Poor man's conveyor belt

[jhb]

Poor man\'s conveyor belt

Hello all, I am currently trying to dig out my crawl space to get a little head room for general maintenance etc. I also am planning to lay down a vapor barrier on the ground to prevent the rot I am fixing from becoming a problem in the future. There are too many stones under there and I want to make a smooth surface before I lay the sheet so it won't tear or wear though over time.

This space it tight, and I have been using 2 5 gallon pales to remove the dirt, but this is slow as I have to roll and crawl to get them out.

So What I was thinking was getting a cheap blue tarp and laying it under the house, then dig up the dirt and put the rocks on it, roll it length wise, wrap a wire around its length to prevent the contents from shifting, and drag it out with the tractor.

NE1 tried something like this? Thoughts? I am going to try it in a few weeks, I'll let you know how it comes out.

 

[Nasty135]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

jhb, How big is your opening? The tarp thing may not last too long...

Are you pulling it out on a level plane or is it uphill?

Maybe you could use a piece of plywood with 2x4 borders to hold the dirt in place while extracting with tractor?? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Plywood could be ripped to whatever width needed and will definately outlast the tarp... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Just another idea

 

[BB_TX]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

Not sure the cheap blue tarps could hold much dirt without tearing. What about the kids plastic snow sleds y'all have up north? Don't look like they would cost a lot and look light weight and easy to move around.

 

[Woodsman_Pete]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

I kinda like the plywood box skid idea, this way you could drag it out thru the access door and either continue draging it with the tractor or rig it so that you could pick it and carry it to where ever your placing the spoils. The other thing that is nice about this is that if you drag it to the spoil area, keep it rigged short to the bucket on the back hoe and just lift the one end with the hoe to dump... saves a lot of shoveling. I have used a blue tarp on leaves before and it was pretty hard on the tarp and grommets, I would think that any real weight like dirt and rocks would just tear it up. Plus, the material will want to move in the tarp and create a bubble of sorts which may be bigger than your access door, then it might get ugly.

 

[Farwell]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

I do not know how much space you have under your house but if you fit, you should be able to make something to transport your rocks and dirt. I made a box that sat on wheels that looked like a little kids red wagon but was wider and sat lower. I tied a rope on each end and would load the wagon, crawl out from under the house and pull the wagon out for dumping then go back under the house and start the process over again. Much easier if you have two people, one to load and one to dump. If the soil and rocks are real rough, try air filled tires. I also made a wheeled platform that I would lie down on to move from one end of the crawl space to the other.
Farwell

 

[jhb]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

Problem is that the access doors (I have to go through 2) are so small that to get any real surface area I need narrow and long sleds, plus it will have to snake around a turn. Not 90deg, but enough that a rigid sled will have a real problem.

As for the dirt bunching up, I intend to wrap the tow wire around the tarp along it length to prevent just that. Kind of like those Chinese finger cuffs. The harder I pull, the tighter it holds the contents in place.

 

[tawilson]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

I know you didn't ask this, but I'll throw it out there anyways. Is there anywhere in your house where you could install a hatch in the floor to provide better access to your crawlspace?

 

[jhb]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

No because the floors are 200 years old and beautiful. Could not reproduce them if I tried.

 

[KubotaSteve]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

When clearing the snow off the kids trampoline, I use one of those rubbermaid totes to scoop it up and then take it to the door of the netting and dump it out. They come in various sizes up to around 50 gallon and they are no higher than a 5 gallon bucket. Just make sure you put your tow strap around the tote and it should work like a champ.
Good luck

 

[Varmintmist]

Re: Poor man\'s conveyor belt

What about seting some house jacks or bottle jacks and blowing a hole in the foundation?

Then make your plywood skid as wide and deep as your hole and as long as you want. Fill it then drag it out. Repair the foundation when you are done.

You will probably be fixing the foundation anyway if you want to get any depth, you will be digging to below the level of the current foundation at a guess. That will need to be rebuilt.