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Remember when we used to fight with that old post hole digger for every single hole? | Fence Erectors - Librear

Remember when we used to fight with that old post hole digger for every single hole?

I mean, back when I first started, maybe 15 years ago, we had this one job putting in a split rail fence on a rocky slope in Asheville. The two-man auger just kept binding and kicking, and we were wrecked by lunch. Out of pure frustration, I tried something dumb. I brought a 5-gallon bucket of water to the site and started pouring a half-gallon into each hole after we got about a foot down. It made a muddy mess, but idk, it let the clay and small stones wash up and pack to the sides instead of jamming the auger. We finished the last 20 holes in half the time. It's such a simple thing, but I still do a version of it with a hose on dry, hard ground. Anyone else have a weird 'wet' trick for tough soils?

3 comments

3 Comments

lisa6715mo ago

That pressure washer trick sounds wild (and messy). It reminds me of this time we were trying to dig near a big old tree root system, and the ground was just impossible. We ended up using a cheap pump sprayer filled with water and just kept hitting the same spot to soften it up between digs. It was slow going, but it kept us from breaking another shovel handle.

pat_perry3mo ago

Wait, isn't a pressure washer more likely to just blow mud everywhere instead of actually loosening the soil?

sarahb595mo ago

Oh man, water is the best cheap tool there is. I had a brutal time with compacted, dry clay last summer putting in some posts. My dumb trick was using a pressure washer with a dirt cutting tip. I'd blast it into the pilot hole for a minute to make a slurry, then the auger would just eat through it. Made a huge wet mess, but it beat fighting the machine all day. Sometimes the simple fix is just adding liquid.