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Serious question, my retaining wall project in Sacramento turned into a 5 weekend job
I thought I could knock out a 12 foot retaining wall in my backyard over one weekend in April. Turned out the old wall was sitting on roots from a tree my neighbor cut down years ago, so I spent 3 weekends just digging those out with a mattock and a Sawzall. Then the city made me pull a permit I did not know about, which added 12 days of waiting. All in it was 5 weekends and about $1,900 instead of the $600 I planned. How do you guys figure out what is buried before you start digging?
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cole_baker22d ago
My buddy in Carmichael hit the same thing with a stump from a redwood, ended up renting a mini excavator and still spent two weekends on it. My own method is pretty dumb, I just poke around with a long screwdriver before I dig. Sounds like a joke but it caught a buried sprinkler line and an old fence post footing last time. Anything bigger than a root and the screwdriver stops dead, so it gives you a heads up. Call 811 for the utility lines and then just guess on the rest like the rest of us.
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