Like Jim says, I wouldn't go down in that hole either.
Last year I had a garage built some distance from the house and had to have
a long trench dug to run water, gas, antenna lines etc.
The trench was around 6 feet deep and ended up being around 8 feet wide
because of multiple cave ins. The soil here is clay, sandy loam and gravel.
Most of it went ok but some areas would cave in unexpectedly. Some of them
were from the sides about half way up and some from the top.
Multiple times the backhoe had to re dig parts.
Afterword I put up two towers with concrete 4x4x6 feet. The holes ended up
bigger than wanted but just a few hundred dollars of extra concrete needed
and I got a larger foundation.
73
Gary K4FMX
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> Joe Partlow
> Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2018 6:53 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Digging The Hole
>
> Thanks to everyone for there comments and concerns. If the hole was
> bigger
> than I need or I still had the mini-excavator i'd go with that but I
> need
> to remove 6-12 inches in places to make it big enough. I've been working
> on
> it most of the day with a helper. It has a large clay component and
> holds
> together so everything is going well. I did find some information on
> line
> that seems to indicate that most collapses involve the top half of the
> hole. So for a six foot deep hole I'm only in real danger if I'm
> kneeling
> in the bottom of the hole. Not doing that.
>
> On Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 3:56 PM, <john@kk9a.com> wrote:
>
> > Jim has probably the best response to your question.
> >
> > From: jimlux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
> > Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2018 05:52:16 -0800
> > List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
> >
> > >From: Joe Partlow <joe.w6jwp@gmail.com>
> > >Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2018 11:04:44 -0800
> > >
> > >So I'm in the process of digging the hole for my tower foundation.
> I've
> > dug
> > >most of it out with a mini-excavator but now I have to climb down
> inside
> > to
> > >finish up the corners and such. the hole will be 4' X 4' x 6' deep.
> Should
> > >I be worried about cave-ins?
> >
> >
> > It depends. What's your soil like?
> > if it collapses, how deep will you be buried?
> >
> > If you're buried waist deep, you just have to wait til someone comes
> to dig
> > you out (or you can dig yourself out with your hands).
> >
> > If you're buried with your chest under dirt (i.e. the collapse knocked
> you
> > over, or there's a big pile of dirt next to the hole, so the hole will
> be
> > filled back up), you will likely die before someone can dig you out,
> even
> > if
> > they're standing there, shovel in hand, ready to start digging.
> >
> > I'll readily admit that when I was younger and more ignorant, I
> climbed
> > down
> > into plenty of holes. I won't do it now.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
>
>
>
> --
> - 73 -
> - Joe W6JWP
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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