digging foundations trench slowly

[Cordless Crazy]

Man alive! that was alot to dig out! 5ft deep must have meant unsaf sides surely

-- Cordless Crazy

[Cordless Crazy]

One thing to bear in mind. Leave a couple of inches in the bottom o the trench throughout, and dig this last little bit completely out a the end, once you are ready to concrete. If your trenches are left ope for months (especially when laziness kicks in!), the exposed earth fac will become weathered and this is not ideal to go bearing foundation on

-- Cordless Crazy

[Paul Andrews]

I'd just like to add that even over a few hot days in the height of the summer, the dried out sides of my trench gave cause for concern - I was worried that the nice straight sides dug by a digger would deteriorate into a mess as the soil dried and became unstable. Certainly the nice clean top edges exhibited a tendency to fall into the trench at the slightest provocation as the soil dried. I would think that keeping a neat trench in the long term will require a lot of care and shoring.

Paul

[Rick]

I got a 3 tonne digger in my front room .......

Rick

[Rick]

Only if you can't drive, a good driver will have no issues with the door.

Rick

[Matt]

They will if you don't open it first :-)

"A 750KG machine will go through a std front door "

[Rick]

A good driver would use the machine to operate the door handle, and swing the door open. A driver with years of experience would use the machine to insert the key in the lock, and unlock the door as well.

Any idiot can barge the door down.

Rick

[Matt]

Thanks for the clarification. :-)

[Hamie]

Build wooden sides?

H

[The Natural Philosopher]

fill with concrete as you go, using shuttering and tie rods to get a decent joint to the next bit?