alternatives - hand digging perimeter drain

[Qapla]

Just because your BH can't do the job doesn't mean you can't use a hoe. You can rent a mini-excavator on tracks. Just get one with a 9" bucket.

We use a bobcat hoe with a 9" bucket to dig mainline and drainage ditches all the time. (we also have a 12" bucket for when it is needed) They are very maneuverable, dig quite well and have a small footprint.

If your space is real tight, look for one that has "zero clearance" and can turn inside their track space (Yanmar started the trend, but their are other makers with them now)

 

[forgeblast]

I have hand dug lines in pa, lots of rock. Get a digging bar and pick, and go to town. Lol it takes time but a nice work out.

 

[beenthere]

I've got to install 50 feet of 4" perimeter drain to fix a crawl space moisture problem. The house has a brick exterior. The city ran the sewer line to the neighbor's house only 10" from the back wall. So unless I want to relocate that line, the backhoe won't work, and it's starting to look like a shovel job to cut say a 6" by 12" trench for the drain that will be graveled and wrapped in filter fabric.
..........

Then I'll take them out one by one to the trench or dump them one by one into a wheel barrow.

Any other ideas?

That isn't much digging (6" x 12") 50' long. And the wheelbarrow will move the dirt away and a fair amount of gravel back without too many trips. Should take the better part of a day.
Now if it was like the 6' deep water line I hand dug in wet clay alongside the pigpen back in the day, I'd say forget it. Wet clay doesn't come off the shovel, and has to be scraped off with a putty knife. Used two shovels and threw them out of the trench with the stuck clay, scraped them off, threw them back into the trench and climbed back in for two more shovels full. Took more than a day, but was only 35' long.

 

[2manyrocks]

If I need both the perimeter drain and the french drain, then the hand dug perimeter drain needs to get dug first because digging the french drain with the BH will make muddy and miserable working conditions on site.

I don't trust an excavator that close to the house and the sewer line that the city thinks is only a few inches deep.