PT 3: 2024 Garage Build – Site Prep

Once the weather warmed up in the spring, it was time to start preparing the yard for the addition. I knew this was coming for many years, so I was slowly working towards clearing this side of the yard.

When we first moved in, there were a couple of huge sweet gum trees in this area that we had cut down. Then, a couple of years ago I had almost 40 trees removed from the property on that side of our house. In 2022, I did not take great photos before starting, but I did manage to find a few photos of when I bought my race trailer showing that side of the yard. There were many tall pines, over a sunken and soggy basin, with a couple of overgrowing and unruly hedges.

I hired a contractor to clear the trees in November 2022. Steve Finch (S.G. Finch Contracting) arrived and did an excellent job for an affordable price. He pushed over all of the tall trees in one day, and then spent a couple more cutting them up and hauling them off in a double-axle dump truck. Then he smoothed over the surface and filled in the basin.

After one day of work, the difference was stark!

After Steve finished, I bought some gravel and spread it around with my digger to allow easier trailer parking. Of course I wasn’t smart enough to take any photos of this state. It stayed like this from 2022 through until March 2024, when It was time to make the final big changes necessary for construction.

The first step was to take down the original fence, saving as much of the wood as possible. Then I reused the lumber to make a temporary construction fence outside the proposed footprint of the addition. I had to leave enough space to route the underground utilities, drive a skid steer, place scaffolding, and work efficiently, all while securing the back yard for the dogs. I Installed a temporary silt fence for the dogs, who promptly jumped right over it. Oh well, I tried to let them hang out outside with us while this was happening.

The skid steer paid for itself on this job (not that it had not done so already) by making short work of pulling these fence posts. Two wraps of a strap and pick up and they all came right out. Most were so rotten that I wasn’t able to reuse them. Treated wood embedded about 2 feet deep in concrete, and they got super weak in the 6″ above the top of the concrete.

Using string, I laid out the temporary arrangement and marked the holes. I tried to keep the spacing even and match the lumber I had available, but I am a poor fence builder. My only excuse is that it’s temporary.

With their help, we got all of our holes dug, posts concreted in place, and temporary bracing from old fence boards to keep them straight. The Mini-Truck paid for itself on this job, its at a perfect height to work off of and can drive right into the yard without messing anything up. This was the first major project I used it for, taking a few trips up to Home Depot for concrete, posts, and boards.

There wasn’t much room near the house, so we did the best we could. There is only about six feet between the fence and the new foundation, and a similar amount between the base of the steps and the fence. This was the best compromise I could come up with for this area. The gate is offset, but this arrangement let me use the existing gate and stretch the lumber as far as possible. Its temporary after all.

Please ignore the pitiful condition of my deck steps, I replaced the rest of the deck in 2022 with Trex, but haven’t done the stairs yet as the stringers need to be re-done and it’s been just too much of a project to tackle (said with a straight face as I’m building an entire house)

Also shown is the electrical meter and sub-panel installed in preparation for this job. More to come on that topic in a future post.

After a day’s hard work, we were treated with a beautiful sunset.

The final product. I ended up having to buy some new fence boards, as the old ones were rotten or split when removed. I marked out the outline for the new addition in paint to give Steve a working target.

Not too much long after that, Steve was back to do the grading. This time he brought a smaller Track-Hoe, a CAT. He says this is his older machine he only uses for smaller jobs. In the foreground, you can see the paint marks from “Call before you dig NC”. We ended up finding COAX for Spectrum in a totally different location, but at least we tried. This would be the first time out of many we spent 24 hours without internet.

After the first day, the extent of the cut is apparent. I think this was more cut than Steve even realized. First thing he did was take out the shrubs, then start relocating dirt from the high spots to the low spots. The Spectrum Coax wire was quick to go, seen in the central foreground. This was unmarked by 411.

This is taken from the other side at the start of the second day. The picture really doesn’t give justice to how much dirt ended up getting relocated.

This pile of gravel is all scraped up from where I spread it a few years ago. Steve removed it carefully using the 2-in-1 bucket on his tracked skid steer. It looks like a TON of gravel but in reality it was way, way, way too little. I think its about 1 truck load (20 tons) of gravel. I should have ordered at least 2 truck loads more for Steve to spread.

Steve came back on day 2 with his father, in his 80’s, who ran the skid steer all day. Steve would take a bucket with the track hoe from the high spots, and give it to his father, who would drive to the back and spread/compact it in the low spots.

The whole process was led by a laser level, which he had set on the tripod you can see here. He had a stick with a receiver unit and would walk around and test various spots to see if more earth needed to be removed. In this manner, he ensured a steady slope. In this photo, you can see the basis of the low-spot designed to port water away from the new garage taking shape.

It was at this point that I realized I would have too much dirt. Because he had to cut so much from the front to ensure the slope away from the house, more dirt had to be spread in the back. This ended up raising the level of the back more than intended, resulting in a fairly steep slope down to my storage trailer and the two cars parked there. It also led to a thick layer of fill, which will settle and compact over time. Fortunately the area of the new garage’s foundation was all “cut” and no “fill”, meaning I can move directly into the foundation pour without any waiting or compaction process.

Steve did the best he could, then spread the gravel he had scraped up at the beginning back out. He did a great job spreading it evenly, although it only ended up being about 1″ deep. This is not deep enough for #57 on fresh dirt.

It looked absolutely beautiful when he was done that afternoon. He did a great job blending the elevations. The hill on the property line will be a future issue, as its too steep to mow. I will have to landscape it nicely with some mulch or something. He did leave me a mower-width path at the top so that can be mowed easily, although its a bit scary.

The only area that still needs a bit of work is by the center circle, there is a high spot that remained, just inside the tire tracks visible here. This is really only an issue when the 48′ trailer comes through as it causes a strange drag with tight turns.

It ended up raining the next afternoon, helping everything settle out. The Cable company came as well, running a new wire to get our internet up and running again. The used this lower quality temporary wire, which worked fine at first. The technician who I met ran it like I asked, along the fence and around the corner of the foundation. Unfortunately, the crew who came unannounced the next day (I was at work), changed the routing and ran it inside the future foundation. In addition, they barely covered it – 1 or 2 inches at most.

The rain picked up later that day and puddles started to form. Overall the drainage was doing as planned, with only a few low spots collecting. Over time, these did build up sediment and become mud bogs. I am still happy with how this turned out. Getting Concrete down at the completion of construction will resolve these minor drainage problems.

Unfortunately, I also discovered the consequence of too much earth from before. The slope ended up too aggressive leaving the trough, and my trailer got stuck due to approach angle. Steve did come back and fix this for me, no additional charge. Stand up service, no doubt.

I was using the 2×6 here to protect the uncovered cable from the rocks (I had a little trough cut for it under the board). You can also see how thin the gravel coverage ended up, as the scrape from the trailer easily uncovered soil below the thin layer of rock.

At this point, I was pretty over having these two trailers. We are only in the beginning of this project and I have already had to move them around so many times. Its almost comical how much time I spent relocating these things over the next 6 months.

Once I made it to the back, my issues were not over. As I tried to back the trailer into its new home in the back corner, I suddenly stopped being able to back up. Although I had tested the area with the truck before, It was clear the trailer put more force on its tires than the truck and we sunk straight up to the axles.

Two feet to the right, the gooseneck trailer did not suffer the same fate. 6 tires instead of 4? Wider tires for a larger contact patch? Who knows?

Watching Matts Offroad Recovery, we learned the first lesson in recovery is to NEVER disconnect from the trailer. Since I run straight highway tires on my truck, and it has open differentials and no locking transfer case, she was stuck really good. I tried digging a bit, but it was hopeless. Lexi’s 4-runner and our kinetic rope came to the rescue, and with some liberal throttle application it pulled the whole truck and trailer right out of the hole with very little fuss. One thing to note – the driver of the rescue vehicle should buckle up their seatbelt when using a kinetic rope!

The scar left behind shows just how soggy and soft this area is.

Steve came back not too long after and made some adjustments, fixing the trailer approach angle issue. After the ground dried out, everything looked great again.