# Cleanup after install



## mha2345 (Mar 30, 2019)

Quick question, I recently had an irrigation system and my soil is a mixture of rocks and clay. Mostly rocks. So naturally, while digging the trenches it stirred up a lot of the rocks, and i'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on the best way to cleanup all the rocks and debris so that I can get back to reel mowing. Is it just a matter of walking around and hand picking up every rock, or trying to rake them up into a pile as much as possible? Use the rotary with bagger and an old blade? Here are some pictures of what I have ahead of me:










There are also lots of smaller rocks scattered throughout the turf.


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## PNW_George (May 28, 2018)

I assume you installed the system yourself? An irrigation company should have made it hard to even see where they cut the trench. I'd just rake the rocks into piles and pick them up.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

I saw those chert rocks and clay and thought, "Yep, that's North Alabama clay". I went back and saw I was right from your location. Howdy neighbor! I'm also in Harvest area off Jeff Rd.

You'll just have to rake, broom, and pick up the chunks by hand. There is also a "nut harvester" roller tool that may work on the rocks from 1/2" to about 2" that's probably cheap enough to try...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082G4YD3Q?tag=duckduckgo-ffab-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1


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## mha2345 (Mar 30, 2019)

PNW_George said:


> I assume you installed the system yourself? An irrigation company should have made it hard to even see where they cut the trench. I'd just rake the rocks into piles and pick them up.


I had a company install it. They did a good job and honestly did a ton of work for me cleaning up a lot of rocks and boulders from the trenches. Problem is as I mentioned, the sheer amount of rocks is unimaginable (most of them very small, which makes them hard to rake). @hsvtoolfool might try this, I was thinking about trying a shop vac but not sure if it's safe to vaccum them? And awesome! I'm right near Nick Davis and old railroad bed. The builder did not use any topsoil, everything is just clay, debris, and rocks. Very hard to deal with.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

@mha2345 you won't hurt your ShopVac on rock and soil, but the filter will clog quickly. Get a reusable filter and be prepared to clear it out a lot. It might be quicker to make a screen and just use a shovel to sift out the big rocks and pebbles from the dirt.

Our Alabama pasture land is usually very fertile. Unfortunately, developers grade off the top few feet of rich topsoil down to that nasty layer of red clay and chert. Then they slap low-grade Tifton on the clay after the house is done.

My front yard was so bad that I graded off 4 inches of clay and rock with a bobcat, then dumped 4 inches of good topsoil amended with sand, and then finally installed irrigation and sod. Two full days were required just to trench my front yard because I'd hit 6" to 12" chert rocks that would jam the machine. It took forever to dig those out by hand with a demo bar and mattock. When I do my backyard irrigation, I'm renting a small backhoe with a 6" wide shovel. Take that rocks.


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## Utk03analyst (Jun 8, 2019)

hsvtoolfool said:


> @mha2345 you won't hurt your ShopVac on rock and soil, but the filter will clog quickly. Get a reusable filter and be prepared to clear it out a lot. It might be quicker to make a screen and just use a shovel to sift out the big rocks and pebbles from the dirt.
> 
> Our Alabama pasture land is usually very fertile. Unfortunately, developers grade off the top few feet of rich topsoil down to that nasty layer of red clay and chert. Then they slap low-grade Tifton on the clay after the house is done.
> 
> My front yard was so bad that I graded off 4 inches of clay and rock with a bobcat, then dumped 4 inches of good topsoil amended with sand, and then finally installed irrigation and sod. Two full days were required just to trench my front yard because I'd hit 6" to 12" chert rocks that would jam the machine. It took forever to dig those out by hand with a demo bar and mattock. When I do my backyard irrigation, I'm renting a small backhoe with a 6" wide shovel. Take that rocks.


I'm up the road a bit south of Nashville and had the same issue it's hard to remove rock without losing some good soil. This seems like the fastest, most effective way. Just remove a layer of soil and rock and add sifted top soil.


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## PNW_George (May 28, 2018)

mha2345 said:


> PNW_George said:
> 
> 
> > I assume you installed the system yourself? An irrigation company should have made it hard to even see where they cut the trench. I'd just rake the rocks into piles and pick them up.
> ...


I can see you may have more issues with rocks than I did but I do have some areas with similar issues. It may just not have been possible in your yard.

I'll count myself lucky; In my quote my installer stated " all lawn and landscaped areas will be restored to its pre-existing condition. They installed the sprinkler heads along the perimeter of the lawn where possible but where they did trench through the lawn even the sod was replaced and there was not a hint of rock or even soil left on the lawn. In the gardens, the mulch was replaced. I may have paid more for it though.


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