Hole borer for fence and deck posts

[strath44]

Hey folks, I am a bit time short and have about 20 posts to put in this weekend.

I noticed hiring a petrol hole auger / borer is pretty cheap ( about £13 a day) has anyone used one are they any good?

[lost in espace]

You will need 2 people to run it, can be tricky if you have very hard ground. They are good though. Hang on!

[greygoose]

How deep are you planning on going?

[smifffymoto]

Augers are ok if you have light soil and no stones.I bought one when I fenced some paddocks,took ages because of ground condition.Got fed up and went back to using a digging bar and shovel.Auger is in the barn gathering dust.

[Murph7355]

I have a post hole digger. Took me about 6hrs to do 16 2ft deep holes in ground full of rocks. Neat, compact holes. Very sore shoulders etc the next day.

[chockymonster]

I did 17 holes, 2ft x 2ft by 1m deep for my deck posts. All done by manual labour, post hole digger and a spade.
I ache, a lot!

[V8RX7]

Great in theory - crap in practice unless you have nice soft ground

(in which case they're easy to dig)

[Muncher]

V8RX7 said:

Great in theory - crap in practice unless you have nice soft ground

(in which case they're easy to dig)

Agreed, used one last year for about 20 posts. They work, to an extent but are really hampered by any rubble or stones in the ground and any tree roots. For £13 it's worth a punt but I wouldn't assume it will make light work of it unless you have ideal soil conditions.

[blade runner]

I did 57 holes for my deck using a combination of spades and a digging bar. Nothing else was really an option as the ground I was digging into use to be a old quarry, so there were large stones to deal with in every hole. I used to dream about being able to use an Auger...

[Muncher]

If I was digging lots of them I would get one of these or similar:

[littlebasher]

And make sure there are no buried cables in the vicinity!

[mondeoman]

One of these....
http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-heavy-duty-15l...




and one of these
http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-17lb-post-hole...



Piece of piss.

[strath44]

Thanks guys appreciate that, looks like I'm doing it the manual way!

Really like that rough neck tool!

57 holes that was a mission! I only need to do 20 or so

[anonymous-user]

Agree with the above post. Post hole spade and spoons is the best way. If the ground is soft (so that the auger would work well) then digging manually is easy. If the going is tough manually, then the auger probably wouldn't work very well if at all (one of the small hand held ones anyway).

[Murph7355]

mondeoman said:

One of these....
http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-heavy-duty-15l...



.

That's the badger.

Didn't bother with the second thing.

[blade runner]

strath44 said:

Thanks guys appreciate that, looks like I'm doing it the manual way!

Really like that rough neck tool!

57 holes that was a mission! I only need to do 20 or so

Forgot to mention the rough-neck tool - also essential. Digging bar is very useful if you have any decent size stones in the soil. With enough force I managed to split a few of the bigger ones I came across using a bar.