Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [digging]

29 questions
27
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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19
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
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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
2 answers

What buried utility line would be 1/8" and can I protect it?

Found a 1/8" yellow wire 18" below soil surface while hand digging in backyard or a garden. It wasn't marked when I called 811, and I have no idea what it could be. I didn't damage it, but I'm concerned that plant roots could. How can I identify it?…
Ray
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1
vote
1 answer

DIY Basement walkout

I'm wanting to do a basement walkout for our rambler (Orem, Utah). Here's the steps I have so far: Move service panel to the left of the photo Use concrete saw to cut out line 58" from back of garage board up rear door to garage Call blue stakes…
Jacksonkr
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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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