As an engineer, you have probably calculated the amount of dirt that will be needed for your house foundation and, unless you plan to build your house pad twenty feet thick, you appreciate that you will be using very little of the dirt that you plan to excavate. Have the dirt on your site cored and classified; you probably own material that some dirt contractors would buy from you for resale. I get from $.80 to $1.00 per cubic yard for dirt from my pit and the resulting hole in the ground is free. But I'm sure that there are many contractors who would happily charge you to build a pond by removing dirt that they are hauling to someone else's property for $10.00 per cu yd. Don't allow a contractor to perform a rectal probe on you; if you need that done, consult a proctologist since you can then rest assured that only a gloved finger is doing the probing.
