Just went to look at a job today. They need the grade in a crawl space raised about 8". There is maybe 3' clearance. I have a small opening that I can get into. Any have any experience or ideas on how to move material in?
For jobs like that usually a few 5 gallon buckets... 1 guy filling, 1 guy transporting, and as many guys as you can get underneath
As Ronsil says, the five gallon bucket method works good
How big is the area?
A long time ago, I used to help an old friend of mine with little labor intensive jobs like that. He had a whole flock of five gallon buckets. We'd drive to the supply yard, and he'd spread them out across the bed of his pickup truck, and have the loader dump 1/2 or 3/4 of a ton in the bed. When we got back to the job, half of the material was already in the buckets... :thumbsup
How much yardage? Knock out a few blocks, run a conveyor through? https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/items/945/sectional-conveyors/ Vac suck truck? Or a bunch of buckets, men, dropcloths and a really good vacuum.
Blower truck with damp sand? I've seen them blow in topsoil with a bark blower truck....
I like the conveyor idea! I'm curious why you looking to add material to a crawl space? In my experience people are looking to remove material from a crawl space.
When I helped my dad clean out the craw space under our mobile home he built a little flatbed cart to put a rubbermade tub on and used that. Much easier than messing with buckets. Cart was pretty simple, couple chunks of angle iron and lawn mower wheels IIRC and was sized to match the bottom of the tub with a little rim. Should be about to find a tub that will hold 50 lb or so of dirt and be an easy size to work with, just get a few of those. If you set it up right it should be pretty easy for the folks in the crawl space to just wheel it where needed and tip the tub off to one side to dump. Tie a rope on each end and pull it back and forth.
A mixer truck can use its chute to put gravel into a crawl space access hole. Most ready mix co. will deliver stone this way.
I think a bark blower would work for topsoil as well. Some guys around her have used it to spray compost...
Sorry never got back. My power supply went on my PC so I really have not been online. Joispoi the area is about 17x30 and I only have to bring the area up 6-8". I have to use clean fill so it maybe a little heavy for the bark blower to move. I don't really know never used one before. I am thinking about just using the bucket method and welding a cart up and using a rope to move the cart under the house.
If you don't need drainage, just use self leveling grout from a concrete pump, LOL! :tong
Eeeeeuuuuwww ! :throwup Gravel thru a blower might need some earplugs.
Doesn't work that way, but I see your point, lol. The blower just pushes air, there's a feeder, usually rotary, that drops material into the air stream at the back of the box. Gravel might be too heavy to move consistently, but soils and mixes are fine.
Yup seen bark blowers (to fill a truck) drop it in downstream of the blower wheel. But a bale shredding type goes thru. I have worked on some machinery that I said "It looked like it was sandblasted with 2-b" Seriously, the OP needs to do some quick math, and figure out the total amount needed down there. A simple portable electric belt conveyor might be just the ticket (as has been mentioned before) A one ton pick up dump with a coal door to hit the conveyor, and someone below moving the conveyor by hand may be all that's needed.