Postholes, rocky ground, and cleanout

[Ken45101]

If it's smaller rocks (not solid bedrock), I agree the post driver is probably the way to go.

An auger that will cut through rock may work too.

Of course there is always the good old spud bar to manually bust the rock. I have one post that took me 4 hours to put in. I don't have fence up at that point anymore, but I am NOT taking that post out!

As for cleaning out what he has already dug, repeated lifting/dropping the auger while spinning it at moderate speed tends to pull out a good portion of the loose stuff.

Ken

 

[jpav]

Short update.

He came out, got 45 or so of the holes done. Broke off a tooth, and the mounting bolt area for the pilot bit on his 6" auger. Mount broke clean off. This is a purpose built Cat part, so he was going to try and warranty it with the local Cat dealer. I'm going to contact him again today to see how that is going, and try and get the other 15-20 holes left done soon.

On average, only got down about 2- 2.5 feet before it just wouldn't go any more (without rounding out the hole at the top more as he tried to dig down at a different angle to get under whatever was down in the hole). We have lots of rock, and a couple of hardpan layers in most areas. Combine hardpan and rock, and some sand, and you have a pretty solid cement mix to try and drill through

No pictures of his rig, I'll try and remember when he gets back out to the place.

He did mention the hydrodrill guys, and knew it was expensive. $50 per hole is about 10 times what this costs, and at that, I can deal with a hole that takes a little manual cleanout, and only gets down about 2' and change.

The holes that I started a few inches by hand, and soaked with water for a week or so, almost came out clean as the stuff stuck to the auger. Minor cleanout. THe dry holes just had stuff fall back in to be manually cleaned out.