A cubic foot of top soil weighs in the neighborhood of 75 - 100 pounds. There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. Hence, one cubic yard of top soil weighs between 2025 and 2700 pounds.
A cubic foot of dry, loose gravel with 1/4" to 2" stones is 105 pounds per cubic foot. So, a cubic yard is that times 27, or 2835 lb. (There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard.)
The weight of any soil will depend on how saturated it is with water. A rule of thumb is that a cubic foot of saturated loamy soil weighs about 20 pounds. Saturated clay would be heavier because it is denser than loam.
According to Noelle's back:
Four yards of wet soil & gravel (10,800 pounds) removed by hand, approximately one-fourth by Noelle's hand: 2700 pounds. 2700 pounds by friend Dave. 5400 pounds by 21-yr-old neighbor, who surprisingly didn't want to help the second day. Lol.
Four yards of wet soil & gravel returned to the hole after water pipe repair and a day of leak-checking: approximately 1/2 by Noelle: 5400 pounds. 1/2 by Dave: 5400 pounds. Along with some awesome help from Shar, Riley and McKenna! I was the second day's manual laborer, while Dave did the hard stuff, like tamping the dirt back in while moving it back into the hole also, replanting, rebuilding the retaining wall, not to mention the actual repair itself!
It's 10:15am on the morning of the third day. I am sore as can be with no plans of lifting more than a coffee cup today! :)
The pictures are all out of order...I'm not the best at loading them in correctly.
Shar came to visit. We slapped a shovel in her hands!
Dave, making the repair:
Riley is a little overwhelmed at the task in front of us.
Riley and McKenna:
Dirty hands. And this was WITH gloves on!
The Hole:
The culprit: Copper tube coming out of the house, with a plastic connector! The plastic split. Duh.
Cody, standing in the logical place for the water main to be located. It wasn't there. Notice the paint line on the porch for where the dirt normally is.
In progress:
The original sign of the leak. A new landscape feature of a waterfall going down the side of the driveway.
Child labor, so what, it was cheap! McKenna lends a hand.
Riley: King of the Mountain!
Just beginning the digging exploration. Dave and I were still relatively fresh. It didn't take long before I was begging Cody to come help!
We thought we had to be "close" to the leak at this point. Oh no, three more feet wide, by five more feet deep to go!
Guess I should have taken an "after" photo, but it's raining now, and I'm too tired to go out there. Our yard is back together. I'm drinking coffee and not thinking of shoveling today. Whew.
We thought we had to be "close" to the leak at this point. Oh no, three more feet wide, by five more feet deep to go!
Guess I should have taken an "after" photo, but it's raining now, and I'm too tired to go out there. Our yard is back together. I'm drinking coffee and not thinking of shoveling today. Whew.
