How a Basement Digout is Done by Hand

This is our first 3D animation and we had a lot of fun making it ! We'd love to hear what other processes you'd love to see visualized ! Leave us a comment below

When I was 13 or 14, 1983 or 84, my dad decide to dig out our crawl space to make a bedroom for my brother and I. He dug a small hole down to the footer and busted out a few cinder blocks. That started it. About a week later, one evening he told my brother and I that he wanted us to start digging out some dirt after school. The quota was to fill 5 - 5 gallon buckets and dump them over the hill. I was a scrawny kid. After 1/4 of a bucket, I could tell that it was going to take a long time. My brother was no help as he was 2 1/2 years younger than me. I took about 2 hours that first day to fill those 5 buckets. When dad came home from work he made the access hole bigger so that we could dig easier. 5 buckets of dirt is not much, so after a few days the requirement was 10 buckets a day. Still not much dirt, but with the easier access and practice digging I was able to dig 10 buckets faster than the first 5. My brother was beginning to help out, too. When dad got home he would dig some, too. It was going slow, so dad made the requirement 20, then 25. After a month or so we had a small dent in it. So we dug an access ramp, cut through the footer. We still carried the the buckets up the ramp, but used a wheel barrow to haul loads over the hill. It made it quicker. Our muscles became stronger. We became better at handling a shovel. We had standing room to dig, so 35 buckets. Then came spring and the rain. Water would run down the access and fill up the pit. After pumping we would still get our feet wet many time as the pump could not get the last couple of inches. We learned to leave a low area for pump. That helped, but the floor was not graded so it would still be a muddy slop mess. Then summer vacation gave us a lot more digging time. 50 buckets a day. We would take the wheel barrow down the access, but only take out light loads up the ramp. Only had about 15 to 20% of the digging done. It was still going to slow, so dad recruited my 2 cousins. One was my age and the other was a couple years older. Both were a lot stronger than I was. We would dig Monday trough Fridays and dad would pay them and mom would drop us off at the amusement park, Kings Island, on Saturdays. We did that routine all summer long. We were getting stronger, and better at digging. Counting buckets was long ago. We now counted wheel barrow loads. 50 or more a day on good days. We could actually see progress daily now. The 4 of us kids could move more dirt in one day than my dad and brother and I did in a month. We did not under pin the footer. My dad hired a block layer and we made a retaining wall around the footer. Which worked out good, as it made a shelf for our beds, half closets, and storage shelves. It was finished when I was 15. Us 4 kids did 70% or more of the digging. Our house already had a half basement, so it was only a half crawl space about 22 by 15. It takes time, dedication, and determination, but it can be done. I used the room until I went to the Navy. Came home and used it for about 4 or 5 more years. Now mom and dad use it as storage. By far, the hardest part of the whole ordeal was the first 5 buckets.

can't tell you how much time I've spent researching what you were able to explain in 10 minutes. Very well done keep this service going!!

The animation is outstanding. Great educational tool and, I imagine, a great tool for explaining the process to clients.

love it!!! I have a crawl space that I want deeper, this helped me visualize what I want.

Watched the big basement dig, read a bunch of comments, saw the comment about releasing an animated video to show how you did it, and immediately checked the channel for said video ;)

Fantastic quality animation. Retired from construction management and I know that national design/build contractors would be pleased to have that type of visual marketing tool for their projects - package and sell your animation services to them as another one of your services. Well done!!

This helped me learn so much so fast. Do more videos like this that shows this level of overall game plan clarity.

Who ever is doing your animations… good job. Seriously, they are pretty talented! Excellent work!

I was always curious about the footers. Great video!

Gold, simple and straigh to the point.

Great!!!

One the the best explanations. Thank you

Thanks for adding this 3D animation, this really helped in understanding your process. Keep the content coming!

Loved it!

FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE 🎉😮❤😮THANK YOU FOR HELPING

Clear animation, this is very informative!

Awesome animation

Love the animation and explanation. Let’s me know just what I’m looking forward too if I wanted to do this. Obviously it won’t go as smooth but I enjoy seeing the steps. It’s kind of like a syllabus for a class

Wish i would have started doing this under my own house 15 years ago. Might be done by now lol Awesome video! The time lapse is a must see!! Great work, men!!