I've a patch of earth – mostly fairly sticky Gloucestershire clay – which our previous builder has left mixed up with bricks, larger lumps of concrete and who knows what else. I want to level this and leave enough earth on the surface to let wildflowers and perhaps grass grow.
I'm not expecting this to ever turn into a beautiful lawn, so I'm quite happy to have a go myself with a smallish excavator. The particular bit of land will end up hidden behind a coppice so it needs to be made tidy but not perfect. It's about 30' by 70' in all, with a few trees, and on a slight slope.
Can anyone share techniques on how best to approach this? Should I consider hiring a driver with the digger, or is this feasible as a DIY job? I've used a digger for a weekend before on a lighter job but nothing quite on this scale.
Best Answer
My yard is of similar size, and I had the same problem: rocks, concrete blocks, and trash. With no previous experience, I rented a Toro Dingo with a few different attachments.
(source: toro.com)
The attachments I used were:
(source: toro.com)
(source: toro.com)
It took me about eight hours for a yard of about the same size as yours. That included adding 20 cubic yards of new loam on top. The rental charge was about $400 including delivery and pickup. It was reasonably easy to make the yard flat, but much harder to make it level because I didn't have any level ground to start from. If you need your yard to be level, I would recommend hiring someone.