Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [digging]

22 questions
24
votes
16 answers

How to dig a trench for a cable for a garden office

I'm trying to dig a trench for the electrical cable for a shed/office I'm building in my back garden. This is about 7 m long and should be 0.5 m deep. My soil seems to be about 5 cm of soil/turf and then soil which is full of gravel, stones and…
Matthew Dresser
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18
votes
5 answers

How to avoid breaking electric wires, telephone wires, and water pipes in the garden while digging

I'm located in France. For a house (built over 30 years ago) I have to pull new cables through the garden (about 20 m - 30 m). The cable has to avoid certain trees, bushes, obstacles and arrive at a certain point. Earth is rather hard (clay) and I…
gelonida
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15
votes
3 answers

How do I know who planted "no dig" flags and when I can remove them?

Some underground utility flags ("call before you dig") appeared in my front yard. A couple of days later there was some work done in the road in front of my house. A few days after that I removed the flags. The very next day they were back…
jay613
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14
votes
5 answers

Right tool to dig six foot holes?

I would like to dig some 6-12 inch diameter dry wells (any diameter in that range will work). The holes need to be at least 6 feet deep to reach the permeable layer of the soil. However, the equipment the local rental agency has will only dig 4-foot…
Tyler Durden
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11
votes
3 answers

Does it matter if my underground conduit overlaps or crosses over existing conduits?

I'm planning on digging a trench for underground electrical conduit. I recently called my state "call before you dig" underground locating service. They finished marking the locations of underground utilities. They all overlap, perpendicular, to my…
Andrew
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8
votes
5 answers

Is digging with a shovel near gas lines dangerous?

I live in an area where 99% of homes have gas lines, but mine does not. I called 811 and the gas company showed up, but said since I have no gas service, no pipes run under my property. When the electrical company showed up, they said it is very…
Village
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7
votes
5 answers

Setting fence post in gravel/backfill?

I am attempting to build a privacy fence that will sit just behind a retaining wall (as in, on the ground behind the wall and not on the wall itself). While digging today I realized that while the ground behind the retaining wall does have ~10" of…
TMK
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5
votes
8 answers

Dealing with remnants of old fence post

I'm still working on the world's slowest DIY fencing project. If you look at my old diagram from a few months back, you'll see I had a spot for the terminal post picked out next to my house in front of a drain spout. Well, after digging down about…
T.E.D.
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3
votes
1 answer

What does this APWA marking mean?

A company needs to dig in my back yard, so they arranged the various utilities to mark the area. One utility left this in yellow spray paint on the yard: / \ / | \ | | NO NM60. I am located in New Mexico, so assume NM might refer to the…
Village
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3
votes
7 answers

How to safely pull Internet cable out of soil?

My internet company installed a heavy 70 ft long cable across my lawn 6 months ago. They dug up a trench about a foot deep using a trench digger. I would like to move the middle section of the cable over by 1-2 ft, as a big hole needs to be dug…
Village
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1
vote
0 answers

Swing concrete anchors moving

I concreted in my children swingset about a month ago but the concrete has cracked and moving! I used a ready mix concrete that you just add water too. The swingset is metal but it’s moving a lot now as my littlest is a daredevil on it. Can I do…
Lizzi
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1
vote
1 answer

How to excavate 3ft deep around perimeter of building

I have a building that I'm converting into living space for rental units. The building is on a cement slab foundation and to bring it up to code, I need to install foam board insulation around the entire exterior perimeter of the slab 3 feet…
Gary Holiday
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1
vote
3 answers

Right tool to drill a 3 to 4" diameter hole approximately 3ft deep through remnants of a ground up tree stump

I'm installing a very basic fence with welded wire mesh that will be fastened to galvanized steel T-posts. But I've run into a snag. At the very end of my run on one side I cannot dig into the ground. This is because there used to be a very large…
Adrien
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1
vote
0 answers

Is this a proper way to drain water from flat area under deck so it does not penetrate basement wall?

I have a flat area under a 6 by 30 ft deck in front of my split level house. I am currently replacing the deck boards on this (Pictures are below). The soil underneath this deck is relatively flat and does not drain well, which causes moisture…
space97
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1
vote
1 answer

Rental equipment selection for digging 52" deck footings?

I need to put in about 20 concrete footings for several deck-related projects. The footing base should be 12-18" (but see note below). Frost depth in my area requires footings to be 52" below grade (local building official has stated this). Soil is…
StayOnTarget
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