house, apparently this chance is rare. I think because of this they rooted for us when it came to dealing with the state. My wife and I were certainly happy with the burn because it saved us a ton of money and the volunteer fire fighters got good practice.
We had the house burned in early January, invited a bunch of friends and family for a "house warming party" and not only did we have a grand time we got to watch fire fighters do their thing. We were all very impressed.
Eric

 

[rScotty]

Nothing wrong with your plan except a couple of things I would change.

A JD110 Tractor/Loader/Backhoe is NOT the right tool for that job. That model BH/Loader is cute as can be but they did have some problems....nothing JD couldn't have fixed or shouldn't have fixed...but they discontinued the very popular machine instead.

The machine you want is also by JD and is yellow, but it is a JD310/Case580/Cat316 of any vintage, not a 110. Those are the backhoe loader combo you see by the dozens on every construction site. Buy a good used one from your local utility company or school zone.
Start with the JD310. Most popular and best price...usually. Then Case580 if nice condx.
Second, for demo work the backhoe MUST have a thumb on it.
A skid steer competitive in price will not lift high enough dump far enough forward to fill a dumpster or commercial truck. It's what the JD310 was made to do.

Third, be sure to include the cost of either big dumpster roll-offs for trash.... or else hauling and dumping. It will be substantial. For a job here including 10 miles to the dump:
A standard JD 310 front loader bucket holds one (1) cubic yard of material. The green roll-offs that the truck drops off for you to fill with trash and broken lumber hold 12 cubic yards packed down hard. Here, they cost 600/700 apiece to drop off/pickup/dump. If you do it with a pickup truck instead, a PU bed will hold a bit less than 2 cubic yards and costs $100 to dump at the dump/trash site. A 12 foot trailer will hold 2 to 3 cubic yards heaped and tarped... and cost $125 to dump. I figure that house is going to be somewhere between 7 and 20 roll-offs demoed.
It all depends on how you stack the roll off... Using a helper with a contractors trash saw, plus the bigger 310 with a backhoe thumb and xtendahoe can save you $4/5K in disposal costs.
All that is assuming no hazardous material.

I'd say the bid you got is too high for the photos you show. See if someone else will do it for $20K. If so, let them. Be SURE to include concrete removal in costs.

rScotty

 

[CliffordK]

If you're worried about tires during demo, then look for a used tracked machine.

I ended up with a used CAT loader that I'm hoping will be beneficial for site prep next year, then I'll pass it on, perhaps for a profit.

 

[edgarrian]

I would suggest renting an excavator and buying a tractor for up keep. Some people can catch onto running an excavator half way decent and others it takes time. If you have a friend that can run it. Maybe have him do the work since he will be quicker. But yes an excavator is gonna be quicker and safer