5 Essential Preparation Steps to Take Before Bulldozing

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Bulldozing can be a fast and efficient way to prepare a plot of land for development or farming. However, before you start the process, there are a few steps that you should take. Keep these ideas in mind.

1. Test for Toxins

If you aren't sure how the land was used before, you may want to check for toxins. For example, if there's a chance that there might be chemical waste on the site, you may want to do a soil contamination analysis.

At the same time, if there was a building there that had asbestos in it, that's likely to be in the soil. Test for that and take the necessary safety steps. Depending on the situation, you may need to hire a mitigation specialist or just keep the soil wet so that the friable asbestos doesn't fly into the air and get inhaled.

2. Remove Anything You Don't Want in the Soil

With bulldozing, you basically just push objects over. Even if you eventually dispose of those objects, some residue is likely to get into the soil. If there are things you don't want in the soil, you may need to remove those elements by hand before you start bulldozing. That can apply to anything from big old sheds that have lead paint to small weeds that have seeds you don't want to spread.

3. Get Chains

When you are bulldozing, there will be certain objects that you just can't clear with the bulldozer. Luckily, you can pull those objects out of the way using the bulldozer. Rather than bashing the items from the front, you attach chains to them, and then you attach the chains to the bulldozer and pull the items out of the way. This works for tree stumps, large boulders and similar items, but you need to make sure you have chains on hand so it's possible.

4. Plan Disposal

Whether you are knocking over buildings, clearing trees or bulldozing other types of objects, you are likely to generate a lot of waste. To deal with that, create a plan for disposal. There may be some items that you can give away or even reuse yourself. That can include anything from trees to boulders for landscaping to bits of concrete that can be used in recycled concrete patios. For everything else, consider hiring a large skip.

5. Hire the Bulldozer

Once the above preparation steps are done, you just need to hire the bulldozer. Then, you can get started.

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9 August 2017

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