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Would you bury it?

2655 Views 31 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  DayBird
One of the reasons the land we have just bought was a little lower in price than some of the others is that the yard needed to be cleaned up. There was a mobile home on the site before but it's gone now. What was left was all the junk that they tossed out before hooking a truck to the thing and pulling it away. We've burned everything that is burnable from rotten porches to an old chair, rugs and doors. We're now left with some nonburnable items. There are three old window airconditioners, lots of tires and some old, rusted bed springs. Nothing is usuable or salvagable. We couldn't sell any of this stuff and we're going to end up paying someone to haul it away. OR, we could bury it. The land is sloping and we need to fill in to make the driveway more usable. It's just a curve, going down the slope. It is concrete. It's very difficult to turn around and almost impossible to back up the curve, up the hill. We need to make a T. We could pile up all the junk, using the tires to make a retaining wall and bury all the air conditioners and rusted junk under some fill dirt. We'll concrete over the top of that as well.

Does this sound like a good idea or are we asking for trouble with something we can't think of at the moment?
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DayBird said:
One of the reasons the land we have just bought was a little lower in price than some of the others is that the yard needed to be cleaned up. There was a mobile home on the site before but it's gone now. What was left was all the junk that they tossed out before hooking a truck to the thing and pulling it away. We've burned everything that is burnable from rotten porches to an old chair, rugs and doors. We're now left with some nonburnable items. There are three old window airconditioners, lots of tires and some old, rusted bed springs. Nothing is usuable or salvagable. We couldn't sell any of this stuff and we're going to end up paying someone to haul it away. OR, we could bury it. The land is sloping and we need to fill in to make the driveway more usable. It's just a curve, going down the slope. It is concrete. It's very difficult to turn around and almost impossible to back up the curve, up the hill. We need to make a T. We could pile up all the junk, using the tires to make a retaining wall and bury all the air conditioners and rusted junk under some fill dirt. We'll concrete over the top of that as well.

Does this sound like a good idea or are we asking for trouble with something we can't think of at the moment?
when everything starts to rot wont it all settle and realy make a mess of your new drive
Please, please pay to take it to a landfill and DO NOT bury it. You will feel so much better knowing that you do not have a pile of junk buried on your land. Even with concrete over it, it will still leech into the surrounding areas - you asked if "I" would bury it - I would absolutely NOT.
mtman said:
when everything starts to rot wont it all settle and realy make a mess of your new drive

anything burnable has been burned. I suppose that the metal rusting would be considered "rotting." See, I hadn't thought of that.

Can I at least use the tires to build a retaining wall of sorts to help hold in the fill dirt? I see that done all the time.
No, no, no, no!! Don't bury!

It took me a good year just to clean a small area of everything that had been *buried* here. When it rains, parts of what you bury will come to the surface. Sonmetimes, it will come to the surface for no reason at all! Little, if any, will degrade into the soil during your lifetime. Meanwhile, it will pollute your land in a number of ways, including making it dangerous to mow or use other kinds of machinery, making it dangerous for your critters (both two and four-legged :haha: ) to walk around, etc.

I hired a huge dump truck to haul off a mountain of stuff for $100. I'll be doing it again, too. It was worth every penny.
Take the time to disassemble the window units. Youd be suprised how much youll get in return for an hour or so of labor. Lotta high grade aluminium and copper in there.
DrippingSprings said:
Take the time to disassemble the window units. Youd be suprised how much youll get in return for an hour or so of labor. Lotta high grade aluminium and copper in there.
You'd be more than welcome to come and get them. I'm just ready to get rid of the stuff.
countrygrrrl said:
When it rains, parts of what you bury will come to the surface. Sonmetimes, it will come to the surface for no reason at all! Little, if any, will degrade into the soil during your lifetime.

Yeah, I guess you're right, although it would all be covered in concrete and hopefully wouldn't be able to "get out."

Send your dumptruck to Alabama. I'd gladly pay $100 for it all to be gone. The people that I've talked to want $100 for just one pickup load. It'd take at least 3 trips to get rid of all the busted up concrete blocks and tires. Anyhow, it's against the law to dispose of air conditioners and tires in landfills. Haven't yet figured what to do with those. I really was hoping to use them as a retaining wall for the fill dirt.
One thing you might try --- if the air cons are at all functional or if they still have working parts, see if any local charitable organizations could use them. Around here, there's a huge need for air conditioners for elderlies and working poor families, and there's never enough of them to go around.

Do you have any trash hauling dudes around there? I got such a cheap rate because the new trash hauling dude wanted my business --- he'd just started up and was busy stealing all the other trash haulers business from them. One thing to consider, maybe pile the stuff up out front, then go to the local store and start talking about how maybe you're thinking about hiring a dumpster or whatnot. That's how i got my deal. And it was one HUGE truckload of stuff he hauled off!! :yeeha:
I should think broken up concrete blocks wouldn't be a problem under a concrete drive way. For the retaining wall, you would need to check county regs. Someplaces it is ok, but some places I've lived would levy a big ole fine on you for it. I have seen the tires used for retaining walls and they seem to do ok. You might find a metal recyling center that would take the ac units. You'd have to check around.
DayBird said:
Yeah, I guess you're right, although it would all be covered in concrete and hopefully wouldn't be able to "get out."

Send your dumptruck to Alabama. I'd gladly pay $100 for it all to be gone. The people that I've talked to want $100 for just one pickup load. It'd take at least 3 trips to get rid of all the busted up concrete blocks and tires. Anyhow, it's against the law to dispose of air conditioners and tires in landfills. Haven't yet figured what to do with those. I really was hoping to use them as a retaining wall for the fill dirt.

Check with a local ac shop, they might take them for the refrig recovered or could tell you where to take them.
That disposal comes under epa laws, big fine if not done right, plus you give them a reason to know you, which you don't want. Pay to have it done right, the fines are in the tens of thousands of dollars.

kurt
Ok, Ok, the wife says I cannot bury anything other than the tires and that's only to use as a wall. She says I can try that and only that and if she doesn't like it then I have to dig it all up. Isn't she wonderful? It's great how diplomatic she is about things. Gosh, I love her.

(She'll check this all Monday while I'm at work and call me fussing. I'm gonna be in trouble.)
DayBird said:
(She'll check this all Monday while I'm at work and call me fussing. I'm gonna be in trouble.)
!!

We'll say it wasn't you writing all this --- it was someone masquerading as you, just to get you in trouble!



:D :D :D
All the metal items will make any scrap metal hauler happy to have them, just phone any scrap metal company and let them know that there is free metal available at your address.
I give the local garbage truck workers a few bucks ($20 or so) to take stuff. Have it near the road, separate the metal from the other trash and someone might take metal. If there is to much, do some every week until all gone. Some areas have a day when they take things like you described. The block is considered clean fill and also can make good fishing reefs. How many tire do you have? Cost me $2/tire to drop them off.
Cyngbaeld said:
I should think broken up concrete blocks wouldn't be a problem under a concrete drive way. For the retaining wall, you would need to check county regs. Someplaces it is ok, but some places I've lived would levy a big ole fine on you for it. I have seen the tires used for retaining walls and they seem to do ok. You might find a metal recyling center that would take the ac units. You'd have to check around.

In my state, busted concrete is considered hazardous waste & cannot be buried. Now, I didn't make the law, I don't understad it, I'm just metioning it.

Appliances are a problem as whole units, but the freon in old air conditioners is recoverable & worth something. If empty, you can disassembe & sell the components for high-priced scrap. The iron springs & other iron is worth $20-50 a ton. Tires cost $1 - 5 a piece to get rid of and there is not mouch else you can do with them. If buried, they work their way to the surface, those would be the _last_ thing you want to bury!!!! I guess in the south they fill with dirt (pack well, air pockets make them rise!) & make retaining walls, don't know that that works here in the freezing north....

I can see burying the concrete (note above not withstanding) but would not want any other thing in the ground, as it settles & moves & makes an unstable mess.

--->Paul
Put all the stuff by the side of the road. put a sign up thst says $5. Someone will steal it!! That is how it happens hear. Put a sign for free and no one will stop, but if they think it is worth something they will take it.

JAKE
Bust up the concrete block and use it as fill. You can cut the top ring off the tires with a jig saw and its makes them a lot easier to fill. Use them for the retaining wall and you can cover them if you don't like how they look. Cut up the trees for burning (I thought you said you burned everything you could, but then you wrote that you had trees). A metal salvage guy will take the metal, but make it worth his while by getting it all in a pile so he can get it in one trip. I have the same problem as you. I fill my van with trash each visit to my property and take it back to the city. After about 20 trips I am almost finished. It is such a good feeling.
most of those businesses charge per trip more than labor, so just like ordering gravel, getting a bigger truck is usually cheaper than two smaller trucks. Old bed spings can be useful, if you shove into them some old milk jugs so it will sort of float, tie a rope to it and drag it over a pond will take a big swath of algae off. Some people like old tires as borders around trees etc, but I'd still wonder about some of that stuff leaching into the ground


countrygrrrl said:
No, no, no, no!! Don't bury!

It took me a good year just to clean a small area of everything that had been *buried* here. When it rains, parts of what you bury will come to the surface. Sonmetimes, it will come to the surface for no reason at all! Little, if any, will degrade into the soil during your lifetime. Meanwhile, it will pollute your land in a number of ways, including making it dangerous to mow or use other kinds of machinery, making it dangerous for your critters (both two and four-legged :haha: ) to walk around, etc.

I hired a huge dump truck to haul off a mountain of stuff for $100. I'll be doing it again, too. It was worth every penny.
i believe only an idiot would take a chance on poisoning the groundwater under his homestead -
HOWEVER - some folks get carried away to the point of paranoia -
what in the world is wrong with putting something underground that originally came out of the ground - or, with putting something underground that is totally inert?
i'd say - find a spot that is inconvenient and probably never to be dug up again and go ahead and bury everything - with the obvious exceptions of things like lead, mercury, paint, etc -
as far as health considerations go, i'd be a lot more worried about burning things such as plastics, treated wood, paint, etc - probably do a lot more harm to you and your neighbors than burying things -
last word - if you've got the equipment, bury it deep and forget it -
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