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PSA: My buddy said to skip the post hole digger for rocky ground, and I should have listened.
He told me this last spring when I was starting a job up in the hills near Boulder. The ground looked tough, but I figured my auger on the skid steer could power through anything. I mean, it always had before. So I went for it, and within the first hour I hit a seam of sandstone and completely wrecked two teeth on the bit. That was a $300 fix right there, not counting the half day I lost. He just shook his head when I told him and said he uses a demo hammer with a spade bit for that stuff, breaks it up first. I tried it on the next section and it was way slower, but I didn't break anything else. Has anyone found a better middle ground for that kind of work, or is it just a slow, careful process?
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matthewh282d ago
Forget the middle ground, you need to scout the site better first. Grab a steel probe bar and spend ten minutes jabbing it into the dirt where you plan to dig. You'll feel the big rocks before you hit them with a machine. It saves so much headache and downtime, letting you pick your spots for the auger or plan for the hammer.
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