What is going rate to dig hole for 1000 gallon septic tank?

[Stargazer]

I am wondering what the going rate is to have someone with a machine dig me a hole for a 1000 gallon septic tank. It would be 9 foot long, 6 foot wide, 6 foot tall.

 

[Smith P.]

If you can find a few ppl who waiting around Home Depot, then $5/h/man.

 

[starman345]

Depends on the ground, if its easy digging, a back-hoe medium size ($75/hr) could probably do this in a half hour....but, they need float time to get the machine to you and back. Are you installing the tank yourself? If not its probably best to get prices on the whole job, it would be cheaper, otherwise, you will need to dig the hole, have the tank installers come, do their thing then call for the machine to come back and back-fill around the tank.

 

[Stargazer]

I was checking to see what the going rate is because the guy is charging me $35 per hour with a small backhoe and it has taken him around 17 hours to do it. It was easy digging too without the large rocks. His machine has a very small bucket on it. He had to take the dirt into other parts of the yard though and I had him smooth it out some to fill in bad spots in the yard. He lives only 1/10th of a mile down the road from me and drove the machine here itself since he lives so close to me. He has the hole dug but I have not paid him yet because we are not done with the work yet as he has to fill dirt around the tank. I am not going to pay him more than what it would take for a large machine to come in and do it but know that they charge a minimum to bring it and take it back and a minimal amount of hours for rental but also figure the machine can dig it very quickly.

 

[jwgreen68]

Well, that's not much bigger than a grave. And I guarantee it doesn't take 17 hours to dig a grave.

 

[navychop]

Small backhoe. $35/hour is cheap, IMHO. Don't know about 17 hours. Like you say, bigger backhoe would be a lot quicker, but other charges mount up.

In any event, I would stick by the deal I struck with him, whatever it was. And remember- he is your neighbor.

 

[starman345]

This sounds like more than just digging a hole. Carrying material around your property can be time comsuming with a small machine. On the other hand using a bigger machine would cause a lot more damge to your property. 17 hours is about 2 regular days work, $35/hr, thats less than $300/day. That isn't much for a hoe, operator, and fuel, I wouldn't do it for that. If on the other hand he is hot-dogging the hours, I would have a talk with him and try to reach a mutual agreement. If you had an agreement on rate/hrs before starting, stick to it

 

[Bob Haller]

Having hired execvators in the past and even ran a backhoe a time or two.

the time isnt digging its moving the dirt around your property and smoothing it out.....

plus its not all profit he has to pay for fuel.

i would just pay him

did he give you a time estimate in advance?

a large machine would of done the job fast but torn up your yard.

what about the trench for the sewer line? and the leach field?

 

[Stargazer]

That's what I was thinking, that moving the dirt seems to be what took the longest. The small machine tore up the yard as well so I dont think it matters if a large machine or small machine was used. The guy said that he could have bought a larger machine to do work with for not much more but it is harder to haul when he goes places and harder to get into smaller areas. He is also supposed to do the sewer line and leach field and said that would not take as long to do.

 

[Van]

As others have said smaller machine means less damage which also means you can fix the yard cheap so first bonus there. Next bonus is he's hauling the dirt around your yard and thats saving you a few weekends of manual labour. Third bonus is he's down the road so customer service will be easy to reach.

Be sure to get the guy a case of his favorite brew.