D6, D9 or what?

[Guest]

Removed by me

Edited by - akoniv on 10/16/2007 19:07:17

[John S. Rabi]

Tony, you might want to extend that clearing because your house will not have enough breathing room with these measurements. I basically did the same thing with one of my houses in Leilani Estates and we constantly had mold problems because of the lack of air movement.

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
75-5870 Walua Road, Suite 101
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
(808)327-3185

[Da Stef]

From my very limited experience, go for the D9. We ended up having to clear the property twice b/c the smaller equipment couldn't deal with some of the boulders that appeared.

stef

[G. Leis]

Hi Tony, Assuming you're talking about the property in Eden Roc, I think you probably have enough room. Your lot is the same dimension as ours - basically 170' wide x 260' deep. Using your figures, you'll have a clearing roughly 100' x 160' for the housepad, garden, etc. If you DO decide to enlarge the clearing, I'd suggest pushing the rear boundary back.

As to the dozer question, a lot of excavation contractors/land clearers utilize both large and small machines - a D9 to rip, roll, and rough level and a smaller CAT to do finish work. I doubt there's much if any difference in the cost of a hiring a D6 vs.D9; it would largely depend upon how much leveling you need or desire. When we dozed our lot down the street from you on the corner of Ohia & 19th, we wanted to preserve as much of the natural terrain as possible but because of the dense jungle it was difficult to know just what the terrain was LOL.

We had actually planned to have the property dozed TWICE. First with a small dozer to scrape off the surface vegetation to see what sort of lava we had to work with and then bring in the big boy to rip just the driveway & housepad. As it turned out the land was incredibly flat just as it was and no ripping at all was needed. If you go over there and take a look, what you'll see was cleared with a D6 in under 5 1/2 hrs. (over 3 days) for around $1500.

aloha,
Gene

[pam jones]

Tony,
I'm inclined to agree w/ De Stef as the D-9 is able to cover a lot more area a alot faster. However, I think you need to consider your terrain. Is it pretty flat like Pam and Gene's (man did they luck out!) or is it on the hilly side like ours was? The D-9 literally disappeard from my view when he went down what is now our driveway. Now THAT'S what I call a puka!! Scared me half to death, I thought he fell in a cave or something! Give us a call if you want the guy who did ours. His name is Donald and he has been at it for 30 years so this ain't his first rodeo, as they say in some places. Enjoy the adventure, the fun has only just begun!!! Aloha,
Pam...pj