Called in a bulldozer today . . .

Not sure what the heck I am getting into but I figured the best thing to do was to call in a rental bulldozer. Should show up in a week.

The wife wants to move the pool. I think that means we are putting in a new pool and tearing out the old one because I don't think there is really much that can be saved.

Long story, but when we bought our property we had only 1 build-able spot and a pool would not fit by the house. So the pool is down a hill at the base while the house sits up on top, oh and there are some woods in between the two. Several years go by and the acreage next door comes up for sale, I buy that and now we have 2 lots side by side. We expanded our yard area and I built "my" garage/workshop on that lot, connected it to the house with a fenced yard for the dogs. Now the lovely wife wants a pool there too, essentially on the property line where the two lots come together but its all wooded (scrub woods, nothing of value).

This wooded area is full of brambles, wild roses, hawthorn, and lots of small/medium trees and the ground is very uneven with some slope and roll to it.

I've been looking at this area for the past 2 years not sure how to deal with it. Finally figured out the only real way to tackle it was to bulldoze a clearing. Probably try to level it out as best as possible while I'm at it.

Anyone here with bulldozer experience? Do I try this myself or will I just make a bigger mess of things? Is it better to let someone with experience do this for me? The guy with the dozer is a business neighbor of mine, he'll drop the dozer off for me or he will send one of his guys to do the work. Not sure which way to go with this.

Advice appreciated.

DO it yourself !! Anyone with as much snow cat experience as you- should have no problem - afterall how much real trouble can you get in ??

No Guts - No Glory

How long do you wanna take? ........... the experienced operator is going to have it done in a day .........

snow dog said:

DO it yourself !! . . . afterall how much real trouble can you get in ??

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Uh, you realize you are telling this to a guy who ran out of gas and had to walk a mile home through knee deep snow

yes I do, but if you just watch - you will always wonder if you could have done it. After all, you could have the experienced operator come in on day two if needed

I can see nothing good coming of this. Have someone who knows what they are doing do it. Course, bulldozers do look like they would be a lot of fun. Take pics if you do it yourself, so we can laugh at er with you. hehe

So, you're going to have 2 pools now. Cool. Too bad you live too far away. I own all the equipment needed to not only clear the area but put in the new pool, make a nice landscaped area around the pool and lay a nice herringbone pattern brick area about 4000 sq. ft. around the pool area. Of course, you will need a 2 story 2500 sq. ft. pool house that can double as a guest house as well. Sounds cool!

Uh Dargo have you been talking to my wife about pool houses? She has plans for one of those too, with a guest apartment on the upper level.

But no, not 2 pools. We will take out the original pool. It is a "liner" pool so it should be fairly easy to remove that pool. Not sure if the new one will be a solid fiberglass pool or another liner pool.

mak2 said:

I can see nothing good coming of this. Have someone who knows what they are doing do it. Course, bulldozers do look like they would be a lot of fun. Take pics if you do it yourself, so we can laugh at er with you. hehe

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I agree with mak with one exception...go and have some with the boy toy before the operator gets there. Every guy's dream is to play with a dozer or backhoe or a trackhoe, myself included. This way you can take it off your bucket list. I would...

Do you have a choice of equipment? An excavator may be a better choice. Invite Dargo over. He has the right size machine for what you want to do.

Trackhoes are loads of fun, I've played with those in the past and had a blast, so much fun that my wife actually hopped in the car and took off for the day because she thought I was going to tear down every tree on the property and dig up holes to bury the bodies of my daughter's future boyfriends.

Well clearly there are plenty of trees left, not saying there are not hidden holes for the bodies....

bczoom said:

Do you have a choice of equipment? An excavator may be a better choice. Invite Dargo over. He has the right size machine for what you want to do.

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The terrain has some steep spots, not sure I'd really want to work with one of those until a dozer went in and did some clearing/leveling.

Melensdad,
Review shearblading under Heavy Equipment - this could be you !! rumble forward and pile the undergrowth, No grade to set.

If you want to have a good site for the pool let an experienced operator do it.. You are going to want the trees and roots out of there and piled for burning or at least shoved over the embankment somewhere. Then get the site to level and swaled so you don't have rain water washing down into your pool area. Clearing brush and road building is fun but to get the site right you are better off playing stick man for the operator.

If you do it yourself, make sure the dozer you use also has a root blade or rake. Digging out stumps can be kind of tricky, but its a lot of fun.

i love running equipment, you can't fix it if you don't know how to use it. i love to see all these gold miners who think they can operate there's more to it than moving dirt. Finnish work is best left to the pro's or you might spend more money trying to fix your mistakes.

Nearly always the professional will get it done faster, but if you have the time and the rental fee's aren't forboding on time either - no doubt, you'll enjoy both the pleasure of operating it and the satisfaction of accomplishment.

This topic needed pictures

Well it looks like I am going to CANCEL the bulldozer.

Spent some time trimming some trees to get a good look at the ground where my lovely wife would like the pool. Can you say NO F*****G WAY is there a pool going there?!? This area is full of brambles and thorns so its hard to get into but I got in there. Drop from South to North is probably 8' over the 40' span of the length of the proposed swimming pool. Drop from East to West is probably 5' over the 20' span of the width of the proposed area of the pool. Assume 8 to 10 feet of concrete deck around the pool too.


The ONLY way to put the pool there would be to bull doze it out, and then to build a concrete retaining wall about 6' tall, about 65+' long and then to start bringing in dump trucks of fill to back fill the whole thing so that it was level. Then dig the hole for the pool in the center of that area.

It would be way to expensive, take way to long and simply not be worth the cost/effort/time.

We have back-up plan. It will require tearing out part of our decorative fencing, leveling treeless area and building a much shorter, lower retaining wall, but the project will be much more feasible in the back up location.

Hey Bob here is a pic of one of our pools its the mouth of the penny river where it dums in to the bering sea im guessing water temp to be between 40 and 50 i will post pics of the bering sea pool later on this summer the ice is just starting to go out and the kids are wanting to take a dip my dog Macaurther has taken his first dip of the season today .

Bye Bye Pool