More Backfill

Working around the building is so much easier and safer after backfilling.

We would use the backhoe to dump the soil into the garage and then use the small excavator to place it. My brother and I would then use shovels to level it more and then a power tamper to pack it down. It was all a lot of work.

Some gravel will be needed to build up in front of the garage. We have plenty of topsoil to the left of the picture to flare out from the driveway.

View looking toward the back corner of the garage.

In order to obtain proper drainage around the back of the garage we had to dig into the hill behind the garage. We stripped off the top soil and piled it up and dug out the subsoil and used as fill in the garage. Later in the summer we will spread the top soil on this slope and rake it off and plant grass seed in the early fall.

Another concern over runoff is the south side of the building. Originally it came to the area of our new basement so we needed to divert it. We started with a ditch of the correct slope to take the water from the corner of the patio out to the south of the old house. We then flared the south side of the ditch to produce a slope you could run a riding lawn mower on.

That left a big problem south of the swimming pool, so I decided to tear up more of Jon’s lawn while he was away on vacation. 

Whatever work I needed done had to be done by three PM because the backhoe had to go to a cemetery and dig a grave for a person who is no longer living physically. I sure hope that person had received the gift of eternal life.