Debris Day (Bagster, Round 5)

August 5, 2017

Today, Liz and I did a lot of cleanup work around the house. We picked up a Bagster bag at Home Depot, knowing we had a lot of debris (concrete, bricks, and sand/soil) to throw away.

It’s a funny thing – over the last few days, I’ve done a lot of research into dumpster rentals and disposing of things like concrete/brick/sand. You can’t just throw this out with the regular trash, as it all goes to a different place.

You can haul all this debris yourself, and dump it at a “transfer station.” But you get charged for the weight (they weigh your truck before and after, and charge you the difference). It’s about $92/ton – but here’s the kicker: there’s a minimum charge of 2 tons. Not to mention the fact that you have to load up your truck, and unload it at the site yourself.

Comparing prices, between hauling things ourselves to the dump, renting a dumpster, and just getting a Bagster… the Bagster approach ended up being cheaper. Adding in the cost of the bag, it’s comparable to taking the debris to a dump ourselves… but instead, we have someone else come and remove it for us. Totally worth it.

We’ve had a lot of debris pile up, over the last year or so. We’ve filled two large trash containers with nothing but sand. We’ve got lots of concrete and sand under our back porch, as well as lots of bricks that have been unearthed from the yard.

Though we didn’t really have enough “stuff” to fill a Bagster bag to its limit (you’re only allowed to put in 10″ worth of heavy materials, like concrete/bricks/sand)… it still felt worth it to us, to get these things removed.

A lot of debris under the back porch. Most of the bricks we have out here are either broken or flawed in some way. We have a large pile of great looking bricks in the basement, ready for use. So anything out here is extra, and not worth of keeping.

Liz, hauling out some big chunks of concrete.

More concrete removal, bit by bit.

Like a horrible game of Tetris, we started to build out the permieter and slowly built up a layer of bricks.

A majority of the large pieces (bricks and concrete), removed from under the porch.

At this point in time, Liz and I took a break and crawled back in here to investigate the cistern. We had previously sealed its access to the house, so it really serves no function at this point in time.

We were looking at two choices: we could remove all this debris under the porch, and move it out to the Bagster. Or we could simply just shove it into the cistern. After assessing things, we opted to use the cistern as our disposal area.

As Bob said to us, it’s like someone created a hole for us a long time ago to dump all this stuff into.

The top of the cistern.

The top removed.

An incredible bit of work, with bricks in a ring the whole way down. It feels like a shame to just dump in rocks and sand into this thing, but that’s what we’re going to do.

After taking a step back, we realized that the Bagster bag itself was more of a priority. With our decision made regarding the cistern and the material under the porch… all of that we could do whenever we wanted.

There was a large trash barrel full of sand on the driveway. So we opted to focus our energies on getting that guy emptied out. All this porch debris can wait for another day.

Liz, taking a break to pet a friendly cat.

Interesting story – our neighbors Bernie and Carol Jean found this cat in their backyard, getting chased/attacked by some of the feral cats in the neighborhood. This guy was particularly friendly, and it felt to them that it was someone’s pet. They ended up taking it in, and are in the process of trying to find its owners (and working with Hyde Park Cats to find a foster home).

Apparently, the cat really likes going outside. So while they’re keeping it at their home for now, they also let it roam around outside. Liz and the cat had a pretty good petting session.

The Bagster bag, filled with all sorts of stuff. We made very sure to keep things at the 10″ or less level.

With all my research on waste removal and dumpsters, I’ve been thinking in terms of “tons” as a unit of measurement. Most dumpsters have a certain capacity (a 20 cubic yard dumpster usually supports about 3-4 tons), and most companies will charge you by the ton if you go over that weight limit.

It was hard for me to estimate just how much weight we were throwing into this guy. With the bottom lined with brick and concrete, and then topped with sand/soil… I have a worry that the bag will be too heavy to lift.

But. We stayed well within the guidelines, so we should be ok.

The very last bit of sand/soil, about to be dumped into the Bagster.

Done, and all wrapped up!

We really didn’t fill this thing up to its full capacity (example). But Liz and I approached this particular bag as a means to get rid of a lot of debris… and worth it, even if we were only at about 60% capacity.

To have all this sand out of the way is huge. To have all the excess bricks and concrete removed, is also huge. A lot of spots have been cleared in the basement, and along our driveway… and also out in the yard, along our fence.

We had piles of things all over, and now they’re in one spot. Ready to get removed, in the next few days.

Busy, productive day today.