How To Dig The Perfect Post Hole

I just dug out old chainlink fence posts using a pressure washer and a shopvac. We went this route due to a buried streetlight electrical cable buried near the fenceline. The best upgrade to this setup is to include a dust separator to the vacuum that attaches to 5gal buckets. This collects the mud slurry into a pale for easy disposal and keeps the vacuum from fouling up too often. Works like a charm, even below 4ft depths.

I have found over many years and hard knocks that a pressure washer is the way to go in hard ground. In the winter and early spring its easy to dig (North Louisiana) but the rest of the year its like digging in concrete. The only shortcoming in using a pressure washer is that it won't cut roots. Use a 4 foot length of 6 inch pvc pipe and you won't splatter yourself and the hole will be straight sided. Dig several holes at a time and when you go back to the first hole enough water will be absorbed to just dump in a sack of Quickcrete fast setting concrete, stir up a little, and the pole is ready to be inserted. In an hour the poles will be strong enough to start adding the top rail. Using a high pressure rotating nozzle also speeds up the work.

As a woman working in the trades, (electrician), I learned decades ago that whatever solution works well is the one to take, no matter how 'unconventional'. Love the pressure washer, shop vac. trick.

Holy crap! I just spent a few minutes watching a guy dig a hole. I need a life…

Best way to dig a post hole is watch some young stud do it. At 75 a hole is just somethin to fall into. I'm in Montana, we shipped all the soft soil down to Wyoming. 🤗 BTW, I didn't like digging them ever, but I used a mules foot to clean out the holes. Still have it to look at.

I'm a bar and shovel guy... I did swimming pools for a couple years ...before your helper was born. digging bar is always best and a great work out

I was planting several shrubs and also had my 10 year old neighbor with me who wanted to help. I admired the boy’s perseverance and enthusiasm as we live on a hill with thin, rocky soil and limestone bedrock and outcroppings. I worked on another nearby project and he was using a pry bar after he had shoveled and used a small garden trowel to get whatever he could but was deterred to get the rock. I came over to help and even with our combined weight, the rock wouldn’t budge. I suggested moving over a bit in the opposite direction but he thought removing the rock would work if he started loosening the outside edge. It was a foot and a half in diameter as he exposed the edge and I told him it wasn’t necessary that I had random plantings not measured distances in a straight line, but he was determined. He worked several hours and it took the 2 of us to eventually shift it out of the ground and he was triumphant. I admired his determination and only hope he carries that into adulthood but also learns that sometimes things can be done through less effort. If it had been a fence post hole, it would have been worthwhile, but for a shrub to be shifted a few inches wasn’t going to affect the landscaping.

In 25 years as a SoCal county hiway sign person, I set hundreds of 10 and 12 foot 4X4's in 24" holes (no frost) using a sharp digging bar, posthole diggers and a tamping bar. Too often it required digging thru native decomposed granite and the tip about punching a center hole and breaking away the sides was a hard learned trick. The mistake people make with posthole diggers is using them to dig--all they do well is remove previously loosened soil from the hole. The biggest drawback to hand digging for me was learning to recognize that I was digging in a roadside utility trench and stopping, relocating or proceeding with caution. Cutting a line can REALLY ruin your day and is why I've seen city crews using pressure water wands and vacuum systems to dig signpost holes.

A shop Vac can suck even from really deep holes, you just have to dip it in & pull it out in pulses, so you suck up small slugs of water at a time. A septic tank guy taught me that when sucking out a tank down a 200 foot hill with about a 50 foot rise (at a lake side cabin near the shore with no vehicle access).

That pressure washer shop vac trick for working around utilities is genius. I would have never thought of that. Thanks for the tip!

This should be a required video for any laborer or apprentice to watch. This is what I learned from an old timer when I was in my early 20's. Retired contractor of 38 years. Great video!

Agree about adding water on hard ground, I do this all the time. Form the top of the hole and dig about 6 inches deep with the bar and then fill with water and leave it a good while. I sometimes perforate the hole with the sharp end of a crow bar to allow the water to seep in quicker - it works well. Appreciate your videos !

First off, ALWAYS water the area before digging. I've found that 36 hours leaves the perfect soil conditions. Mud is dried, the water dispersed deeper. Second, use a rotary auger. Harbor Freight has one on sale for $180 a couple times a year. You can be done with your holes in about a minute apiece if you water first. It takes only one (fairly strong) person and it removes the dirt from the hole for you. The 6" will dig out rocks as large as a cantaloupe, the 8" will suck out football sized rocks. I still have mine from my handyman days.

Reminds me when I was in Afghanistan as a contractor. I made a outdoor covered area for DFAC. It took us all day to dig 6 holes! I had I think 5-6 guys too! All by hand!

I bought a 1 man auger from harbor freight 5 years ago and it still works great. For about $300 you can get the auger, extension, and a 9 inch bit. Super useful on small jobs or places where you can't get larger machines in. It will dig Alabama red clay all day.

Omf i clicked so fast! You can use a PVC pipe with a carb valve to pull water out afterwards, like putting your thumb on a huge straw, and fling it out of the way or into the next spot to soften it up while you work the hole you're emptying You can also sink a pvc pipe, fill it with water and pull the whole hole out with the suction, dead straight sides <3

Wife..."Honey, can you put up a fence out in the back field? Husband..."Sure, let me run out for some tools". W...."Honey, why is there a new truck in the driveway" H....well, I needed something to carry my new water tank, pressure washer, genset and shop vac....and your fence posts."

You really need to find a spade and spoon combo, spade for chipping and soon for bailing. Works 10 times better than spud bar/ shovel. Power pole and telephone pole contractors use them for holes they can’t access with equipment. I know, I’ve used both

Thanks for this video. I got a great tip today. We have a project that we will run into many areas where we are trenching and when we come up to a pipe of any kind we can power wash past the pipe ,after we dig deeper in the trench backwards from the pipe for 3-4 ft and then we can let the slurry settle and dry in the trench bottom in the Texaco heat. So we don't have to trench pump or vacuum that slurry out. So all in all Clean, Safe and no mess pouring out the slurry. Thank you Kenny

I've worked with pro Hydrovac crews so when I needed to dig around tree roots I improvised using a shop vac and my air compressor, with a 2ft air wand. To get deeper I used a 6ft piece of 1/4" pipe and put a ball valve and air cuck on it. By using air I was only sucking up loose dirt and not mud. Air didn't go through the dirt as easy as a pressure washer, but way less mess, and I was often able to use a shovel to remove the loosened dirt when a root wasn't in the way.