Turfcutter or similar tool - handy for laying slab?

[Pabbles]

We have a fair bit of landscaping and building to do (a 12m x 9m oak garage, a large new gravel turning circle and a series of gravel paths) around a 0.5acre garden.

 

obviously this means that we’ll need to dig down to various depths to allow for, in the case of the slab, hardcore, sand, membrane and concrete (the concrete would obviously be shuttered proud of the surrounding grass) and in the case of the gravel paths and turning circle membrane, MOT, gravel mesh and gravel.

 

in either case, I’ll only be going down about 150mm consistently across a very large area and winding new pathways through what is currently flat level grassed lawn.

 

now obviously a groundworks company can do this, but the quotes I’ve been getting are preposterous.

 

As an alternative, I could hire a mini digger and a driven-dumper and have the soil taken away. All this is cheap to do and is the default route. I’ve used a mini digger before for a similar job but while it was easy to learn the basics - getting an even depth over a wide area is very time consuming.

 

which takes us to option 3: just hire an experienced digger driver and a digger. I haven’t had quotes for this yet.

 

but my wildcard thought is a turf cutter (the really big ones) - these are pushed along like a giant caterpillar powered lawnmower and can evenly cut turf to a depth of around 60mm…

 

so - is there a machine of a similar ilk that could go down to 150mm? It would be so easy to use and to follow the lines correctly that it seems ideal. Yes - I’d still need to lift the spoil away, but that requires much less skill and depth perception than doing the whole lot with a mini digger.

 

I’ve also seen trench cutters that can go to 1m plus. I kind of want a hybrid of the two.

 

any ideas at all?

Edited February 2, 2023 by Pabbles

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, Pabbles said:

....

As an alternative, I could hire a mini digger and a driven-dumper and have the soil taken away. All this is cheap to do and is the default route. I’ve used a mini digger before for a similar job but while it was easy to learn the basics - getting an even depth over a wide area is very time consuming.

....

 

Your post illustrates a simple truism: as valid for self-builders as everyone else.

 

Cost, Quality, Time.  You can have any two. But not three. Its called the Scope Triangle

 

Do it yourself and learn to enjoy doing it yourself.

[SteamyTea]

8 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

You can have any two. But not three.

Does it not just make it a self fulfilling prophesy though.

There are many products on the market that are all three.

Just take mass manufactured food, or automobiles.

White goods are another, a basic fridge, £120, lasts for years, does the job asked of it, and as it is a 'white good' looks like most of the rest.

 

Planning, organisation and execution are they keys to getting a job done properly and within budget.

[markc]

Turf cutters do cut an even depth but only because they are running on very flat level ground. 

[ProDave]

A lot of us on here found buying our own min digger, using it for the job then selling it was the best way.  You have the digger on hand whenever you want it not constrained by hire deadlines etc so you often find you are using it for small jobs, just moving stuff about site etc that you would not have considered hiring for.  And it's fun.

 

Your garage is as big as my house so it definitely sounds like it is worth it.

 

As a novice digger driver I found the easiest way to get the final bit level when stripping an area was do the final scrape with the dozer blade on the digger rather than try and scrape it level with the bucket.

[Jenki]

2 hours ago, Pabbles said:

a 12m x 9m oak garage

As @ProDave says, that's bigger than my planned house.

On the scale your talking purchasing a digger/ and possibly dumper is the way to go if you have the time.  

A skilled operator does make a difference so if time is a key commodity then this is a good solution.

If you look at major builders they don't use turf cutters, they use 360's and dozers. Because it's what they do.

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Planning, organisation and execution are they keys to getting a job done properly and within budget

100%. The counter to this is when your budget isn't flexible or enough😂. That's when looking at problems from left field is sometimes the only option, so to this end @Pabbles I salute you. But I respectfully suggest you scratch turf cutter off your list for groundworks.

[Russell griffiths]

Find a man who does mini excavation, will probably have his own mini dumper that you drive. 

Expect £400 a day probably plus fuel now. 

Will shift twice as much as you will if you hire one. 

[jayc89]

I'd be inclined to go for digger + driver for that kinda thing. It seems like you'll have a pretty large garden so it might be worth considering whether you could hide any of the soil you remove in raised borders etc. We levelled all ours off in our paddock and you an hardly tell now.

[saveasteading]

If you have garden space it would be a shame to throw away good topsoil. Pile up the top 100mm or so of your site strip, and the grass and roots will die and rot in a few weeks.. You then have valuable soil* to spread on the flower beds, or fill pots or build raised beds.

 The mini digger mentioned will do that in 2 hours, and can immediately carry on to footings. 

 

* 11m3 which you would buy in for at least £500, or pay as much to take away. Look you have saved £1,000.

[Temp]

I hired a mini digger and dumper. The dumper was also used to transport concrete around my house to where the slab was in back garden. It's worth paying the ready-mix co a bit of waiting time. Our delivery driver was very helpful. 

[twice round the block]

I would hire in a skilled owner operator.

If your doing it yourself and you take out too much earth, back filling with mot type 1, or crushed concrete will soon swallow a few extra meters at £70 a cubic meter.... so zero cost saving. 

[Dave Jones]

if your not great with a digger use a builders string and couple pegs, establish the string at your required height start at one end and just keep moving it down. Rough it out with the digger first than rake to get nice. takes a little longer but not much. 

 

obviously a lot faster with laser but string is a quid right.

[Pabbles]

Thank you everyone. Some really sensible advice there.

 

I’ll look into buying a mini-digger, I’ll rule out renting one and operating it myself and will look into the costs of getting an operator to do the lot. Will then make a call.

 

the turf cutter-type tool is firmly put in my ridiculous idea pile 😊

 

great tips re: moving the topsoil around the site - we do have some low areas so suspect I can lose it on the property.