How narrow a hole can you dig with a backhoe? Somebody needs soil samples at 10 ft on some of a property and were thinking about bringing in a backhoe to dig the holes. How wide a hole are we talking about?
Question about digging with backhoes
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TomSeller
Super Member
That depends on the width of the bucket. A typical narrow bucket is 12" wide. A "standard" backhoe can easily dig to 10' deep, but not necessarily can your "homeowner's" backhoe.
hosspuller
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Don't let anybody go down into a hole to get soil samples. A cave in even at 4 feet can be deadly. (Soil pressure on the chest alone can suffocate)
calman93611
Member
hosspuller is exactly right! Now only can you suffocate but damage to internal organs is usually the result and may take up to 2 weeks to end in death.
I would dig the hole with a backhoe to the depth, "then" get a pipe and drive it down to get your sample. You should not need a large sample for whatever test it is needed for.
Good luck and be careful.
CurlyDave
Elite Member
A cave in up to the knees can produce deep vein thrombosis which will kill you just as dead as suffocation.
Do not even enter a trench, much less a hole without proper shoring. Especially a very narrow trench.
Around here, soils for septic fields are only inspected, not sampled, and the technique is to dig a fairly wide trench, maybe 3' or so, which is deep at one end, and shallow at the other. The inspector just walks into the trench. Total depth is only ~3 feet.
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tractorgp
Platinum Member
A friend of mine that I shared an office with died this way. He was also a town councillor and an engineer. He was inspecting a deep hole that the city workers made.
vtsnowedin
Elite Member
The last bucket out of the hole could be your sample. In my case a ten foot hole would require an air track rock drill. 
s219
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We had to get soil samples on my new property, first for foundation soil and then for septic. I couldn't imagine using a backhoe when it was so easy to use a simple coring tester on the end of a rod. We were going down 6' max, but they have extensions to go up to about 12' (maybe more, I don't know -- there is surely a practical limit). It took very little effort to do it by hand. Perhaps the only downside is that you go down in about 12-16" increments and have to pull a sample up to empty the corer whether you want it or not. SO if your only interest was 10' down, it could seem slow.
Utopia Texas
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There are services that use BobCat type machines with vertical augers to take soil samples. The auger has 8 foot extensions and can literally go as deep as necessary. I do not think you will find a backhoe that goes 10 feet deep that will fit a tiny 1 foot wide bucket.
That was my thought.
Don't worry about me going into the hole. No chance of that. Some people are interested in leasing some of our land to grow grapes on and they wanted to get some samples, but I wasn't looking forward to a series of 10x6x10 holes on out property.
