Today I dug the footings for the workshop, using the tractor and backhoe. Its a real pain to hook up and unhook the backhoe to the tractor, because its so heavy that its hard to manoeuvre to get the tow side linkage arms connected. So, I have made up a trolly for the backhoe to sit on. With a good solid base for the wheels to ride on (ultimately a concrete pad), this trolly will make it much easier I hope.
In the meantime, Dianne found this bug caterpillar while potting some plants.
The digging went quite will, once I had marked it all out. I had a digging plan that I followed so that I could do all the digging without having to drive over already dug trenches. However, I forgot at one point so there was one time where I had to bridge a trench with the trailer ramps.
It was all quite quick (as in a few hours) because I only had to dig down about 275mm to the top of the concrete piers. The piers were not filed to ground level – they were filled to within about 275mm of the surface because we need trenches that are 500mm deep from the top of the slab. So the slab top sits about 250mm off the ground level.
At least 2/3 of the dirt dug out goes into filling up the bits between the trenches, to pack up underneath the slab surface. This means there is only a few cubic meters of dirt to deal with – I put it on once of the future garden beds along the north fence.
All this dirt in between the piers will be raked out and packed down tomorrow.
Notes for next time:
Its bloody hard work clearing the dirt from the trenches and raking out the pads. Outside of paying someone to do it, I am not sure if there is any way to make it easier.
Make sure the exterior raft width is 30mm extra for the insulation foam.