We digged up our yard to plant trees and now we have a huge dirt pile on the side of the house inside the fence. Our HOA sent us a letter telling to remove this dirt pile. Our neighbor happens to be an HOA watchdog and only he can see the dirt pile from his second floor.
Where can I dump this dirt in San Diego? It will probably take me at least three trips with my SUV.
Get bids on Craigslist. Take a pictures of the dirt pile, and put it in an ad that says “wanted: dirt hauling.” The pictures should be composed in a way so that you can accurately judge the size of the dirt pile. Ask “how much would you charge to haul this away?” Within minutes you’ll start getting responses.
I’d try Hatfield’s suggestion second.
First I’d post a picture with the title “Free fill dirt”.
The moving of dirt to/from job sites is an entire economy sub sector.
When we were trying to get rid of dirt we found a job site near us – talked to their foreman… It was cheaper for their job to take our fill – exactly where they wanted it (if we hauled) than to move it from excess at a farther part of their job site.
We also got rid of a bunch for some people who needed to fill in a spot to put in a jacuzzi. We helped them shovel it into their pickup.
Both of those cases involved shovels on our part – but not $$$
We didn’t get rid of enough (we had several cubic yards of excess fill) – so we paid to have it hauled off using Hatfields method.
“Dirt is deceiving.”
– quote from a bobcat driver.
Dirt is smarter than me. You have to pay for it when you need it, and you have to pay to have it removed when you don’t need it.
Dirt that is good for gardeners is terrible for construction workers because dirt with organic material compresses over time. Oops.
Dirt is very difficult to move because it is so heavy. Roughly one ton per cubic foot. People think they can rent a uhaul for $29.95 a day and fill it with 5 yards of dirt instead of paying $100 for a dump truck. Turns out that 5 yards of dirt weights 10,000 lbs and the uhaul is only rated for a couple thousand. Oops.
I had to remove about 35 yards of it to build my garage. I rented a bobcat and dump truck for a week. Cost $800. Ad in craigslist said I would deliver 5 yards for $50. I made back about $250 this way and didn’t pay dump fees. If you only have a pickup truck full, then yeah – just craigslist it and hope for the best. If you can deliver it for people, they love you.
Good thing about craigslist people is they don’t really understand what is good fill dirt and what is not. They’ll take anything.
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