...will be grading a house pad. We have a mostly flat, mostly forested 5 acres at 4300'. We'd like your advice; About how long should it take to grade an area about 60'X 60', with a 50' or 75' driveway? Thats assuming the closest thing to "average" conditions on TBI? We understand that most of these guys go on a "day for pay" basis. So-if the house pad is quick work for them-should we have plans ready-and stuff marked-for other projects we eventually plan?

Any helpful advice cheerfully appreciated. Any loopy advice too, we can all use an extra laugh.

Aloha,

Ed & Barb

Aloha Ed & Barb,

For this question I consulted my friend and realtor Tom Edwards. He is a long time Ocean View resident and knows how most of the locals work. Here is his answer:

"That's a tough question. It all depends upon the ground condition, etc... If there is a lot of blue rock underneath that requires ripping, removing of the trees, how big are they? can they be dozed over? It could be a days work up to 3 days. A guess would be somewhere between $2500 to $5000.

The best thing to do is get quotes from 3 guys on exactly what you want done. You can get a quote by the job and a quote by the hour. Always layout to them the job you want done and get a quote for that job not by the hour. If it's a real easy job you may be able to get someone to do it for $1500?
Hope that helps!"

I like to give Tom a shameless plug since he is a very busy and active agent in the area. His website is http://www.kauhomes.com.

Well, a couple of months ago we contracted with Dennis Andredi (spelling?) on a Thursday, flew back to the east coast on Friday, got home on Saturday to find a message he had passed away suddenly while we were in route. He and I had hit it off really well when he came up to look at the property, and we were really saddened by missing a chance at a friendship.

So now we're back in the same boat, looking for a reliable contractor to do the grading. Headed back in a couple of weeks, hopefully something will present itself. Anyone out there who knows a person with a smaller dozer of even a backhoe, it'd probably work fine. No bluestone found so far, and I should know as I was out there with an o'o bar breaking it up for 6 days last month!

Ed

Last week we got the lot graded and house pad leveled off by Dave Stanton, using a backhoe. His VERY reasonable price ended up less than half of what we'd expected. Ho offers a perfect solution if you don't have a lot of bluestone, or boulders too big for the machine to break up. I think for 90% of the HOVE/Ranchos area it would work fine.

He and his wife Connie run a nursery and lettuce operation on Tradewind in HOVE. Great people to work with.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thank you for the update! I will be in contact with Dave when I move over there as I have some work that I want to have done. Also, I want to build a greenhouse on my property and they sound like the right people to talk to about it.

Surprisingly to me, they can be pretty cheap. The guy down on the highway who has the colorful set up makai, just before you go into town told me that his entire set up cost only about $2300 and that is with the end walls of plastic. Dave told me the plastic sheets seem to last about 5 years and advised to buy a spare sometime in the first couple of years just in case of a sudden wind. Keep it out of sunlight and it'll be fine for decades.

He said his and Connie's survived a couple of 60mph days.

Ed

Hello!
Me too I am planning to move to the big island. How did it work out for you guys?
I am now looking for Kauai homes for sale to get a good offer.
I am so excitet!!

That would be a different island!

Birgitta,

Are you looking to move to Kauai or the Big Island? This forum specializes in the Ka'u district of the Big Island. Not much that I know of as far as a forum for Kauai though there probably is one. You can e-mail me out side this forum if you think there is enough interest for a Kauai only forum and I may be able to put one together.

Aloha!