I am going to put a 28 x 78ft mobile office at main farm on a spot where an old house now sits.

Need some advice.

Old house is about a 1900's variety......two story, with a partial basement, probably 6ft maximum deep..........maximum 30x40.......old stone basement, not cement poured or block.

Current highest and best use----------sanctuary for the coons........and don't enter without a gun.

First........need to raze the house.    Second.........fill in basement.  Third.........pour piers for the mobile office.

Best way to raze the house????---------burn it, then clean it up with the endloaders, coming in from one low-hill side of the basement?  In other words, let the building burn where it is, and clean up nails, etc later??      Burn it from the center........ie diesel in center of house, so hottest starts there, hopefully collapsing it inward???

I am not going to try and collapse the house without burning------too much chance of collapse on the equipment for us greenhorns.  I am going to see if anyone wants the lumber in exchange for the tearing down------but need an Alt B in event cannot get anyone timely.

Best way to fill the basement???-------------leave the rock walls there, and dump in sand/soil mix??   Need to have a relatively "packed" basement fill, since we intend on putting several of the cement piers there for the mobile office.  We have a "sand hill" that is probably 70% sand/30% soil.........and can easily haul the sand, and dump into the hole. 

Seems the sand would do better than dirt.

Pouring piers for the mobile office-----------seems that if we go over/thru the basement hole.............which we really need to do..........that might be better to pour a long continuous pier thru the basement fill, as compared to several 1-ft diameter 5ft tall piers.  I would suspect that the 5ft x 1ft, by, say, 30-40ft "wall", filled with some re-rod, would have less chance of moving unevenly as compared to separate piers, and therefore would provide better support for the office.   Obviously the front end cement cost would be more, but I am guessing that the "wall pier" would be stable..........hopefully fewer long-term headaches.

Thanks for any comments.

By the way............any of you in the DesMoines, Pella, Knoxville, Newton, Grinnell, Ottumwa, Oskaloosa Iowa area, and know of anyone who moves these "mobile offices/homes"--------I would appreciate names/comments-------email works.  Need to move it from Pella to east of Oskaloosa------about 30miles.