Something of an update and more importantly a question

Dani

Dani

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Because of the promotion I got in 2012, I am being transferred to Tallahassee, FL. I've been in training since then and the training is finally coming to an end at the end of April. I'll be buying a house out there....assuming it all goes through to closing, which it's looking more positive at this point...and it appears as though previous owners or someone used the back part of the property as a dump. That kind of thing drives me nuts but oh well. Anyway, there is a good deal of glass back there. some of it big shards too. I can definitely pick up the stuff that is on the top but some i'm sure is buried.

At this point there is no fence and i've got my two dogs that i'll be building a fence for. I don't want to extend the fence all the way to the back yet because of the amount of glass that is back there. Is there a way to clean the glass up, that may be buried? Or at least bring it to the surface so it can be picked up? The boys love to run and chase balls so i'd hate for them to go skidding across the dirt and get into some glass I didn't know was there because it was under the dirt a little ways.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

Danibeth
 
Dani, My brother living on our old farm has pretty much the same problem and he has been working on it for a bunch of years. Not what you want to hear but that is his story. What seems to work the best is rake with a garden rake and then water or wait for rain. The glass will just pop to the surface. I just hate broken glass. When I was in the Navy I stepped on the bottom half of a glass bottle barefoot, the corpsman threatened court martial for destruction of government property (me). Good luck with a bad problem. BTW Congrats on the promotion and more training.
 
Screen it! Scoop up the mess and wash the scoops (dirt and glass mess) through a screen. 1/4 square poultry wire on a frame should work to get the worse offenders. Once you have it screened - pour some new base on top. Or.. pick it up the best you can and backfill with road base (compact it) and dirt.
D-
 
Congratulations DAni, that's terrific news. I think Derek has some good advice, can't add much to it except to maybe till the area up and then screen it. A potentially long process but a little each day and before long it will be all done.
 
Bringing in new fill to cap it off is the only way I can see doing it. I like doing things the hard way, but if you want to get rid of the glass I don't see a way to do it that is less work and money. Depending on the yard size - a couple triaxles of topsoil would be less than a thousand dollars and a weekend to spread by hand.
 
Dani,


Congrats on the promotion and home ownership. I dealt with that same issue here when I bought my home. Since I live on a island the Corp of Engineers forbid me to bring fill onto the island (at least during working hours)...;-) First thing I'd do if your in the city limits is check what your options are with the city. I lived in Florida long enough to know you are in the land of bureaucracy! Since your profession is in the public eye you know what I mean. If it's not to large an area, while the clean up is happening I'd fence the area to keep the boys from playing where did I bury that beer bottle. Good luck with the new job and house.
 
Dani,


Congrats on the promotion and home ownership. I dealt with that same issue here when I bought my home. Since I live on a island the Corp of Engineers forbid me to bring fill onto the island (at least during working hours)...;-) First thing I'd do if your in the city limits is check what your options are with the city. I lived in Florida long enough to know you are in the land of bureaucracy! Since your profession is in the public eye you know what I mean. If it's not to large an area, while the clean up is happening I'd fence the area to keep the boys from playing where did I bury that beer bottle. Good luck with the new job and house.
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I don't know if I would ask a question I didn't want the answer for. Beg for mercy afterwards might be a better option. Claim you cleaned it up for your safety and that of your dogs. I think they would understand but what do I know.

Mark W
 
Mark,


If she didn't work in law enforcement I would tend to agree with you.
 
Since FLA does not suffer from freeze thaw conditions like we do up here in the Great White North, there is little chance that the glass will slowly surface over time except during periods of erosion.

Of all the suggestions here, I would mix the rake and top cover ones. Cleanup what is on the surface, and then cover with a 6 to 8 inch layer of fresh stuff. That will depend on what you want the final yard to look like as well.

Also see if the local LEO databases have the property listed as a prior meth lab. The state and county agencies may not have done that great a job cleaning it up if it was contracted out. Don't want to be raking and hit a plastic jug of process waste.
 
Dani,
You didn't say how large an area you have to clean,what i would suggest is hire someone with a mini-hoe [small track hoe]. It would be quick and easy to scratch the area to a to the desired depth,segregating the glass and other scrap. Dig a deeper hole bury the debris and cover the hole with fresh dirt all from the same location.
It sounds more difficult than it is. Talk to an excavation contractor. Hopes this helps.
Bill.
 
Thanks a lot for the ideas guys and the congratulations.

The property is 1.6 acres, with several known areas that were used as a dump of some sort, so i'm not really sure yet how large an area I'm dealing with. Hopefully I'll be closing in a month so I'll be able to get a better idea of how much area I'm dealing with.

Thanks again

dani
 
Maybe you can negotiate a credit from sell to cover some of the expense of covering the area. I think covering with 4-6" is the only solution.
 
Level it,cover with road fabric,then top soil. I don't know if your dogs are diggers but fabric will prevent them from digging into the glass.
 
We had a similar dumping site in our yard when we moved in, full of construction debris (old windows, rotten wood/nails, wire), old engines, tires, and other junk. All enclosed within a grove of sumac.

All the suggestions thus far sound good, more thorough, and quicker than what I did. But here's how I cleaned the mess and haven't had a problem with junk resurfacing. I cut down the sumac and then recycled some junk while taking the rest to the town's collection day. I then raked and raked for a few weeks, removing some glass, metal, and wood each time. When it appeared I had gotten most of the stuff near the surface, I seeded it down to grass. The sumac got cut flush so that I could mow it like a lawn. This dump was towards the back of our 2 acre yard, so the dogs weren't out there unsupervised, and I had the luxury of time to get it picked up. Now, several years later I use it as an area to throw bumpers with the dogs.

Congrats on the promotion and the house!
 
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Dani,
I would negotiate with the seller of the house to have it cleaned up prior to closing or have money put aside at closing to clean
it up. That's how we would do it in New York.
 
Level it,cover with road fabric,then top soil. I don't know if your dogs are diggers but fabric will prevent them from digging into the glass.

I think this is your best/cheapest solution. You could lay down the geotextile fabric yourself (don't kill yourself buying anything too fancy) and then have a contractor come in with as many truckloads of soil as you need to put enough earth on top of the fabric for whatever used you have in the future. The geotextile should prevent the dogs from getting to the glass. I think this will cheaper than bringing in an excavator to remove the "contaminated" soil and dispose of it, and a lot cheaper than trying to screen.

If it's a small area/volume, you could rake or excavate and screen by hand--depends on how much sweat equity you want to put into the project. From your description, it sounds like a large enough area that doing the the job with equipment will be necessary.

Do any of your neighbors have a small excavator and like to use it? My next door neighbor has a small Kubota tractor, and every time I hit a rock with my lawnmower he comes over to offer to bring the tractor over and remove it. I live on glacial till in country with a lot of freeze-thaw, so this is a frequent occurrence as the cobbles and boulder work their way to the surface. I trade tomatoes out of the garden and help on any "two-man" chores at his house. It's a lot cheaper than paying for excavator time!
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Congrats on the promotion! What will you be working on now? If its oil spill related, we'll bump into each other sooner or later!
Good luck with the house. Homeownership is quite an adventure.
 
Thanks y'all. BTW Ray, the criminal history check I had done on the house and that street showed nothing of any concern. So that is a good thing.

The only thing I might worry about with the excavating idea is making sure not to accidentally excavate the pipe from the well pump to the house. So that for sure I'd need to know exactly where it was. The neighbor has a tractor of some sort I do believe, so perhaps if I offered help around their place they'd be willing to help me out with that.

My dad had the same problem when he bought his house...except they dumped untold numbers of windows back there. He'd get it all cleaned up, or so he thought and a big storm would come by and there'd bemore glass. Now, 13 years later he's still finding glass, though less and less of it. Luckily none of the dogs have found the glass accidentally.

Once I'm finished with my training I'll be let loose to do my own case work as a firearms and toolmark examiner in the state crime lab here in FL. So, I'll do the did this bullet/cartridge case come from this gun, did this screwdriver get used to pry open this safe kind of stuff. As well as serial number restorations, distance determinations (was this person really shot from this distance or not) and other duties. But that's the big stuff. So, sooooooooooooon I'll be let out on my own after almost 21 months of training.

Dani
 
Dani, If you do excavate call Dig Safe or the equivalent there in Florida. They will come out and mark ,Gas ,power & phone prior to the start of your project.

Good luck in your new position.
 
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