Changed my whole approach after a 4-hour dig in Austin

So I used to just eyeball post hole depths and hope for the best. But last month I took a job in Austin where the clay was so hard I spent 4 hours on a single hole with a manual digger. I finally caved and rented a skid steer with an auger attachment for the rest of the holes and finished the whole fence in 2 afternoons. That wait on the rental was brutal though, I was stuck sitting there while the crew waited. I probably wasted a full day on that first hole when I could have just rented the equipment upfront. The rental cost me $180 for the day and it saved me at least 8 hours of labor. Has anyone else found that one stubborn soil type that forced them to change their whole setup?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinperez1mo ago

That 4 hour hole sounds absolutely brutal. Had a similar experience with caliche in New Mexico that made me rethink everything about my digging approach.

mia_lee1mo ago

Caliche is no joke. I spent a whole weekend once trying to dig a post hole in some rocky clay near a creek bed (turns out there was an old buried concrete slab nobody told me about). Bent two shovel handles and broke a pickaxe before I gave up and just rented a mini excavator. That was the day I learned to always poke around with a probe rod first no matter how nice the ground looks on top.