MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I have a 10m2 area I need to dig down by about 8-10 inches to put some hardcore down to eventually slab.
I'm going to struggle to get a digger round and I need to be careful of the drains. The ground is hard, it's a mixture of soil, sand rubble and clay. It's solid, a spade can't break through.
I did however take a very blunt axe to it this morning and it broke the ground quite well, I just wanted to try something with force before I bought a mattock.
Is there any small machinery that will do this well that I could hire, or am I going the right route by getting a mattock to loosen the ground the dig what comes out. I have 4 labourers coming to help, but just want to make light work of it where possible.
Simple way would be pick and shovel, use the pick to break the ground then shovel it out
Pick or long bar to break it up shovel it out.
Can't remember the name, but I've a solid 5' iron bar with a chisel tip one end and point the other, gives the shoulders a good work out but it's the first tool I'll fetch for digging holes etc in hard ground.
I dug out 6x3 sq metres of solid chalk using the bar and a £10 lidl spade.
^^^ they sell them at screwfix , post digger .
That's an ickle baby version with a hollow alloy bar! (Probably easier to use and more effective)
The one I've acquired is an solid iron bar, must be about 15kg, I sharpen it with the angle grinder
If it's that hard why dig it up?
Mattock? Sounds ideal
Mattock!
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And shovels.
Weights 17lb , hardly flimsy .
Pick and shovel. Hard work but one of those immensely satisfying traditional jobs. Used this combo to dig put my patio. For an individual hole the bar was better as it was more accurate than swinging a pick.
It's called a pinch bar spooky great for taking out stones from a wall if making a new aperture in a stone cottage etc great leverage
Plan B
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http://sieta.xyz/liat/farming-with-dynamite-a-few-hints-to-farmers.html
Bar is also called a Grafter.
Mattock!
+1
Another mattock vote. Break up the ground in 1 foot strips. Shovel up the broken earth. Repeat. Then use the mattock to smooth out any peaks. If it is rocky a pick-mattock is useful. Spin it round and pluck out the bigger rocks. Won't take long with 5 people. Biggest issue will be dealing with the spoil.
I have similar ground conditions in my garden, at least during summer/drier months. It slices up like soft cheese in the winter, maybe wait a few weeks and see what it's like?
Hose it down the day before.
You also want a grafter spade (not a bloody shovel!).
Edit: As uylsse said.
If you're near Leeds I've gone one and a mattock you can borrow.
aare you sure you can't get a digger in? You can get diggers that will go through a 700 wide gap
Them screwfix bars are a bit flexy, our one at work is s shaped after being bent and then bending back again. The blade is good for roots. The go to bar for stone shifting is nearly 2"dia.
Mattock and some effort sounds the tool for the job.
Door way digger? Can drive it through the house, or lift it over a wall with a hiab as they are a lot lighter.
Google Azada, amazing pieces of kit!
Mattock. Dug out 7 sizeable leylandi with the cheap one from Screwfix. Quality bit of kit and great all round the garden/veg patch.
Stupid as it sounds there's a bit of technique required with hand digging. Don't be greedy is one of the best tips
+1 +1 +1 for mattock; best heavy duty hand tool for gardening known to man and it's versatile; if the neighbours get rowdy you can brain them with the bit on the other end of the head - one end for breaking up hard ground, other end for murder.
It saves buying two tools
Worked for a guy digging out cellars for house conversion.
Boss turned up with the tools but (being a fool)bought square edged spades and shovels.
The cellar of a tenement is effectively the debris of them building it, very well compacted over time and full of bricks ,slate everything.
A square shovel is a nightmare 😯
thank God we had a pickaxe, but still it was extremely hard going.
I salute anyone who is willing to hand dig a large area. 8)
[url= https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/dupont/FarmingWithDynamite/Limage01.html ]Hard ground? Here's all you need to know...[/url]
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Date stamped 1912; is it - the dynamite - still available?
I'm sure if you wrote a nice letter to Mr Du Pont he'd post you a few samples. 🙂
You may need a mixture of the above tools...and a couple of mates, lay on bacon sarnies and maybe a beer late afternoon and get it done in a day whilst having a laugh....keep swapping the tool you're using with said mates