Dirt:

Getting dirt off a hill is expensive. The technique is simple, however: hire laborers, and provide them with 5-gallon buckets, shovels, and gloves. And a place to carry the dirt to. David Hoffmire, the foundation contractor, owned a 5-cubic yard capacity dump truck that he was able to back into the parking spot. By cutting through the garden, workers were able to save a whole flight of stairs.

A hint for disposing of clay in Marin: If it's clean, McNear's Brickyard, in San Rafael (415-454-6811), will allow it to be dropped off there. Otherwise you will need to pay a dump fee.

Demo:

David Hoffmire's foundation upgrade bid included demo and off-haul of dirt. But both bids I received for the deck replacement and residing did not include demo and debris removal, so I started shopping for this service.

One electrician, while bidding that part of the job, strongly recommended V's Demolition Inc. (P.O. Box 1199 Santa Cruz, CA 831-429-8638). I contacted "V", and his schedule was quite busy. Eventually he made it by, and bid $8,000 for stucco and deck removal, and carting the debris away.

At around the same time, I spotted a coupon offering 10% savings on demo and debris removal. So I contacted Hurricane Hauling & Demolition (425-A Irwin St., San Rafael, CA 415.456.3407) and David Sherman came by. His bid arrived a week later: $4,150.

I am surprised that two bids for a pretty straight-forward project can be so far apart, but I guess that it just reinforces what we all know: get a couple of bids for everything.

Debris Services:

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, lots of ads have recently appeared with titles like "Got Junk?". My first pickup was by a truck that happened to be next door. The company was Hauling 911 (415-492-8036), and the owner, Arty Smith. I pointed to two piles of debris left over from the foundation work and was quoted $160 - below the oft-quoted $40/cubic yard. Twenty minutes later the stuff was gone!

A few weeks ago I had more junk in the way - but not enough to justify a debris box. I went on Craigslist, and phoned the ad for Hauling Service: Demo and Excavation (510-815-1403). The guy asked me how much stuff I had. Heck - I didn't want to guess how many square yards, since either I'd screw him, or screw myself. I asked him to come out and take a look. He came by the following day, and quoted $300 - just a enough below that $40/cubic yard benchmark to make the transaction happen.

I first dealt with Mill Valley Refuse.

Mill Valley Refuse categorizes their debris boxes as "Regular" or "Dirt or Rock only."

MVR's regular debris boxes, delivered to my neighborhood:

Dirt or Rock only* Debris Boxes:

* Unfortunately, Mill Valley Refuse requires that these bins be 100% dirt OR 100% rock. No mixing. Quite inconvenient...

When I scheduled the pickup of my full box, Mill Valley Refuse let me down. No one showed. When I called to ask what happened, I was told that the driver came by at 6am, and there was a vehicle in the way. 6am?! Hmmm. Never heard the truck; never received a call. And apparently my fault.

So this time around I decided to try Grange Debris Box. The delivery window was a little... broad ("this afternoon or tomorrow sometime") but I did get a 12 cubic yard can for the price of Mill Valley Refuse's 10 yard can.