Re: Best Way to Dig a Post Hole

Posted by Hal/WA on July 12, 2002 at 10:06:36 from (208.8.194.32):

In Reply to: Best Way to Dig a Post Hole posted by Sara on July 11, 2002 at 19:02:15:

I have built a lot of barb wire fence. I prefer to have the fences as straight as possible, so I use plastic baler twine for a guide. We tried using a PTO auger digger on our property, but most places, it is just too rocky. This causes the digger to bounce around and might tear up the auger. I carefully place my corner posts, using railroad ties, usually in hand dug holes as deep as I can get them. A few times I have dug post holes with a backhoe, when I have had one rented for other jobs. Most of the other posts I use are the heavier weight T posts. I have a heavy post pounder with handles and try to pound posts as early in the Spring as I can--when the ground is still mushy from the frost coming out of it. It is so much easier to pound posts then. It is already pretty dry in my area to pound in T posts.

The thing I like about the T posts is that I will probably not have to do much to them for the rest of my life once I have them properly set. We used to use cedar posts when I was a kid and we carefully soak treated them for months. There may be a few of them still holding up fences 40 years later on the property, but they are not in good condition. The metal posts we put in at the same time are a little rusty, but are all still holding up the fences just fine. And in rocky soil, they are so much easier to put in, if you do it at the right time of year.

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