Deck footings with a backhoe?

[Chvypowa]

We are looking to put a deck on the house in the next month. I have a BX25 and thought about using the backhoe to dig the footings instead of buying a post hole digger. Has anyone attempted this? Would it work?

Thank you

 

[newbury]

Would it work?
Yes.
Would it work well?
No.

If you can, try renting a PHD, either for your tractor or a towable one. The 1 and 2 man augers beat people.

 

[Egon]

It'll work. All you need is reach to get deep enough. Dig hole, place, align and support sona tube, back fill a bit, check sona tube alignment and complete backfill.

 

[newbury]

It'll work. All you need is reach to get deep enough.<snip>

And in Albany that's 50" to 60". https://www.decks.com/deckbuilding/Deck_Footing_Frost_Depth_Map

Practice digging a 60" deep hole someplace in your yard with the same soil and your equipment first. A lot depends on the soil type, rocky, sand, clay can all make a great difference.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sure it will work, but you end up with a very large hole in the ground that you will have to either fill with concrete, or do as already suggesting and use a sono tube, then back fill. Problem with back filling is getting the soil around the sonotube compacted, which will never happen.

 

[Bota4me]

It will work but i would use bigfoots for a solid base. Or you could pin sonotubes on a footing
Ive done both and bigfoots are easier imo
Oh ya and use rebar. Good luck

 

[check]

No problem. I did it for a friend, and the soil was quite sandy, so it was easy dig, and very fast. Also, you don't really need the backfill to be compacted, because all the weight will be at the bottom of the hole. Just make sure that the bottom of the hole is undisturbed soil, and that you put some gravel before you pour the sono tubr.

 

[Egon]

And in Albany that's 50" to 60". https://www.decks.com/deckbuilding/Deck_Footing_Frost_Depth_Map

Practice digging a 60" deep hole someplace in your yard with the same soil and your equipment first. A lot depends on the soil type, rocky, sand, clay can all make a great difference.

Your saying that an auger can handle soil/rocks the hoe can't?

Few years back I dug a few sona tube holes for my Daughter. JD #7 backhoe and five foot deep. No problems. No big piles of dirt left. No big settlement holes. Didn't take long and I'm somewhat challenged with the hoe controls.

Don't need a big hole. Just a sona tube width trench that's vertical at the start and just about the same at the end.

 

[Chvypowa]

Thanks guys! leaning towards doing this with the bigfoot tubes. I'll keep you posted

 

[schmism]

speaking from experience, your BX will be at more of an disadvantage than my TC33 with woods hoe.

To dig a nearly sq hole you have to work the bucket "straight down" in order to do this you have to rely on the weight of the machine to "push" the cutting edge into the ground before you can curl the bucket toward you and then lift straight up. There is no other way to dig a small hole than useing this method, and it sucks!

if your soil is sandy the best you can hope for is a bit over 1:1 slope meaning for a 50" deep hole your looking at 4'x4' top.

as for your project... if you had 2 footings to do, id dig them with the hoe. if you had like 6 or 8 to do id rent the auger.