Deck footings with a backhoe?

[LD1]

Id say try it with the BH first, and if it aint working well, get something else.

The issue with a PHD and your machine is depth. A PHD made to fit your BX hitch is gonna have issues getting the depth you need.

 

[Raspy]

I used my backhoe to dig the footings for my deck. No problem, and I have an auger. Just dig down and compact the bottom where the sonotube will sit. Do this with water and a tamper from the hardware store, or a piece of 4X4. Set the tube and backfill, compacting as you go. This method gives you a very nice bottom, no cave in and a tightly fitting sonotube. Plus you can adjust the position of the tube to get it in the perfect spot.

 

[bdog]

I recently dug six holes for concrete piers to hold I beams for a 25'x50' shed with my backhoe. I have a 24" bucket and the holes ended up much bigger than I wanted. It is hard to dig small holes with a backhoe.

 

[crazyal]

Not only would a backhoe work I would say that you will want to use a backhoe because you will want to use bigfoot type footings. Otherwise you will want to calculate both live and static loads on each post and then determine how much weight your soil will support so you will know how much surface area (what size diameter) you will need. I have lots of rocks around here and use them. The nice thing about using a rock is that you can drill holes in them and epoxy rebar into the holes. Rocks with holes hold rebar much nicer than sticking them onto the dirt.

 

[Cord]

Yes, it will work, just not ideal. Be careful not to over excavate. Big foots are nice, but are overkill on a small deck. Stay out of the hole less it collapse and becomes your grave.

 

[kevinwak]

Around here decks are becoming almost all done with screw piles. I forget the price per pile, but it was such that the convenience it provided far outweighs the cost. The screw pile installers machine is about the size of a quad. It can for into most urban backyards easily. They install it to a predetermined torque to twist the pile. And once the pile is in you can immediately begin building the deck, no waiting for concrete to cure.

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[millsan1]

I did it for a few posts at my home and it worked well, with the caveat that I was placing 24" diameter footers, so the large diameter hole was not a problem for me. If you are placing smaller footers, the hole might get a bit large, as others have said. When I build my outbuilding, I will be purchasing a post hole digger. If you spend $500 on a PHD and use it for one project, you could probably sell it for $350-400 when you are done, so cheaper than renting. That is my plan.

 

[GLyford]

Depends on scale of the project and the timeframe...for a porch I just built, I dug 5 12" footings (4 with bigfoot equivalent) with a shovel over a few afternoons. A small deck with two 8" footings went in with a 6in. "Iwan" post hole auger*. It was slightly smaller than the hole, but if I jammed the tube form in, it would show me where I needed to take a little more off.

And of course, it depends on your soil type. Being on sand rather than clay, loam, or ledge made all of these go in pretty easily. One good fist sized rock would have me switching to other options, like a the traditional two-handle digger, much as I despise them.

* Like this:
Seymour Post Hole Auger, Iwan Pattern, 6-In.: Model# 21306 | True Value

I put a 3' pipe extension in mine, so that it starts digging with the handle just over my head, and I'm done when the handle reaches waist high, rather than having to bend way down.

But really, sometimes the easiest answer is to just get out the hand tools and go at it.

 

[philbuilt]

I woud just dig the hole and set sono tubes. Uses these bases they are cheap and will
Help hold the tube when you back fill.
Redi Base 8 in. x 24 in. Disposable Plastic Footing for In-Ground Concrete Column-RDB1 - The Home Depot
It creates the footer at the bottom and helps prevent frost lift. Add a lenth of 3/8" all thread rod down the center of the tube.
The rod should stick out of the concrete a couple of inches. Use it to bolt your post plates to.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Apparently I'm in the minority, I'd go for the backhoe without question. I've lost count of how many sonotubes I've done over the years with a hoe...probably a couple hundred. So much so that if my choices were using an auger I had vs renting a backhoe (or mini-ex) I'd rent.

Now if you had a large auger on a skid steer or mini-ex, that would be I different story. In my mind, a PHD on the back of a tractor is all but useless once you've run one on either of the other 2 machines. The control and down pressure makes you wonder why you ever bothered to fight with a PHD on a 3pt hitch.


You bought the BX25 for a reason I presume. Why not use it for what it was meant for? Get out there and dig some holes!