Sagebrush & Solar

The good news is, we aren’t worried about our house sliding off the hill. The bad news? Man, do we have a mountain of dirt and rocks to deal with!

Check out the density of the material we’re putting our house on. This is what they call “pit run” when you’re building a road and need to get base material at the gravel pit.

There are different sizes of pit run – it generally corresponds with the size of the rocks. Pit run is a mix of rocks, sand and gravel. It makes a good road base because as it compresses, it packs really well, leaving a solid dirt road. Road mix, a smaller size of rock, generally layers on top of pit run to make it a smoother ride (for a dirt road).

We’re using the pit run from our house hole to build the base of our driveway. We’re saving about $7 per yard by loading a trailer and building our driveway base. For reference, the bucket of the excavator holds one yard.