Fence post holes

Author
Discussion

JimM169

Original Poster:

392 posts

121 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Following on from an earlier post, what's the best tool for digging holes for fence posts. Need to go down a couple of feet in sandy\gravel type soil


Do I go with a corkscrew affair

https://tinyurl.com/ybxepwej

a narrow spade

https://tinyurl.com/y87avexd

or the double hinged spade

https://tinyurl.com/yad3mooj

Thanks

J8 SVG

1,468 posts

129 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
ORRRR petrol power? will make light work of a rubbish job

https://www.powertools2u.co.uk/makita-bba520-petro...

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

dhutch

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
What sort of post is it? Panel fence? Wire fence? Hoe many are you doing?

Expect the petrol option is overkill, but if you are using one, take care how you hold it as if its hits a rock or root its a seriously easy way to break your arm.


Daniel

smifffymoto

4,527 posts

204 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Augers don't work very well unless in proper soil so I would rule it out.
What type of fence post,concrete,square,peeled and pointed,how big height and diameter etc.If it is just stakes or p&p posts I would just use a digging bar and knocker. If I was concreteing them in I would use a post digging spade or the smallest spade I could.

Andrew_S

704 posts

79 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
I have a manual auger and every time it hits a stone it stops, so I need to dig the stone out before continuing.

S11Steve

6,374 posts

183 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
I've just bought a manual auger in preparation for planting 40m of hedging plants - it works well in soil, but i can imagine in anything looser it will just crumble back into the hole as you pull the auger out.

It does cut through very easy though, and as I have 120 odd holes to create, it's got to be easy than using a spade.

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

144 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
I've got the corkscrew jobbie linked above. Really rather good, no stress putting in a dozen or so post holes for a deck. Best thing is that you also don't end up with a massive hole so 1 bag of postcrete per hole will suffice.

JimM169

Original Poster:

392 posts

121 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
It's 8' x 100mm x 100mm wooden posts with closeboard 6' x 6' panels

Only 11 posts but liking the idea of a petrol machine - £160 on Amazon and sell it on after?

https://tinyurl.com/ychtrjbx


dhutch

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Small spade, maybe a twin spade, imo.

Petrol will be more work than its worth, unless there are two of you and your built like a builder.



Daniel

renmure

4,212 posts

223 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
randlemarcus said:
I hired something similar to put fencing posts in. It was no better than “ok” and it ground to a halt at every decent sized stone.

campionissimo

578 posts

123 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
i use one of these for my fence jobs - utterly brilliant. beware of other versions without the knuckle protectors at the top of the handles.



https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-fibreglass-po...

langtounlad

780 posts

170 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Definitely the two-handed clasping spade thing as shown above + maybe a long wrecking bar if really stony to loosen them. As used by sign installers everywhere & I assume fence post installers.

mikees

2,745 posts

171 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
I use the roughneck spade above plus a roughneck breaker bar and have put in literally hundreds of posts into tough chiltern chalk. Hard work but an excellent workout. Landscaping always beats the gym. :-)

Never seen it recommended in “men’s Health” but does the abs the power of good (and shoulders and quads). And they are real men’s tools

Stephanie Plum

2,775 posts

210 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Chap who just put a fence in for us had a narrow spade welded onto a section of scaffolding bar - let the weight do a lot of the work for him.

dhutch

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
Yeah, a 5ft6 crowbar is an invaluable tool if you it anything hard and a good shout, expect 6ft of scaff bar does fine as a poor mans substitute.


Daniel

Spare tyre

9,456 posts

129 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
If you are near Southampton I have a machine like the yellow one above you can borrow

biggiles

1,699 posts

224 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
We have solid chalk. The manual corkscrews work very very well. Also have a 6ft iron bar (posted by Amazon!) and a trenching (thin) spade for tidying/expanding any holes.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
I use a combination of a long handled post hole spade and a set of spoons. A friend of mine is a pro fencer and that is also what he uses. He doesn't bother with powered augers as in his words 'they work fine when the digging is easy (so just dig) and don't work for st when the digging is hard'.

DonkeyApple

54,919 posts

168 months

Wednesday 18th July 2018
quotequote all
S11Steve said:
I've just bought a manual auger in preparation for planting 40m of hedging plants - it works well in soil, but i can imagine in anything looser it will just crumble back into the hole as you pull the auger out.

It does cut through very easy though, and as I have 120 odd holes to create, it's got to be easy than using a spade.
Having recently planted a few hundred hedging plants back in winter and having lost the last two months of my life to fannying about keeping them alive in the mini draught, the only thing that I would advise anyone about to embark on hedge planting to do is to not dick about digging holes but to just quickly and simply run a trench with a mini digger. Anything else is a false economy. frown