I built my house about 2 years ago and am doing yard work as money and time allows. I need to do some grade work in one side of my house. I need to remove a few inches of sand away from the foundation, pitch it away from the house and then add topsoil so I can plant grass. My question is can I safely get a Bobcat close to the foundation without worrying about cracking it. Or am I in for a lot of shovel work? I would have to go parallel to the foundation as I only have ~10ft between the foundation and trees and brush that I don’t want to disturb. The foundation wall is 10’ deep and the fill is up 9’ of the foundation wall. The wall is 30’ long and poured 10” thick. I have 3 bump outs 2’ wide and 1’ out along the side of the foundation to give the wall extra support. attached is a picture of the wall in question. It’s the one on the right side of the picture.
In my opinion, you’ll be absolutely fine grading around the house with the skid steer, especially if it’s a 10 inch poured concrete wall with those bump outs, should be plenty strong, it’s not like you’re running a 35,000 pound track loader or excavator right up along the foundation and the backfill is fresh wet jello....
I agree with Tags. A 2 year old 10" poured wall is more than capable of taking load. Has the house been framed yet? The floor system and basement walls also give the poured walls support. If the house was framed it's absolutely no problem. BTW I'm moving this from Shop Talk to General Industry Questions.
Yes the entire house as well as the basement is framed and finished. That picture is from 2 years ago just to show the foundation.
You're fine. Just be mindful of getting the skid too close to the house in the soft backfill zone, the last thing you want to do is get the machine against the house and tear siding off...don't ask me how I know.
That is the first foundation I have ever seen with the pilasters on the outside of the walls.
Seems kind of dumb to me to put the pilasters on the outside unless there is plenty of rebar in them and into the wall? Aesthetically, I like the pilasters outside though. Concrete loves compression but absolutely despises tension!
Those are quite common here on the outside to support porches and slab on grades at the main level. Residential construction is not known for it's compaction ability so those pilasters hold up the SOG's, steps and such.
Shouldn't have any problems with foundation strength or cracking. You have to be careful if the material close to the foundation is softer than a few feet away. I did the topsoil around my former neighbors house and it was soft enough I got on angle and stuck up the foundation. Didn't cause any damage other than some tire marks on the planks on top of the foundation. There was no siding yet. Neighbor pulled me out with his truck and I made sure to pack some material up against the foundation before I drove along the side of the house. Right up against the foundation I think is usually the softest or least compacted.
Yep no problems at all. Most guys will happily run a skidsteer right against a fresh wall 50' long without even having the floor on...