Fastest Way to Dig a Trench - Never get Tired Again
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- Опубликовано: 10 ноя 2023
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Anybody that did not see this is trenching 101 and an awesome tutorial is just being stubborn. Well done! Being in Underground Construction I dug many holes and trenches. This was totally pro and I will use this method for now on.
Forget all that, I want that sod cutter.
For revenge?
nobody says this, but SHARPEN THE EDGE OF YOUR SHOVEL. It's a lifesaver.
lol dude if you use them right they sharpen themselves and eventually get so thin they chip and break and need replaced ... says a lot that you think it is the other way round.
Sir....I cannot thank you enough..I am 56 and had to dig out a massive area..been awhile since I had to use a shovel..omg !!You literally saved me SO MUCH WORK!!!This video is a complete game changer..seriously, thank you so very much!
Happy to help 👍
The reason it took twice as long to dig is because it is too small for that trench. I was an electrician and used a smaller shovel than the red one to run conduit (6" depth). My trench was only as wide as the shovel. Less dirt to move and less damage to the customer's lawn.
Exactly, why on earth would you use the smaller shovel (sometimes called a 'master spade') to dig a wide trench if you don't need a wide trench? I used one to trench for electrical conduit. The building inspector said he had never seen such a narrow trench.
I used the trenching shovel in the video for 4” drain pipe. Worked like a charm.
@@professorg8383 The depth varied, the deepest section was about 24” below grade. I used an older type of narrow trenching shovel as well to loosen and break up the clay soil in the deeper sections and the type used in this video to clean the trench out
@@professorg8383 I dug a trench from the back of my house, around the five foot wide side yard, under the AC condenser pad, under a fence, past the gas meter, the water line and meter and fiber optic cable (which I accidentally cut), to within ten feet of the sidewalk in front of our house. I think it was 120 feet, with a one inch drop every four feet. Installed a four inch trench drain along the back patio and four inch pvc drain pipe from there to the sidewalk. S.E.Louisiana, hard rains used to flood the patio, it was brutal work but worth it!
In trench digging school they showed how this video is misguided because he is trying to dig a trench more than twice as wide as the common shovel. Northern clay is great for a trenching shovel because it's harder material than sand in florida Much more material to move. What is going in? Electrical conduit? Don't use a 4 inch trench shovel for a driveway culvert get a backhoe.😮 work smart not hard and don't ever try cutting your own hair gee whiz.
As a Nor’easter and one who has done some trench digging, I am green (brown?) with envy, I could only DREAM of digging that sandy soil you have in FL! The clay, rocks & roots here take a whole lotta of extra time and effort in comparison. That said, you have a strong back and a great disposition, thanks for your vids!
I'm in down south Florida, I have no idea where this guy has this nice of dirt. My backyards dirt is just all roots and horrible to dig through.
Hallelujah, you wouldn’t believe the rock filled soil we have here in New England! And not small rocks only, big rocks too. But same digging principles as shown in the video apply. Thanks for posting.
You're a weather pattern? 😂😂😂
Only when I’m yelling or flatulent. Sometimes they coincide & really blow!
At the beginning of the video, it shows a mattock among the tools. But apparently he never had to use it. Where I am, the mattock comes out whenever the shovel does.....
You taught this better than all the other people I watched before or after. Applaud you man. That knee-to-elbow thing was huge to learn. Thank you.
👍thanks
i wish my yard was that easy to scoop through. :D great video!
Na. You were lolligagging with that trenching shovel😂
Wife and I are native central Floridians. We bought a piece of property in central Georgia for a second home, had a house built on a hilly piece of property and boy did we ever learn about water management along with digging in rock and root infested red clay that is either hard as a brick when dry or slippery snot when wet so I had to find the best dampness period between dry and wet for hand digging trenches for the 800' of 4" drain pipe and numerous drains I installed. It took a lot of tweaking and watching your RUclips videos but after a year the drainage issues are pretty much taken care of ... and I threw that 4" trenching shovel in the wood pile after about the first two days. Thanks for the informative videos!
Not a lame topic at all. If you dig the wrong way you'll get the message really quickly. Thanks for posting.
Thank you! If I didn't have to go to work I would go right outside to my front yard. This was great information!
Glad to help
The knee trick at 5:37 is well worth watching the video.
Thanks!! 👍
Old fella that did my concrete drive way years ago told me the best method. Only load half or less a shovel full every time. That 70 year old man moved loads of dirt and never got tired.
This is actually why I don’t regret the 60’ trench I did today with a 4” trench shovel. Easy on the back and not fatiguing.
This applies elsewhere too: get 50 lb bags of concrete instead of 80. I’m strong but why stress anything?
I dug catch basins for a curb contractor 48 years ago for two seasons. Had a bar made from a model T drive shaft and MY FAVORITE ALL TIME SHOVEL the T handle short shaft wide blade shovel. Those two things and a few hits of weed for lunch. They called me the Mexican backhoe. Work is a beautiful thing, enjoy it with other men while you're young. And have a few kids to spend your money on.
The narrow shovel is for use with a trencher. It was designed to clean out the trench where needed.
Other comments saying the same thing. You don't dig an 8" wide trench with a 5" wide shovel, that makes no sense and of course will take longer. The point is to dig a 5" wide trench so that you move significantly less dirt to accomplish the same task which is putting a piece of conduit in the ground. The other benefit of the drain spade is it excells at fetching dirt out from under tree roots etc as you progress through your trench also reducing the labor of trying to bust through big tree roots. My drain spade is much longer than yours (ha ha ha I'm 12) so if you lay it down in the trench to scoop under a tree root it can actually clear out a pretty large amount of material.
In this case you are putting a large drainage line in that would necessitate a larger trench. However for an electrical contractor the largest thing I'm gonna typically be burrying is 2" PVC conduit or maybe up to 4" DB2 for a service.
Kinda gives dunning krueger vibes when you're chuckling about "so called contractors" not digging a wider trench like they're idiots. If you need an 8" wide trench for big drain pipes then dig an 8" wide trench, if you're running smaller material then why move all that extra dirt and make a bigger gash across someones lawn.
"The point is to dig a 5" wide trench so that you move significantly less dirt"
Ummm no, move less dirt is less work overall 100%. Narrow trench is less work to dig and less disruption to customers gardens and landscaping. A drain spade has a much longer blade (and much less "lift" angle) than the shovel he's using and you go straight down 18" plus and break out the dirt with every bite. I also use an sds max drill with clay spade or chipping bit to bust up rocks/concrete flush with the edges of my trench and remove the rubble instead of digging out entire stones which the power trencher can't really deal with. Where I'm usually trenching you're either hand digging or getting a mini-ex don't see many trenchers here in my part of the world for good reason. I agree the trenching shovel he's using is only good for cleaning out after a mechanical trencher but if you look up drain spade you'll see what I'm talking about, once you get the hole to your depth you just keep taking 3-4" bites out of the dirt moving backwards and each bite is the full depth of a typical electrical trench. You're certainly entitled to believe whatever you want about the subterranean arts, I've dug plenty of trenches in poor conditions. I've dug ground plates in the middle of Canadian winter going down through frozen dirt so I will respectfully disagree with you based on the weight of ample personal experience.
The smaller 5" trenching shovel worked best for me as my trench only needed to be 5" wide to lay conduit. It doesn't make sense to move all that extra dirt just to fill it back in again.
Hello! The red "Trenching" Shovel is specifically designed for digging narrow trenches for sprinkler line and pipes etc.
WHY on Earth would you use it for an 8 to 12 inch wide Trench?????????
Thank you for the tips! I'll be sure to give it a go !
Thank you so much for sharing this!
That soil is nice and soft. I can jump my 190lb frame up and down on a shovel and never get the entire blade under the soil like that.
Don't forget the almighty digging bar for those really almost impossible rocky/clay soils.
REALLY helps ALOT if the spade-edge is sharpened alittle :-) wish I'd seen this 67-years ago!! haaaaaaaaaaaa now, off to practice this new-fangled idea!!
This is my lame comment. LOL. Thank you for the technique. I need to dig a hole for a concrete footer. I will keep your method in mind.
We use the spade to knock it out and the orange trencher to skim and notch the bottom. Great video! As always.
Nice work 👍
Thanks for sharing
No thank you. Seriously. I love your approach sir. And we have learned so much from your content. Our family thanks you. 😊
Never seen a manual sod cutter like that before. Very cool.
This is so timely. I am placing pipes in the ground and also laying some Ethernet and electrical cable. I almost bought one of those trenching shovels and a new pick for the job but I have the 8 inch round shovel in the garage so I am good! You saved me money and time.
Question: I have to dig up old corrugated pipes as part of my project. I did one a few weeks ago and it was back breaking. Finding it, digging it up, getting it out from among the roots and vines and rocks, all excruciating. Any tips?
Try that in my backyard, which is basically a forest. I struggle to get past the very first inch, which is mostly a mat of poison ivy roots. Right under those roots is beautiful loamy dark composted forest dirt, for about 2 inches. Then the really big roots start showing up.
I still dig by hand, but I usually plan on burning though a couple reciprocating saw blades.
But I'm not disagreeing with this video at all. I tried a few different trench shovels, root cutter shovel, etc. But generally the one I use the most is the basic pointed shovel. Lots of good tips here, I've been watching these videos for years and successfully redirected water from my property with a trench (trench drain, no pipe) over 150 long finished with french drain pipe and a emitter.
Then I buried my downspouts and sent all that water where I wanted as well. I saved thousands, but I was also not working at the time. This is a nice "self made channel". Thanks.
I’d be happy to
@@appledrains 😅
This is great for moist places, but come to the Rocky Caliche South West and try that. The pick bounces off the ground. You will need a Pick and a Digging Bar to get anywhere, a pressure washer also helps.
And not a single rock in sight! I sure wish I had this soil at my place!
Thanks, good to remember
That's the way my dad dug ditches, using his knee. We lived on an old river bed, lots and lots of round rocks.😊
Excellent content as always!
This was really informative and helpful. Thanks
Thank you. It's not a "rocket science" but us beginners always do it wrong.
Ignore the haters.
We DYI's thank you.
When I worked on that kind of construction many years ago we referred to those narrow shovels as "track spades" because they were normally used for cleaning mud out of the dozer tracks. They're great for that. I never saw them used for digging anything else except possibly a small hole where a normal shovel was too big.
I would think that if you dug the trenching shovel trench the width of the trenching shovel you may find it faster, digging an 8” trench with a 4” trenching shovel means twice as many scoops. If i use a trenching shovel to dig a trench it will be the width of the trenching shovel and only used for laying cable or retic pipe. No need to dig a wide one for that.
Helpful ❤
Thanks so much!
I would take ANY shovel that will work with Arizona ground! 🤣
This was great info. I have to dig 100+ feet for conduit and UF-B line for a hot tub hookup so this was great information.
Thank you so much for the Body mechanics way of digging a ditch. I just recently recently got a quote to put a 6 inch drain in 50 feet $2000. To get an excavator to do it. I’ll do it myself. It may take me a little bit of time. The original quote was 6200 for the pipe 45 tons of dirt grass seed I asked him to go down on price just to dig the ditch for the pipe 2000.😮
Nice video. Thanks. It was helpful.
In Arizona you'd still be digging.
God I get them holes build your character. Maybe you'll find a suitcase
Great video
Thank you!
On my clay yard I had to use the trenching shovel and almost put my full weight on it and slice out about an inch at a time, looked almost like a deli slice. Otherwise the clay would stick to the clay that sticks to the clay that sticks to your shovel and shoes and everything else. If I wanted to I could have went over with the larger spade, but I didn't want to. Not tiring but took forever.
Interesting
I always had my teenage sons dig them. Then I could go inside and sip a mint julep. No effort :)
Where's that? The soil is so wet. I dug a 2 feet deep, two feet long hole in summer in Central Valley, CA. Took me 3 hours and blisters on my palms.
Thank you for keeping the basics simple & straightforward lest a newbie think nothing less than the latest & greatest Kubota excavator will do the job 😊
I want to see ya'll dig holes like that on the Texas Gulf Coast during the summer time!
Great Video
Wow you just shaved me a bunch time and expense! Love your videos!!!! I started here instead of Home Depot!
Thanks!
I have around 10 different shovels. I have one trench shovel and it does get used when going under sidewalk or down in the foundation 8 feet when space is a premium.
It is more fun when you have rocks in that clay. I just pulled some up with sea shell fossils in the middle of the clay layer. I live in the center of PA mind you. These are very old deposits and the area is famous for its silica deposits which feuled the now defunct and long gone brick factories of a hundred years ago.
I saw an experienced plumber in Florida using one of those 5 inch shovels. In damp sandy soil, exactly 12 inches deep from the street to the house in a half an hour. No sweat. Ran a water service line. Then trenches under the slab for drain lines. The trench was exactly the size he needed. The whole project roughed in on a day and he went home early. By the way, be real careful using your foot to push the shovel into the ground. Wear heavy boots and do not jump on that tiny edge. Push and wiggle it into the dirt.
It also helps that you have dirt instead of rocks thinly veiled by clay with some big roots in betwixt for fun.
Here in N.H? Dig 4" down and hit granite ledge, boulders the size of basketballs... Your points are well-taken, however...and after having been a landscaper for 20+ years, I've dug MILES of trench...so much so, my back, neck, hip is all jacked up at 59...AND Ive been using the techniques you showed. One thing you DONT emphasize is lifting with your legs, not twisting BACKWARDS- which you did, working backnis good, but throwing forward is better!
I like the shovel-handling advice, excellent they should teach that in school. However, the first part makes little sense. The trench was twice as wide as the shovel. Also, I don't dig all the time so I like trenching shovels because the load is lighter each time, and I don't get as tired that way.
Landscaped 30 years irrigation and all. Only time i used a trenching shovel was to clean out driveway drains.
For an 18" depth trench at what length would you switch from hand digging to a machine?
Mini excavator for the win. Shale where I live.
Right on time! I'm currently trenching for Termidor liquid termite treatment around my house. So TIRED! Done about 1/4 of my house perimeter (~60 ft) 6 inches deep by 6-8 inches wide and I think I am on the right track using a 5 lb mattock. Some loamy soil beside the house and natural heavy prarie clay at depth, and a lot of mortar chunks. Also, using a flat head shovel for some digging but mainly shaping and cleaning and backfilling. Very hard work but worth it. I know non repellent termite barriers work (I'm redoing what we did with Termidor 16 years ago), but bait stations?-not so much. All you can get termite companies to do now is bait stations. It's almost as if they don't like to trench!-- but I love it! 😉
I hope this video helps
The only thing I hate as much as the shovel is the pick.
You're awesome Chuck - greatest "water man" alive! What's the min depth between ground and top of the pipe? Thanks!
Hi. Do I need to trench all the way down from my elevated front yard patio area (next to my house and its foundation) to the street sidewalk, OR can I simply trench from the elevated front yard patio area about two feet (only) out from my house/foundation area? Thank you.
What was that very first tool used... to take off the grass?
trenching shovel i use for smaller irrigation lines and lighting low voltage wires trenches can be skinny...
I’m jealous of that beautiful soil. That same 8’ trench in the beginning would take 2 hrs in my yard. You would have found at least 6 boulders bigger than your head and a million baseball size rocks.
You can do it!!
@@appledrains I did it, it was brutal but finished up yesterday. Drains r in and work great. Big storm coming today for real world test. Love the vids you put out. Upbeat, and great knowledge sharing. You inspire and help us DIYers, thank you!
Thanks for those tips, 1st time homeowner i had no clue that funny looking shovel existed
How did your crawl space come out?
You can dig a trench just as fast with a 4" trenching shovel as you can with a 6" trenching shovel, or a standard shovel.. just depends what the trench is for. If its a sprinkler line obviously use the 4" trenching shovel. If its for 4" pipe use the 6" trenching shovel. If your digging a ratwall/footing use the standard shovel. Its not so much about having a "faster" way as it is using the correct tool.
I'm digging a 3x3x20 ft long ditch now. Full of big roots. Kicking my butt , but you just gotta keep after it!
east Texas, roots ,darn roots !
I dug trenches for fiber optics and i will choose the small shovel every time
So you’re the guy that bury the cable 1/2 inch deep making all contractors cut the cable???????????
What kind of boots do you use Chuck?
Nice
Thanks Stacy
This a great DIY project
Your soil looks like sandy soil, but here in Middle Georgia where the soil is hard as concrete red clay, things are a little different.
Most places here you cannot even get a shovel in the ground without loosening up the clay with the pick beforehand. Your method is great in sandy soil...
What is the best way to did a trench where there is lots of rocks and gravel? It is tedious for sure. Just wondering if there is techniques? The ⛏️ for sure, but any other tips?
I always appreciate your videos. common sense and the kiss method are ways to live by. Although, if you're not doing something often, it's hard to know the best, smartest, and easiest
way to do a task. Not to mention safe😅
The ol, work smarter, not harder, my jobs always take longer than I thought so saving time is the smart way to go. 🤠ty AD
Interesting video, especially now that I have to start digging a lot around our garden. Funny that the spades didn't have a handle at the other end. Why is that? Never seen such spades here.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
I dig French drains with a 24”-wide snow shovel.
😂😂😂
The knee is also used for shoveling heavy snow to save your back. Yeah, commenting from Ontario.
I have not had to learn that trick yet...in snow! Stay warm up there.
what if you only need a 5" trench? that's what theat shovel was made for.
Here in Columbia County NY, 130 mills north of NYC, picks and or mattoxs and digging bars are required before the pointed shovel can do much of anything with the hardpan, rocks and roots. It's an event when you can dig a fence post hole without doing most of the work with a digging bar. Post hole diggers are almost useless by themselves around here.
You can dig faster with a bigger shovel. Seriously, who would've thought?!
So true, so true. Guess it would be better to start with a backhoe from the beginning.
I'm a noob but does this stuff permits one to dig for setting the base of pavers? Need about 6inch of class 5 rocks, 1 inch of sand, and the paver, dept.
Use the narrow shovel for things like sprinkler laterals where you are worried about restoring the grass and minimizing the amount of grass that gets covered with the spoil pile. Its just wide enough to allow you to compact the back fill with your foot or a bell end digging bar. In these situations you are not going deeper than 8 or 9 inches. This is not deep enough for anything electrical. Its more about manicuring the finished job than minimizing effort. The soil type and moisture have to be appropriate for the narrow shovel to be effective. In short, its a specialty tool.
Smoky Mountains chiming in… where you can’t go four inches without hitting a rock… it may be tennis-ball-sized,, it may be watermelon-sized. You don’t know until you hit it.
But you WILL hit it.
Which is why a wrecking bar is an essential piece of equipment.
Fine for places with warmish winters. Where I live it freezes down to at least 36 inches deep in the winter, so pipes have to be put in trenches deeper than that. Shovels don't seem adequate for that.
It depends on how wide you need the trench. I have put in water line with a long trenching shovel that is 3 - 4" wide. It is a lot easier than a regular shovel if you don't need a wider trench. What am I missing?
Our dirt here is rocks, tree roots, and more rocks.
I use the trenching shovel for digging deep holes that don't have a lot of width. I really wish they made an 8" round with the angle that the trenching shovel has. Best of both worlds...
Pressure washer and a shallow trench like we use when putting in a well as well as a pump .
Dude come dig in Colorado
Georgia red clay is another matter.
What's being called a trench shovel is actually what we call a clean out, it's not really for digging trenches but for cleaning the dirt out
We call it the spoon and use it to clean trench after trencher passes
Good name and good use, good tutorial
Not one rock not one root. No soil compaction. I use a pickaxe a big crowbar an axe when you hit a big rock it's a hammer drill or rent a jack hammer.
Either rent a small backhoe or rototill the soil then scoop the loose dirt out.
Or just rent a trencher...