I came back....you worked your butt off on this project. Great job!

I never heard anyone else say jive turkey except the guys I work with haha keep up the good work brother

I really love your content brother. I learn a lot from watching your videos and your content is building my confidence. I work for the sewer department and another way that we bust into concrete manholes is to take our utility saw (like the one you cut the street with) and cut a square out of the manhole that is large enough to accommodate the pipe size that we're using, and then we knock that square out with a sledge hammer. Then, of course, we fill in the gaps between the pipe and the concrete with grout or quickcrete just like you did. The saw method might be another way you could try it someday, but I also like the way you did it here! Super great content! Cant wait to keep watching more!

I came back to watch again and I really enjoy site revisits. Reminds me of gate city foundation drainage. He does “after” vids a lot. And I love it when I get to rent a micro ex. too. They are so much fun.

"I CAME BACK!" Lovin' the attitude Todd, keep up the great work! And BTW, I also like all the variety of work you do, as well as when you explain how it's done and what the after effect is supposed to be. Cheers!

Glad you called 811 I enjoy ur videos they show me what contractors are doing when they call a ticket in I mark utility lines i never see the process ive seen people carry water for hard ground it makes it easier to dig

I came back... I really get a ton of good ideas from your videos! Thanks for your enthusiasm. I'm just starting out and it helps to keep me motivated! I'm running a kubota b2301 with backhoe and box blade attachments, 12000# dump trailer, chevy 2500hd 4x4. 😎👍

Enjoyed this the second time viewing as much as I did the first time. Have a great day Todd and hope all is well.

I love the talking to yourself haha. Reminds me of me! 1/2 ton of #57 makes those 2x2 inlets a lot easier to set. I didn’t see if you had placed any gravel before trying to set it. Also it’s easier to cut the hole before setting, as you can just cut it square with the saw, then pack with hydraulic cement. If you cut too though you’ll probably need some backer (crumpled up paper) on one side then remove and finish filling after it sets. Lastly, cutting off a small section of the male end allows you to do all that work out of the ground which is much easier, then just slip the female end right into your stub.

Love them boys at Carolina equipment they always help my papaw and I out with anything we need

You crack me up.... "who's the boss, who the boss, shoooo, who's the boss?" good process to see thanks!

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂 it was a tough day.

I came back I really enjoy these videos very helpful !

You made me laugh so hard when you put the “dang roots and the cursing emoji” 😂

That almost got you, I'm sure you slept good that night love your videos

Tough one Todd. You have earned my respect !!! good work.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

It was a fun one for sure. Thank you!

Keeping me and my 3yr son entertained while we are on quarantine. Thanks Todd, keep up the good work.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

My pleasure brother!!! Hopefully it won't last too much longer

@BBLandServices

3 жыл бұрын

@@DigginLife21 only 12 more days to go....

A another job you smashed on your own . Well done Todd.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Martyn

If you charged 5K for this, you definitely earned your money! With the cost of rental equipment and the prefabricated box with grate, this must have a for family or a really good friend! You spent a lot of time doing “ground work”. Awesome job especially by yourself! Bet you slept good. Lol. For your first drop inlet, you did an amazing job. Now that you’re finished, what will you do different on the next one?? Thanks for sharing and loved the piano music during time lapse. Hilarious 😂 😂😂. You are the man!

That was awesome Todd! Great work!

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!!

I came back to watch. Great job.

Great video buddy. I'm sick and watching u do this and I had to laugh a few times. I'm waiting results of the covid and I haven't laughed for aweek and now u maid my night thanks buddy.

I came back - awesome job.

I liked your "micro-mini" excavator comment from the return visit video, then watched this one for the install. That "micro-mini" is like my BX23S, but better because it can twist all the way around which is a lot more than my sub-compact 140 degree swing arc. LOL

Great video Todd liked watching how that was done

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it my brother

Need you a bigger broom lol! Good job brother got me fired up for the day!

I came back, Good work.

Great job Todd. You have the patience of Job.. Hope you can find some one good to help you soon. Have a great day Brother.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, you too!

Nice work buddy! Neat project nice clean finish

I came back! Nice Job!

from the Netherlands thanks for the video

I didn’t know you were so funny. LOL always an education. Thank you

Great job Todd!

I see you have the right drill for the job, try buying a clay spade bit for it and get the longest one you can find, if you want also get the shortest one you can find. You will not use them often but then one day you will come to a job where they will save you hours. I bought one 3 years ago for a job, then it rained for 3 days before I went to dig the hole and the ground went from a rock to putty, so I didn't use it. Then I had need for it this summer when I was trying to dig right up against the house under some things while we were in a drought. My digging bar was just bouncing on the dirt, I don't have machines, so my other choices were my foot or the clay spade. I tried the spade and dug all 75 feet of that ditch from 18 inches to daylight in about 45 minutes on a day where it was 100 F in the shade with 90% humidity. You know those kind of days and that tool saved the day for me. Thanks for the videos, keep at it.

Setting manholes and catch basins, undercut about 6 Inches and use a washed rock base underneath for leveling. Backfilling something like that with a very low cement/sand mix fillcrete. It will be easier than trying to compact and you won't get settlement around the base. It sucks doing jobs like that alone, but I know how it feels.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

i will be trying that next time for sure

Look into a wireless microphone that you can clip onto your shirt so we can hear you better. Good job, keep up the good work.

I have a Yanmar io15 for years never broke lots of power quite fast . Best machine only 4000 lbs.

Came back. Doing good.

I came back to see it again!

nice job

Hey Todd you did a great job. I’ve been putting those things in for years and I know how exhausting they are .Just a quick tip Because I know you said it was your first time The road engineers where I am require a layer of mortar under the frame and grate . Reason being is they don’t want water to freeze under there and lift the grate . We usually put a layer of mortar then set the frame on it using bricks if need be then mortar around the top of the great and use a wet sponge to smooth off the mortar Inside the structure and out. I don’t know what the temperatures are where you are so it may not be required. Keep up the good work 👍

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Hey my brother!!! I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge. It costs a lot less to listen to trusted friends than learn from my mistakes

@DirtBrute

3 жыл бұрын

@@DigginLife21 It might not be a requirement where you are I just know the town Engineers stand over us and watch us do it . The boxes normally fail around the pipe so they make us mortar quite a bit on the outside also then we have to wait before we hit it with the compactor so it don’t crack the mortar we usually hand tamp under the pipe first .

Well done looks great..

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

thanks my friend

So do I need to put gravel under my concrete catch basin?

18:43 That stance on the phone is Relatable asf in this industry 🤣

@TheFightInsideTheFighter

3 жыл бұрын

It’s a daily occurrence for sure lol

Just out of curiosity, why not use a sand collar for the penetration into the new catch basin? I have only ever seen someone dry pack grout to a sand collar vs. smooth plastic (corrugated pipe, C900, SDR 30 etc.)? Just wondering is all. Nice video sir!

Living in the Ozarks, I’d never consider digging hole without a breaker bar/spud bar/ice breaker/digging and tamping bar… what do you call them where you live?

Very good job. Have a great day be safe.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching 🙏🏻

thinking you did a pretty good job on it. Maybe a Touch on low side. Could have raised it up bit more. so the Grate wasnt to deep. tis more about cars/trucks that might ride along the edge and actually go down into it abit.

I have ran one of those small excavators for 12 hrs one day feels like you ran a shovel after, I run a Vio 35 would’ve been perfect for this job

Came back, didn’t previously watch this one.

I own an identical machine they're not fast but it's better than digging by hand with a shovel!! Put's it into perspective comparing that tiny little bucket on the SV08 to the one on a grown up Yanmar - it looks vast.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

It was definitely a huge difference in every way

Will the grate come off to clean out the box? Looks like the concrete guy sealed it in.

If you put the hole in the catch basin before you put it in the ground it's much easier. Lay it on its side and take you hammer drill and drill around in a circle where the pipe will go. Drill holes right as close to the previous one as you can get all the way around. The hole and pipe needs to be at the inside bottom floor of the box so it doesn't hold water in the box. When you seal around the pipe with concrete (regular sackrete works good) you need to fill the bottom of the box up to the pipe so the water will go out. When you put the grate on the top you can use type S mortar mix like what you use for brick laying to seal it in place. Put the mortar from the frame of the grate out to the edge of the box sloping it from the top of the grate to the box edge covering the frame. The little supports on the corner of the frame are angled and you can use those as a guide. Oh you need to fill around both the inside and outside of the pipe. Also when setting a culvert box you can wrap a chain around the box about a quarter to half of the way up all the way round hooking the hook back to the other side of the chain and take the rest of the chain over the box and hook that end into the chain on the other side. Both ends being in the middle of the side opposite each other where you hook them. That way you can pick up on box with the chain going across the top of the box like a basket handle and the chain around the box will grab the box as you lift and won't slide off if you have it tight. The way you had the concrete guy fill in around the frame and grate and outside of the pipe worked good to hold everything in place. I've put in probably 100 or more of these boxes and it's no fun. I hope you understand what I've said and that I've helped you somewhat. I'm in Rowan county in NC and I think you're in the NC mountains aren't you?

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Good advice. Ill keep all that in my tool box to use on the next one

It's all about perspective. I would love to have that little guy available instead of a shovel. Might be slower than the bigger rigs, but every tool has a job it's perfect for. That thing would be great for doing work in someone's backyard where the only access point is a 32 inch wide pathway. Perfect bucket for a French drain in most cases. Burns way less fuel than the bigger rigs. Doesn't take a massive truck or trailer to haul. A person could build a whole business model focusing on tight access jobs in a city with one of those little excavators, one of those small, drivable, half yard "wheel barrels" that has a dump bed (don't remember what those are called) and an old F-350 with a dump bed. Leveling work for installing patios, debris clean up in hard to reach places, French drains, and a dozen other things I'm not thinking of. If a person wanted to just get their foot in the door with cheap, throw away type machines from China you could pick up the 2 machines for less than $8k and an old pickup for another $6k (I'm looking at an old 1982 F350 with a dump bed for $4800 right now...it's not pretty, but if it does 100 hours of work it'd be worth it.) If the 2 machines last 200 hours (every video I've seen of people using them suggest they last longer than that) you're looking at less than $50 an hour per machine for cost. Decent way to start building profit for better machines without risking your life savings getting started and not having to break your back with a shovel.

@jamesmcnaughton5092

6 ай бұрын

You seemed to do a really good job doing this coming from someone who has installed many of these for the township I work for, I wonder if it was necessary renting the small machine or you could have gotten away with just the larger machine you had? Either way good job

I love running mini excavators. A lot more than running bigger ones.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

They are a lot more nimble for sure

That little 08 has buck teeth 😂 Just curious if your 80 has a sloppy turntable/slew gear like that 08 which swings back and forth when you bring the swing to a stop. My Vio35 is brand new, and it has that annoying play and it drives me crazy for detailed work. Doesn’t matter how slow you turn it still goes back and forth like 4 times before the bucket comes to a stop. I heard it’s a Yanmar thing. Shoulda done more research before I purchased a new mini. My larger excavator is as tight as can be. Stops on a dime even at full swing speed.

Fine dirt and water is going to leak through the bottom of the pipe. The hole could be larger and a rubber waterstop used.

How much did you charge for that job?

That would be a great shovel replacement

How much did you charge for this?

I’m back to see it again

I've wondered in those mini machines are worth getting for light duty or tight access. That one didn't look like it had much digging power

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

It sure didn’t. I have more power than it did

I’d like to see how you broke it down to bid the job, looks great btw.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

It was a tough one. The entire project including concrete was right at $5k

nice work

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks pal

I came back to see this video.

Hi Todd, can you go back and see how this drain runs when it’s a absolutely pouring down with rain cos I reckon that it will do its job just great.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Sure thing. Ive got several jobs id like to revisit and see how they are doing

Bro, I could a told you how to do it. Stick of dynamite for the hard ground. Nice video. Eaglegards...

Dig a larger hole next time & level the bottom of it & then set your box in. The more room you have to work with the easier the job of setting the box the right way for sure. You will get better at these with more experience.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the input my friend!!! I will definitely work with that advice next go around

Why not dig the catch basin with the 80? Seems to be much longer to dig with the little one and throw it in the bucket...

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Eugene is correct. I was able to dig more carefully

I was feeling your pain when you were setting that grout.

Tuff one there Todd , but great job 👍👍👍

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

It sure was. All in all it was a fun one.

Would love to have seen this in action with a good rainfall.

check the hunting section of walmart, I picker up a bag seeder with a shoulder strap for food plots marked way down the other day, and it works surprisingly well for seed fertilizer and lime

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Good tip

What is your opinion about the Yanmar sv08? I am looking to buy a used machine that sise and would like to get some opinion

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

I liked it a lot. But if overhead clearance is not an issue would go with the 17!!!

I see that lip is to high for the water to drain properly, but I was on your later video that he fixed that

Hey Todd, getting ready to start my business up and was just wondering what kind of insurance coverages you have would love to hear from you on this thanks for the help, jesse .

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

I carry a 1 million dollar general liability policy. That will cover any job I do. Ive heard if you work around state highways you have to carry a lot more

@hoytballard5504

3 жыл бұрын

Jesse you’ll typically have a liability policy based on the classes of work you do. If you are financing your equipment you’ll have inland marine insurance. If you are doing this legally you’ll have commercial insurance on the vehicles you use to haul the equipment, to too,emotional any occ/acc insurances. All of this can be pretty expensive particularly dump truck insurance. It seems the vast majority of people I see doing the smaller jobs aren’t doing it above board and most of them are skirting the dot regs by not running their vehicles commercially. That only brings liability on oneself. Even if someone hits you and would be theoretically at fault. If you aren’t operating according to the law you’d be at fault and subject to any litigation brought forth. Unfortunately the fly by nighters make it that much more difficult for the ones who do it right to compete.

@jesseludwick4912

3 жыл бұрын

@@hoytballard5504 thank you for your advice and I will be doing everything legally im looking to start with a 1 ton dump truck and a small back hoe and rental excavator if the job requires it till I can build funds and work to justify buying a excavator im looking to start with as little payments as possible just in case things don't work out. the economy in my area isn't the greatest but I feel if I can market my services more to residential clients that I will have a better chance of success. I'm still researching insurance policy's and what will fit my needs the best. I recently asked a friend to mentor me with the areas im struggling with

@hoytballard5504

3 жыл бұрын

@@jesseludwick4912 Before you do a lot a planning you need to investigate insurance. Less and less people are writing commercial policies and the prices are getting stupid from the ones that do. Another bit of advice is do not tell the underwriters you don't do a certain type of work but advertise that you do. Meaning, don't say "oh I don't do trenches or any kind of excavating" but yet you have an excavator. The underwriters will search you out via your company website and any social media. Having liability insurance doesn't mean anything if it doesn't cover the classes of work you are doing..

Should buy one of those harbor freight towable backhoes to replace mini me

@jasondean88888

3 жыл бұрын

I'm looking into an off brand 1 ton mini excavator from China. Getting quoted at $4800 without any extra implements, which includes $800 for shipping to a port 30 miles from me. Tariffs might bring it to $6,000 to $6500. Found a few videos of people using them, one guy has about 200 hours on his digging out a sizable retention pond and it's still running fine. I'm looking at it from the perspective vs renting one. At $6,000, if I get 200 hours of work out of it I'm at $50 an hour. Renting one costs about $1200 a week, but my schedule would only allow me to use it for about 20 hours a week. So the break even would either be at the 100 hours of "work done" mark or 5 weeks of renting. I think I'd rather go that route than deal with the harbor freight tool. Way less mobile, less breakout power, less stability in odd terrain, and the legendary reputation of Harbor Freight behind it :p

I feel for ya having to keep getting in and out of an excvator a bunch of times.....tough on legs and shoulders. I try to stay in mine as much as possible....LOL

@justincase7524

3 жыл бұрын

It really is a lot of work. I found out the hard way on a really hot day. If you do any considerable about of storm work you need a laborer on the ground for sure.

Were all ur help

Where is Brandon? .. Looks like you could use some help..either way EXCELLENT JOB! Could use a cold 🍺💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Im not sure. Hopefully he moved on to something better

The baby excavator looks like something my grandson would be playing with.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

I felt like a kid again as much fun as it was

@bennapier9260

3 жыл бұрын

@@DigginLife21 I bet. I would actually like to have one for working in my yard. Dig holes to plant trees and such

@ryanolep1078

3 жыл бұрын

@@bennapier9260 a shovel and that grandson would work better.

Conversation must have been fascinating, but we sure didn't get to hear much of it. It's all good.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

what was on the video was about all there was. lol

Those little yanmars have a lot of jam for their size. But you should have tried to get a vio 17

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

agreed. I really just want to see what the little fella could do. lol

Came back

Would love to c a vid of it while it’s raining

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

Great idea!!! I’ll make it happen!!!

I came back!

I came back..

I came back.

Are you back to working alone if so are you going to try to pick up help as I think you need some at least once in a while

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

For the time being i am back to a solo operation. Im not in a hurry to find help but if a qualified person were to come a long id give em a shot

I came back

Y don't get a helper

If ya marked the whole then cut the pipe whole before you put catch basin In would have been smarter faster & more clean plus you wouldn’t be so tired! Good job tho all on your own but damm hire a set of hands so you don’t have to run around so much ?😂

I returned

Don't understand why would you rent that little machine when you could do it all with the big one.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

My bucket was just too big. Especially with utility lines close by

@inkyp3010

3 жыл бұрын

Buy a 2foot bucket no need to hire little machine also invest in concrete core drill quick n easy .

Who's the boss?, who's the boss? ... $ is nice to have, but when you start to realize that you ain't 20 anymore... Just saying.

l came back lol

And that is how you destroy your back! take it from a guy twice your age and 1/2 again your size! You have equipment sitting there! Use it!!

Watching you work on this video actually made me tired.

You need some help on the ground.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

no kidding

It's ok it was assholes fault lol get it

Well someones kid is crying at their playhouse sandbox "but I only had it outside 10min, and, and, Mr. Clean, kicked dirt at me and when I looked back, him and my Tonka were gone". (Just a joke people) don't start with the that's so cruel and mean.

@DigginLife21

3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂