Hit a rock shelf on a simple post hole job yesterday

Was putting in a basic cedar fence for a neighbor, figured six holes, maybe two hours. The third one hit solid rock about a foot down. Ended up renting a demo hammer from the store, which took another hour round trip. The whole thing took from 8 AM until almost 4 PM. What's your go-to move when you hit something you can't dig through?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_garcia9d ago

My uncle tried to dig a small pond by hand one summer. He got about three feet down before hitting what we called "Pennsylvania pavement," just solid sheets of shale. He rented a mini excavator, but the bucket just screeched off it. He finally gave up and turned it into a shallower garden feature instead. Sometimes the ground just wins.

claire_gibson8d ago

My grandfather hit the same stuff trying to put in a fence post in western Maryland. That shale is like trying to dig through a stack of dinner plates. You can hear that awful grinding sound just reading about it. Smart move to pivot to a garden.

christopher9438d ago

Yeah my dad had a similar fight with the ground when he wanted to build a shed base... hit that same awful layered rock about a foot down. Spent a whole weekend with a digging bar and a pickaxe just making this pit of shattered stone. The whole project got so messed up he just poured concrete over the rubble and called it a patio instead.