Screening my soil of big rocks

[clem24]

So I moved into my new house last year, and they decided to grade it very late in the year. Anyway, the top soil they put on is full of huge rocks.. no, make that boulders (though I can still manage to lift the heaviest one so far). Basically it all has to go before sod can be laid.

I've already talked to the builder and they said it's random whether you get screened loam or not. They said I got unlucky and got unscreened stuff. Which is retarded cause no other house seemed to have gotten the chunky shit that I got. Anyway, I am going to try and talk to them some more but it does not look positive.

I've already tried picking up some of them and carting them to the front of the house (and there's TONS as I am on a big pie lot). I figure it will take me a week to pull out all the rocks and move them.. Which brings me to my problem.

What the fuck should I do with them? I'll probably end up with at least 2000 lbs of rock and not know what to do. I assume it'll cost a lot to have a truck come and haul it off. Otherwise, can I hire someone to bring a truck or some equipment in and screen it for me? I've only did MAYBE 1/20th of my yard and there's already a nice pile of rocks building up.

I honestly don't mind moving the shit to the front, but it's what I am going to do with them that's causing me a headache. Can anyone recommend or know of a company that does this (either screening on my lot, which is preferred, or carting away literally a TON of rocks)?

My other plan is to drive around the neighborhood and see if any other house got the same crappy stuff that I got, and if not, then I'll raise a stink or even take them to small claims for being treated unfairly...

[Kritafo]

your up in the NW...which is like a bloody gravel pit. We are Valley Ridge. We had this problem when we moved in... we ended up calling in a bobcat guy and take off a foot and had it re-graded before putting down our sod.
We tried to make a stink out of it and they basically blew us off, hopefully you will have better luck.

now...the fun part.. we bought a full size tree, it required a 5 foot deep hole by 5 foot wide. We thought a couple nights of digging would do it. 3 piks and many shovels later, plus 8 nights of digging until the sun went down we had our hole.

Over the past 5 years we have put in 4 more trees and made a nice size veggie garden...So even after the foot of dirt was taken off and nice topsoil was put down we are getting rocks the size of your head coming up. Every time it rains...rocks come out of our garden. Just this past weekend we are putting a heat sink in our greenhouse, we got about 5 rocks that were larger than life. We ended up using them all around our trees for boarders. Let the kids paint up the big ones to separate their gardens.

[kgeig254]

Originally posted by clem24
So I moved into my new house last year, and they decided to grade it very late in the year. Anyway, the top soil they put on is full of huge rocks.. no, make that boulders (though I can still manage to lift the heaviest one so far). Basically it all has to go before sod can be laid.

I've already talked to the builder and they said it's random whether you get screened loam or not. They said I got unlucky and got unscreened stuff. Which is retarded cause no other house seemed to have gotten the chunky shit that I got. Anyway, I am going to try and talk to them some more but it does not look positive.

I've already tried picking up some of them and carting them to the front of the house (and there's TONS as I am on a big pie lot). I figure it will take me a week to pull out all the rocks and move them.. Which brings me to my problem.

What the fuck should I do with them? I'll probably end up with at least 2000 lbs of rock and not know what to do. I assume it'll cost a lot to have a truck come and haul it off. Otherwise, can I hire someone to bring a truck or some equipment in and screen it for me? I've only did MAYBE 1/20th of my yard and there's already a nice pile of rocks building up.

I honestly don't mind moving the shit to the front, but it's what I am going to do with them that's causing me a headache. Can anyone recommend or know of a company that does this (either screening on my lot, which is preferred, or carting away literally a TON of rocks)?

My other plan is to drive around the neighborhood and see if any other house got the same crappy stuff that I got, and if not, then I'll raise a stink or even take them to small claims for being treated unfairly...

I have that EXACT same problem right now...I am going to start taking the rocks out next weekend, but I have no idea what to do with them...any suggestions?

[Kritafo]

this is what we did with some of our smaller rocks

[ScottysZ]

Load em into a few old pickups, or a few loads in one, and just drop them off some night in front of the developers building (or whoever it is that fucked you over). Make sure you drop them out of the truck too from a reasonable height (7 or 8 feet?).

[Masked Bandit]

This is why you should own a truck for the first couple of years in a new house.

In our last one, I took out three FULL LOADS in my 1/2 ton. I just drove out to the country and tossed them in the ditch.

We'll have to deal with the same thing again this year.

I like the idea of dropping them off at the builder's office.

Who did you build with?

[ianmcc]

When life gives you rocks, make a rock garden. People pay to have big ass rocks brought in to landscape with. Consider yourself lucky!

[DeeK]

Im in valley ridge too. And I dunno what you are talking about kritafo. We are in the first phase of VR. (15 years ago) and our soil is super fine and soft clay. Zero rocks here.

[rice_balls]

You have to get rid of em yourself most likely... I bitched about it with my builder for about a year. They didn't do anything about it. Gave up and tried picking the rocks myself but man, it never ends. I'll take some pictures later and upload them. It's been about 2 years and I still haven't put grass on because I don't have time to pick up all those damn rocks.
Useless builders i tell ya!! You would think they would at least put some decent top soil on after paying for a $300,000 house :dunno: I think a new car comes in better condition than most new houses :nut:

[rice_balls]

So heres some pictures of my back yard.... The pile of rocks there was after i picked through some of the boulders in the ground

[rice_balls]

another one

[rice_balls]

last one :rolleyes:

[frozenrice]

Stockpile the larger ones in your front yard and leave up a sign for free landscaping rocks. Sometimes people are looking for the larger ones like that for accenting a flower bed.

[Sharpie]

HAhaha wow, that is brutal, but I would suggest getting a bobcat in to grade it and then get some more soil put down.. Try pm'ing redline1300 (i think thats his name on here) I know he has a bobcat and could possibly help you out...

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by DeeK
Im in valley ridge too. And I dunno what you are talking about kritafo. We are in the first phase of VR. (15 years ago) and our soil is super fine and soft clay. Zero rocks here.

Maybe your house was part of the Happy Valley Site...we are back onto the greenspace of the highway and stoney trail...it's freaking brutal.

Funny how it can be so different. We are 7 years Valley Ridge, so not the first phase. Anytime we even talk about trees and shrubs my husband freaks at the thought of all the rocks.

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by rice_balls
another one

Yup those are the types we get. There was nothing under the soil....not even a single worm. it's just rocks and clay.

[BlackArcher101]

Sounds like you got pit run instead of topsoil.

[Weapon_R]

Redline_13000 has a bobcat and dumptruck. He could probably get rid of that mess and sod your lawn for a great price.

[Odysseyus]

There will be a clause in your contract with the builder that exempts them from having to provide you with decent loam. Basically, you are stuck. Get a quote for having someone to dig it out an haul it away. In a perfect world, I would want 12" of screaned loam anywhere I was planning lawn and at least 24" anywhere I was planning on planting trees.

[rice_balls]

The thing is... I had better soil in my yard BEFORE they brought in the top soil. So basically they just brought boulders and rocks when I could of been better off without it. Would of saved me alot of time and money. Who knows, what can you do?

I'll message Redline for sure to get a quote after I get a few things dealt with. The yard will stay as dirt for 1 more year.

[DeeK]

Originally posted by Kritafo


Maybe your house was part of the Happy Valley Site...we are back onto the greenspace of the highway and stoney trail...it's freaking brutal.

Funny how it can be so different. We are 7 years Valley Ridge, so not the first phase. Anytime we even talk about trees and shrubs my husband freaks at the thought of all the rocks.

OH! that explains it. Yea, that side is brutal. I built alot of houses on that side. It's really really rocky. Where I am, we get the occasional rock, but nothing major.

[Benny]

Bobcat that fucker right down and toss on at least a foot of soil all around. It's what we did all last summer when people needed sod put down and their yards were covered in rocks. You could try to pick them all out, but it SUUUUCCCKKKSSSS!



BTW don't do this:


now...the fun part.. we bought a full size tree, it required a 5 foot deep hole by 5 foot wide. We thought a couple nights of digging would do it. 3 piks and many shovels later, plus 8 nights of digging until the sun went down we had our hole.

Need something with an engine for digging in Calgary. Even those 'hedge-hog' augers with the lawn mower engines in them ain't the greatest. It goes a lot smoother with a BIG tree hole auger attachment and ~6000lbs of Bobcat behind it.

[redline_13000]

:werd: Let me know if you need to get something done, All the machinery needed is only 20 feet away from me:thumbsup:

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by Benny
Bobcat that fucker right down and toss on at least a foot of soil all around. It's what we did all last summer when people needed sod put down and their yards were covered in rocks. You could try to pick them all out, but it SUUUUCCCKKKSSSS!



BTW don't do this:



Need something with an engine for digging in Calgary. Even those 'hedge-hog' augers with the lawn mower engines in them ain't the greatest. It goes a lot smoother with a BIG tree hole auger attachment and ~6000lbs of Bobcat behind it.

I forget which tree farm we had bought the tree from but they tried to dig the hole they had to stop and tell us it needed to be done by hand so it wouldn't wreck the equipment they had to do it. They had a bobcat with something like a post hole digger and it kept stopping...sparks were flying..most entertaining!

[clem24]

Man that looks like my yard alright... Except now imagine it was a fucking pie lot. Total square footage of whole lot including house is 6,800 sq ft. Check out the pics:

Down the right side (you can see where the lot line is.. just look at where all the big rocks are):

[clem24]

Down the other side:

[clem24]

The pile that's taken me about 4 hours to collect so far (and I've been hauling it up the side of the house which happens to be steep b/c of my walk out basement):

[clem24]

And finally the actual yard.. My lot starts where the fence bends at 45 degrees, and goes right to the ride side of the photo.

Umm... I am going to try and see if I can pull some strings with the land developer since my wife works there, but it's not looking good. Yeah redline_13000 you've got PM.. :D

[Kritafo]

this your ad Clem?

Free River Rock (Calgary NW)
Reply to: [email protected]
Date: 2008-05-01, 12:15AM MDT


Free River Rock- NW Calgary




* Location: Calgary NW
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests


PostingID: 662861541

[clem24]

Nope. Redline_13000 is gonna come screen my loam and haul the shit away!!! :thumbsup: :love:

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Ah, should've just had your wife do it. ;)

[redline_13000]

Ya Ill be getting it done for clem next week, if anyone else wants the same thing done shoot me a pm!