Question about digging with backhoes

[Billrog]

Geo techs hire me with the backhoe on a regular basis to dig test holes. I have a 12" but they prefer 24 or 30" buckets so they can see the sides of the hole. Nobody gets in the hole. They avg. 12' deep and samples are taken 1 to 2' depending on the soil types and depth of each layer.

 

[EddieWalker]

Seeing the layers of the soil makes a lot of sense. Especially if there is something down there that they are specifically looking for

 

[beeforty]

When I built my house I knew that I had high ground water level so we had a soils report done and they used a truck mounted drill rig to bore down a ways then dropped a hollow tube into the hole, then they dropped a weight a set distance to pound the tube into the hole. This gave the engineer a core sample of 18" and they kept track how many times they dropped the weight, which was converted to load bearing capacity of the soil at each sample depth. This was done at 3' increments I believe and 1 hole was 22'. Of course the drill went through the sand stone layer at 9' which stopped the water from going deeper, so I followed that layer when we started digging a french drain instead of doing it at 4' like was recommended in their report. No more water problem

 

[bulldog69]

That was my thought.
Don't worry about me going into the hole. No chance of that. Some people are interested in leasing some of our land to grow grapes on and they wanted to get some samples, but I wasn't looking forward to a series of 10x6x10 holes on out property.

Since they are wanting to lease the land let them pay for having it core drilled.

 

[Mark 42]

I once borrowed a 3-pt post hole auger - it was slick!
Only went down about 4', but I'm sure you could add pipe extensions.
It would take some tactical manipulation to get the depth (you'd have
to think it through a bit - like drill a few feet, take a sample with a
piece of EMT conduit sharpened at the end, drill deeper, take sample,
then deeper - lowering the drill with one more extension before attaching
to the power head each time)

But it'd probably be easier than a backhoe.

 

[Baby Grand]

Okay, you are going to have to tell us what the purpose of all these holes and scrapings is. Are they trying to find pallet artifacts or something ?

Maybe they read this:

" ... Soil drainage is one of the most critical factors in site selection. Poorly drained soils
cause poor root growth, resulting in slow vine growth, poor yields and reduced vine
vigor, and ultimately a lack of longevity. Grape roots may penetrate to depths of 10
feet or more in well-drained soils, but may be restricted to two feet or less in poorly
drained soils. ... "

https://agronomy.unl.edu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=7acb5bee-54a3-4e95-85f8-dbac7d40f7fa&groupId=4128273

 

[TomSeller]

Grape roots may penetrate to depths of 10
feet or more in well-drained soils, but may be restricted to two feet or less in poorly
drained soils. ... "

Wow, I never would have thought grape roots went so deep.

 

[Mace Canute]

That was my thought.
Don't worry about me going into the hole. No chance of that. Some people are interested in leasing some of our land to grow grapes on and they wanted to get some samples, but I wasn't looking forward to a series of 10x6x10 holes on out property.

Since they are wanting to lease the land let them pay for having it core drilled.

I agree with bulldog69...core drilled is the only way I would let a potential leasee take soil samples. There's no way I would let someone dig multiple test holes with a backhoe on any land I owned. You never get all the dirt back in the hole and as what dirt is there settles you'll get left with a bunch of nasty little holes that could cause you untold grief if Murphy rears his ugly head.

 

[dfkrug]

Geo techs hire me with the backhoe on a regular basis to dig test holes. I have a 12" but they
prefer 24 or 30" buckets so they can see the sides of the hole. Nobody gets in the hole. They avg. 12' deep and
samples are taken 1 to 2' depending on the soil types and depth of each layer.

That was pretty much how we had it done back when my geotechnical engineer needed test holes. We could
not drill because of all the large rocks, so the contractor used a Case 850 crawler with backhoe. That was
"only" a backhoe, but it made short work of it. 10 to 12' holes.