Depends on how much $$ you have and what is most important to you. You could be looking at (depending on your area) $30k in dirt. Which for some people, is a lot. Others might be able to ask for clean fill or connect with locals or companies who are looking to offload some extra fill and save themselves some money.

I know a couple people who have made "dugouts" but not in the sense you're thinking. They dig out the soil they need into a crater, but then line the crater with a waterproof membrane, lay beach sand over that, fill the edges with beautiful granite boulders, add docks and lights and fountains to it. You might say that they were killing two birds with one stone.

In your case, it seems like the "crater" isn't an option. Is there anything you can do if you do pull soil from the land to make it an enhancement not a detractment? I think that would be the first thing I would investigate.

Alternatively, can you purchase less expensive fill? In our area, you can buy pit-run for 1/4 of the price of topsoil or black earth. It's essentially the scrapings when they start a new gravel pit, after the topsoil is removed. It's great fill, and can later be topped with black dirt for growing grass, without anyone the wiser.

Maybe investigate alternatives in your area?

if you find another lot that is building, they have to pay to transport the dirt away. Perhaps you can negoiate to have it dumped on your site. We did this but you have to watch depending on the area you live in, the birdie talks and you will get junk loads arriving to dump on site. I would not pay for the dirt but for the gas to transport it to whomever employs the trucking company.

Asked around. It's $100 per load, 16 sq yard load.

I am just visualizing things, and 20 loads would probably be about where I want.

That money could also pay for 1/5th of a skid steer, so I may forget about hiring it done.

The way my land is, I can probably spend a lot of time and push the middle mound of dirt towards the valley to make things more subtle if you will. I am afraid of bringing in new dirt because I am seeing it as an additional expense I can avoid if I thought about the process more.

I did learn an action plan of saving the top soil, then digging in to get the dirt desired and spreading the top soil back over the lesser mound then seed it so that it does not wash out as bad as barren ground.

$100 per load is reasonable, but I would need a place that can store it or an active person on a loader/skid steer to spread it out each time the truck goes to get more.

3 acres is a lot of space- if you scraped 1" off of the entire surface, you would have 400 yards of dirt! That being said, it would be far easier to just bring dirt in.

One possibility for on-site dirt would be to dig a pond. It can be a nice feature, if your land will support it. One thing to be aware of- you can't change the grade of existing trees- they'll die. You didn't say if your land is wooded, but if it is, you won't be able to change the grade significantly around the trees.

Depending on the soil type, make sure you compact fresh or disturbed dirt if you build on top of it. My excavation contractor spent a lot of time compacting the built-up base under our barn and garage.

In our case, we could get by with everything the way it is, but we'll probably bring in 4-5 truckloads to finish everything off properly. The house is already built, so I know exactly where i need fill. I have a line on some free fill, but will still have to pay to have it trucked in. Once it's here, I'll rent a skid-steer and grade it out myself. Locally, they get about $90/hour for loader work, and I can rent a machine for about half of that. A pro will be much faster, so I won't save much if anything, but just TRY to wipe the grin off my face!

I'll be bringing an incredible amount of fill to grade up 8' from around 100ft away covering 160' across. A quick calculation results in several thousand CY. I have a source however will need to pay for transport.

Sorry somehow the message was submitted twice.

This post was edited by Pinebaron on Wed, Jan 7, 15 at 9:40

Put that potential expenditure into a design better suited to the site conditions. :)

Check into local regulations about affecting the grade of your property. You can't create a runoff issue for another property owner for sure. What else can or can't be done is sometimes federally regulated if you have any bodies of water nearby. So before you get too involved in planning, make sure that it's a feasible plan.

I agree with low.

Fairly large lot; no neighbors hence no runoff issues. Half the acreage is designated wetlands, pretty damp during rains and slopes towards the harbor. Building a single level with basement at grade, on a flat lot.

I think LWO's point is that if you don't have a flat lot, don't design a house for a flat lot. If you have a flat lot, then you don't need to move dirt.

If you have a sloped lot, then designing your house to work with that will save money and be a much more interesting house.

No problem. The lot is a flat lot and be building a home "normally" built on a sloping lot since I rarely stick to convention and always go way over the top doing things differently; this large home will be no exception.

Check the link below. A few dimensions have changed since my last update; will publish an update when done.

Here is a link that might be useful: New home site

This post was edited by Pinebaron on Wed, Jan 7, 15 at 18:30