Over the next few months I will need to dig lots of holes, each about
90cm deep by 50cm wide by 3 metres long. The soil is quite stony, and gets extremely sticky in the wet.
I only want to dig one hole per weekend, and access is very limited, so I don't think hiring a mini-digger is justified.
I have the upper body strength of a computer programmer, but each weekend of digging brings noticeable, if temporary, improvements in that area, so that's a reason I would prefer to dig myself rather than get a machine or a person to dig for me.
So far I've got these tools:
- Large spade and medium spade.
- Heavy narrow trenching spade.
- Post hole diggers (both the heavy chopping blade thing, and the two-handled scoopy thing).
- Shovel
- Protective gloves and boots
Are there any tips on how to make digging these holes easier? Any other tools I could buy? Is it just a case of pacing myself? Does digging get much easier when you're doing it every day?
Get a proper digging shovel with a long handle. The types of spades in common use in the UK are useless for digging. I speak here as someone who spent the last two weeks digging a 3m cubed hole and 48 metres of trench in a mixture of extremely stony ground and thick clay.
I mean shovels like this:
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or for narrow trenches:
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A mattock if you have tree roots to cope with, or a pick axe if the ground is stony.
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You might find one of these useful in starting the hole. It's like a long heavy chisel that you can use to break up the soil before tackling with a shovel.
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For really stony ground or clay you can consider using a cheap SDS drill with rotostop fitted with a wide chisel bit to break up the ground or sculpt out lumps of clay. If doing this in clay ensure the clay is dry to what potters call "leather hard" before using the SDS, and ensure you have an RCD somewhere on the electrical supply.
Alternatively if the going is really tough consider hire of a breaker hammer with a spade bit.
Only you can really tell what sort of ground you are digging in, so start with the usual tools of spade, pick axe, mattock only turn to other things if the conditions demand them. Remember that the long handled tools enable you to break out the soil without breaking yourself but you may find that you don't have the strength to push the spade blade down a spit to commence digging.
Yes, after a fortnight you will have much more upper body and leg strength. Be *very* careful to pace yourself over the early days. Flying at it like a lunatic can cause injury that will persist for decades.
And it should be obvious, but needs saying, buying a load of toys isn't going to make it that much easier. My preference is for a long handled spade and a pick axe or a mattock with a pick axe spike. Just two tools and you can dig almost any hole or trench in any conditions.
Buying one from eBay is justified if you have a lot of groundwork to do. I've had really good value from my £750 eBay buy of a PowerFab TD1. OTOH not many people have projects that require footings, drainage and installation of services and (hopefully) a swimming pool. So the expenditure does have to be weighed carefully against contractor fees/time.
My recent burial of a large storage container for rainwater took me four days of continuous digging to prepare and inter the tank and dig the trenches for the rain water drainage. All done now but required "quite a bit" of manual labour as well as the use of a digger, because diggers can't get into all locations and levelling trenches takes fine work with a spade.
Forget to mention in my earlier post, these can also be useful:
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Although I wouldn't pay those prices for one and I prefer mine to have a long handle. The first is good in heavy clay or boulder clay, the second is good in stony or sandy soil.
As it appears to be stony clay and narrow I'd suggest using the adze part of a mattock[1] to do the main trenching, digging out the loose debris with either the spade or the shovel. If at any time it becomes easy enough to use the spade then do so, in with weight on the boot, lever back to loosen then heave out, working in the trench all the time.
Depending on the ground I'd expect a bit of collapse but if it's for foundations then just clear it out and order a bit more concrete.
If you've got soft hands then you probably want to wear work gloves and maybe tape around your palms with zinc oxide tape to reduce the risk of blisters.
Not as far as my experience goes. Blisters on the hands even with gloves seem to be a real issue. I'd get someone else to do it if I ever need a few holes in future. The soil around here is all clay! Brian
The obvious tool to add would be a grubbing mattock (superficially looks a bit like a pick axe, but with shorter and much wide blades. One oriented inline with the shaft, and one across. Very good for chopping up areas of hard or stony ground prior to removal with a shovel etc.
Yup, if you pace yourself and work up to it, it will get easier. Don't try and do too much in one go at first.
You seem to understand the difference between a spade and a shovel, they are not synonyms. A spade is the digging equivalent of a knife, is used to cut into the ground; a shovel is the digging equivalent of a spoon, is used to lift and shift. Shovels also work best if there's a firm surface to run them against, otherwise they end up hitting the stuff you're shovelling side-on.
I agree with the recommendation to get a mattock, especially for trench-like holes. I also find a right-angle rake useful for gathering lumps together.
Pace yourself, use any excuse to stop for a cuppa. Heat exhaustion can creep up on you unexpectedly if you're not used to it.
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