Seriously. . . What’s your preferred method? Have at it with a spade, or what?
At work, I dig ’em with a spade. I’ve got a few posts to set in my yard – wondering if there’s a much smarter method.
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Depends on where you're gonna be digging......
If you're here in the sandhills of North Carolina, then you'd already know that you could dig twenty post holes by hand, in the time it takes those other guys to get the auger out of the truck.
Which is why I just use a post-hole digger. I can usually be 30" down in less than two minutes.
On the other hand, if you live where I did formerly, with all that hard clay, well, perhaps I'd do the post holes with a subcontractor.
post hole digger.
Like a hand auger (i.e. not powered), or a clamshell digger?I'm looking for votes!
clam shell. After an hor or 2 you'll figure out how to go fast at digging with it.
never saw much use the hand augers but that's me.
but if you have big rocks in the way...
Well, since you're looking for votesClamshell.And if there will be big rocks.......A spudbar..........And a roto hammer........Maybe some C4.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
Only trouble with that C4 is that it takes a lot of concrete to fill the big "V" shaped hole around the post. No license needed for a posthole digger either. I always had to make a least a little hole to get the C4 down 24" anyway.Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.... Roman Poet Phaedrus 15BC–50AD
>>"Only trouble with that C4 is that it takes a lot of concrete to fill....."Well, true.But make no mistake, if you use the stuff, there WILL be a hole where that post needs to go.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
A hole for sure. In a residential neighborhood no. There is a bigger picture. Sort of like tearing out an entire corner bedroom and the roof when the homeowner just wanted a few more sq ft for a walk in closet. Sort of like the point of decreasing returns. Rebuild costs more than the entire profit of the job.There were a few times (pre change of law) that I had to use a star drill and a hand sledge to make a hole in granite bedrock. Dad used C2 (it was a while ago), crimped a blasting cap on some fuse, we used old mattresses to protect the structure (exterior) and it was "fire in the hole"Post holes (for posts) in suburbia? I use a steel handled post hole digger (clam shell) with the edges welded with hard rod. Use a nice heavy pry bar for rocks and roots. Presto--a nice hole for either a 4X4 or 6X6, gravel bottom to drain and Simpson fasteners screwed to post and lintel/purlins--prestained cedar boards (edges, ends, front and back) screwed to lintels/purlins and you have a fence that lasts.Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.... Roman Poet Phaedrus 15BC–50AD
I've got both the hand auger and the clamshell. Each has its place - the auger is good for really sandy soil, the clamshell much faster for soil that holds together.
Clamshell and a digging bar. Too many potatoes here in New England for an auger unless it's on the front of a skidsteer.
Yep, 6' tamper and a heavy post hole digger.
read this once, must have been someone from around here
"God loves rocks and poor people, that's why he made so many of them"
happy digging
Depends greatly on soil type. We're on glacial morraine which combines hard and soft clay with rocks that range from pebbles to monstrous.
I've rented one-man and two-man post hole augers. I've tried clam shovels, round mouth shovels and picks, and just about every other piece of digging gear I can find.
For smallish jobs I've settled on a heavy steel (5' long) pry bar and a shop vac. (I kid you not). Loosen the dirt with the bar, vac it up, dump it aside. Repeat. You'll have a hole in no time.
Put the post in the hole and back fill with the stuff in the vac. Tamp.
Scott.
Got the same type hardpan (like cement) you have, probably from the same glacier (am outside Seattle)
Just dug 2 postholes last week, used the backhoe <G> Even the teeth on the backhoe have trouble once the hardpan is hit.
>>>Got the same type hardpan (like cement) you have, probably from the same glacier (am outside Seattle)Amazing stuff, isn't it? Almost as hard as rock, but when you finally dig it up it turns to baby powder.Scott.
I used your shop vac trick once to go down through an existing Keystone retaining wall. To avoid weakening the compacted-gravel base, I cut sections of galvanized downspout to the desired hole depth. I'd stick a metal shop vac wand into one, and work it down as I chopped with the wand.That job went like a breeze, but the block cores limited me to small holes, and therefore metal pipe posts, wrapped later with cedar 1x.Most of the time, clamshells are the most economical tool, especially if I can put a kid or a laborer on the job.AitchKay
Shop vac - you (I) run across some pretty interesting solutions here... I'll have to try that some time.
Some of my building sites have really hard soil (often with rock mixed in). Every house needs an inspection box with a PT 4x4 post. Sometimes I use my rotary hammer to help me dig. Even bought the biggest bit I could find just for the purpose. I ended up building some stands that are portable out of PT lumber because I was so sick of digging post holes in rock hard soil. They are re-useable too, plus it seems like no matter where I did the regular inspection box post, it would end up being in the way at some point, even if it wasn't until landscaping. I'll have to get a pic... I still have to do the mailbox posts though.
My wife and I actually hand dug a 18 ft deep well thru that type stuff back in '71. Only productive way was with air impact hammer to bust it loose (30" dia well), took us a couple of weeks.
Only advantage did not need to worry about any cave-in.
Still have that well as a backup, bottom 8 ft unlined, NOTHING has fallen off the side in 38 years.
Luky OSHA didn't stop by...
:-)
I always use the clamshell diggers. Although Dad has a hand twisted one that I kinda like. It's not an auger, but has two offset blades. Maybe I can get a picture of it one of these days..A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me to help replace a couple of fence posts. He has shoulder trouble, and didn't thin he could dig all the holes by hand. His Dad wandered out when I was there. He handed me the post hole digger and asked:"Do you know how to use these?"Sheesh. I've only dug a thousand holes or so. Maybe I need a refresher course...
If practice makes perfect, how do you explain cab drivers?
>His Dad wandered out when I was there. He handed me the post hole digger and asked:
"Do you know how to use these?"<
mebbee they were playing stupid to get you to do it for them? :)
I have 2 of all the hard working tools, shovels, picks/mattocks, sledges, axes (execpt the psot hole digger) so that when someone shows up to watch me work they get to help. I hate to not share the tools, you know.
"I have 2 of all the hard working tools, shovels, picks/mattocks, sledges, axes (execpt the psot hole digger) so that when someone shows up to watch me work they get to help. I hate to not share the tools, you know. "Oh, I'd never thought of it that way! (I figured I had two of everything because one is broken and needs repair and the other one is about to get broken.) Now, you've convinced me to get a new clamshell digger! I call mine the "bad back on a stick..." might as well share the wealth.-t
When I'm doing fence posts I'm pretty particular with location along the line and spaced to fit the rails boards and even hole size and have found it's better to do them myself. So, it's probably not a bad thing I don't have a 2nd of the post hole digger.
perfered?
bobcat with auger hardest part is climbing in the seat
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MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE
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I have put ln probally a couple of hundred posts in my area which has either fractured limestone, clay or rocky ground & have tried all methods along the way
The best one i find is to dig the hole with my backhoe using a 18" reinforced bucket ( busted all the teeth out of it origionally developing my system )
I have a helper hold the post in place while i tamp in some of the stones to position the post accurately & plumb then i push in remaining fill with the bucket & gently pack it down with the bucket ( beat hellout of it )
on my own place i have a 1000' of frontage plus sides all inclosed using 6" cedar posts and 3 2 x 6 rails all put in that way
its only a bitch when it comes to painting ,like this year !
Dug my two holes with a breaker bar and the shop vac.
Really!!!!!!
With clay and rocks digging with a clam shell is no fun.
"Dug my two holes with a breaker bar and the shop vac."
Saw a gizmo on the Web a while back that was based on this. It was a digger head that you attached the shop vac to and twisted it into the ground. As the digger loosened the soil, the vac cleared it out.
Cool idea -- if it works.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA