Six people took their best shot at demolishing this 1980 addition. I rented a backhoe just a few days after we took the last wall down. The backhoe came with a boulder claw. If I would have known this, I would have told the other five people to stay home.
My dad stood in the hole with a dirt rake. A piece of tape on the handle measured the height of an 8 inch footing, 6 courses of block, and the sill. I purchased a $300 contractor's level (worth every single penny since I wouldn't have been able to excavate without it) and placed it on one of the family room footings. The tape mark was adjusted for the height difference between the laser and the top of the sill (add the difference to the height of the wall). I would honk the horn to signal Dad to measure the area I had just excavated. The next day, my neighbor, a retired man in his 70's, measured the front. The results were great. Because I was nervous about compromising the native soil below the footing, I left 1-4 inches to hand dig, a small price to pay for peace of mind. A flat shovel did the trick in no time.
The total excavation cost less than $700 and took 2 days. The worst part was returning the backhoe.
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