I’ve got a good deal on some unwanted slate chippings but I’m not sure how to get them from there current location to my house 5 miles away. Current front runner is finding a man with a van who willing to help me shovel it into rubble sacks and do a few loads. Any better ideas?

Hire a bloke with a truck that’ll carry 3 tons?

Rent a tipper truck and do 2 trips if you can tip it when you get it home. Only one lot of shoveling then.

Wouldn’t want to be bagging that lot it would be a faff. other option might be hire a large trailer if you have a tow bar?

A message from the moderator

As above, a 7.5t wagon will carry 3-3.5t.
My advice would be to get the job ready, then shovel the slate off the vehicle into barrows and lay it. It’ll save you handling it again.
Don’t entertain the dumpy bag idea…use a vehicle with a tipper, even if it’s only a 3.5t pickup (carries 1-1.25t).

EDIT – beaten to it!

Iolo – I believe I used the correct spelling?
Should have explained that there both the current location and my house has no vehicle access to the current location or destination.

You ever tried shovelling on to a 7.5 tonner? No fun at all!

If you have no vehicle access then bagging and a sack barrow makes sense as you’re going to have to shovel it at least once anyway.

Hire a man with a grab lorry.

If there is no vehicle access then I reckon it would be cheaper in terms of time/effort pain in the arse to just buy 3 new tonnes and have it delivered by helicopter

Personally I really wouldnt fancy bagging 3 tonne of slate

3 tonne of chippings doesn’t look like much, but it’ll take a long time to bag it and then move – and if you are hiring someone to help, probably cost more than it would to just but 3 tonne delivered.

beaten to it

Let me guess….free to uplift.

Clever technique that,

Put it into 1 tonne sacks and get someone with a hiab lorry to move it

I shovelled out a 1 ton bag of chi pings once. It was never ending…I can’t imagine having to fill three, then empty three.

A one ton bag was never ending? Christ, you sound like a worker!.

It was more the dull monotony of doing boring manual labour.

Slate chippings not the easiest to shovel either due to the hard random sharp square edge shaped nature.

1 tonne of sand or nice round pea gravel no problem.

Wiuldnt thank you for making me shovel a. Tonne of slate chippings.

The idea of trying to shovel slate chippings sounds horrific (dense as they lie flat against each other) unless you’ve got some proper gear.
Hire a grab truck would probably be best.
Or just buy some ‘new’ for delivery – it will be less painfull in the long run.

Doh. beaten to it.

I used 23 tonnes. A while back. Shovelling this stuff was the worst part, we did one day me and a mate and shifted the three tonnes, the shovel kept stopping on the slate when trying to drive it in. It was bloody hard work.

I hired a mini digger for a day and another “labourer”, so a gang of three, we shifted the 20 tonnes in 5 hours, 2 scoops from the digger filled a barrow and while one barrow was being loaded the other was being emptied.

DON’T try rubble sacks unless you want to be picking it up again and again. Get some one tonne bags and a hi-ab as previously suggested.

Thanks for the suggestions. I might just buy new having though about it more detail

Hire some young lads to fill the bags. We used to do those sort of jobs all the time when I was young. Bit of cash, paid for the hash.

Find a local farm contractor with access to a digger and a decent trailer with something to pull it. Will be a mornings work.

Or just price up some materials direct and see how it compares (with delivery) to the cost of getting someone to shift it.

I loaded 3 tonnes of scalpings into a wheelbarrow and carted it 50 metres it took bloody ages

I cant see much of a cost saving over getting 3 tonnes delivered by Travis`s or similar.Certainly not if you get a man with a van for the morning

My brother has offered to help and can offer a tipper trailer. Whether the effort is worth the £250 saving in buying it delivered to the house is the matter.

Are you married? Does your wife have a car? The answer is obvious.