Drill for holes in the ground. How to make a homemade earth drill (pit drill, earth drill). Stages of drilling a well for a fence

When installing any fencing, the main step is correct installation support pillars. To do this, the depth of their installation must be correctly determined, as well as the correct drilling of the recesses. To prevent support posts from subsiding or falling, it is worth learning about drilling holes for fence posts: tips and tools that will be required for this.

Carrying out calculations

No post can be installed without a pre-made hole with a diameter larger than the diameter of the support. But do not make the holes too large to prevent excessive loosening of the soil. If the hole is narrow, then you will not have the opportunity to concrete the base. To understand how many holes are needed, you need to divide the perimeter of the fence by the width of the purlin and add it to the number two, which is necessary for the gate posts.

The average width of the run is 2.5 meters. This width is optimal, since if it is smaller, additional costs will be required, and if it is larger, then the canvas can sag, as can be seen in the photo. Moreover, the higher the fence, the shorter the inter-post distance, and vice versa. For example, a fence of 150 meters will require approximately 50 holes.

The depth of the recesses also deserves attention. It largely depends on the soil, the height of the water underground and the weight of the fence. If the soil mainly consists of clay and sand, then it is considered unstable, so the excavations should be deeper - from 1.2 to 1.6 m and be deeper than the freezing level.

If the area is often flooded with groundwater, then the holes for the fence posts should be made deeper. If hard soils predominate in the area, then it will be enough to dig a hole from 80 cm to 1 m. But no matter what the soil is on your site, the pole must be dug into the ground at least one-third of its length.

Tools

The longest and most labor-intensive process is the preparation of recesses for supports. They must be the same in width and depth, and there is a lot of soil to be removed before this monotonous job is finished. Labor productivity will be largely influenced by the choice of equipment for work. Most often, a shovel, a garden auger or a motor drill are used to dig holes for supports, as shown in the photo. Let's take a closer look at each of these tools:

Shovel. Is cheap and simple option, but at the same time the least effective. If a shovel is quite suitable for digging wide and shallow holes, then it is almost impossible to dig a deep, narrow hole with it. A shovel is only applicable if the pillars are made of brick, since in this case a excavation will be required square shape, into which it will be convenient to pour the foundation. The advantages of a shovel include the fact that it is available in almost every household plot, and besides, neither electricity nor fuel is required to use it;

Garden drill. This is the most applicable tool for private construction. Despite the fact that it costs much more than a shovel, and its weight is much greater, its performance and convenience are also several times higher. A garden drill will allow you to make the necessary holes up to 2m deep. But the weight of this design is almost 10 kg;

Motor drill. Using a motor drill is the easiest, fastest, but also the most expensive way to drill holes. This equipment allows you to dig three-meter holes in just a few minutes. The disadvantages of this product include its noise, as well as the need for electricity or fuel.

Effective method

If you need to make a lot of holes, then opt for a regular garden auger with sharpened edges. You can also further sharpen the tip and edges of the equipment.

The work is being carried out as follows. Mark the places where you need to make holes. Place the drill vertically and turn it while pressing the handle, as shown in the video. At clay soil you will have difficulty working already at a depth of 35-40 cm. Don’t be too zealous, just remove the drill from the hole and pour half a bucket of water into the hole.

Soon the soil will become wet and you can continue drilling. If the drill gets stuck, then try to swing it so that it can easily come out of the hole, as can be seen in the photo. Adhered dirt can be cleaned with a knife, and at this time you can add more water to the hole.

To make the process go faster, it is best to work in several wells at the same time. This way you won’t have to wait for the soil to get wet, and you can continue drilling another hole at this time.

Let's sum it up

Despite the fact that making recesses for fence supports is a mandatory and quite labor-intensive process, it can be significantly simplified by using our tips. Select the right tool, determine the type of soil on the site and things will go quickly and easily.

Drilling wells for poles is not a difficult task. But this work still requires some tools and at least a little skill. It should be remembered that the creation of wells on the site is a mandatory action during any construction work.

Therefore, this article is useful to read not only for those who are planning to build a fence. Drilling holes is necessary during the construction of houses, for the installation of pillar foundations for light buildings. You never know for what purposes well drilling will be needed.

Preparing for work

Holes for fence supports are dug after preparatory work Location on. In this case, it is necessary to perform preliminary calculation work. For example, personal plot has a square shape with a perimeter of 120 m. In order for the fence to be installed correctly, the length of the sections should be no more than 2.5 m. You also need to make separate wells for supports for the wicket and gate yourself. Simple calculations suggest that about 44 holes need to be drilled.

To install fence supports, they need to be deepened into the soil. But not everyone knows how to correctly determine the depth of holes for fence posts. As a result of technology violations, many fences sag and fall over time. Therefore it is necessary:

In order to install any pillar, you need a well with a diameter slightly larger than the size of the pillar. You should not make holes that are too wide, as they loosen the soil unnecessarily. If the well is made according to the diameter of the support, it is impossible to perform concreting efficiently.
It is very easy to calculate the number of holes for the supports of the entire fence. To do this, you need to divide the perimeter of the fence by the length of one section and add 2 wells for the gate and 2 for the wicket. The section width is usually 2.5 meters. If the sections are less than 2 m long, additional and unjustified costs will be required, but if their length is more than 3 m, the canvas will sag and the fence will be unreliable.
Particular attention is paid to the depth of the drilled holes. Much here depends on the soil, the mass of the material from which the fence is installed, as well as the level groundwater. If the soil is unstable, clay and sand predominate in it, the wells should be deep 1.2–1.6 m.

This depth should be below the depth of the freezing soil. Wells are also made for pillars when the area is periodically flooded with groundwater. If the soil is dense, the holes are made 0.8 - 1 m deep. In this case, it is taken into account that the support must be dug in at least 1/3 of its length. This fact ensures the reliability of the entire fence.

Drilling tools

Holes for pillars are quite difficult to make. Each well is made of the same diameter and the same soil depth. This work is monotonous and usually takes a lot of time. The choice of tool plays a big role here. Most often, holes for fence supports are made with a shovel, a hand drill, a motorized drill and an auto-drilling rig.

Shovel

This is the cheapest tool, but also the least effective. For shallow holes or small trenches, a shovel is most convenient. However, it is impossible to qualitatively dig a deep narrow well with a shovel. This tool will not allow you to make holes of the same diameter. They will turn out wider required sizes. But if a homeowner is going to be installing brick piers, a shovel is the ideal tool. Pits are needed square section and slightly wider, for ease of pouring the foundation. Besides, there is a shovel in every yard, and often there are several of them. If a shovel breaks, it can be easily repaired.

Garden auger

Such a tool is not found in every household, but it is still quite common. It is widely used in the garden for digging holes for seedlings and in private construction. It is heavy and expensive compared to a shovel, but its performance is much higher. The drill consists of three parts: the drill itself and the auger, the handle pipe and the extension. This drill can make a hole in the ground up to 2 m deep. The diameter of the drill itself is usually about 15 cm. The weight of the assembled tool is almost 10 kg.

When purchasing a drill, you should pay attention to sharpening. Many manufacturers do not sharpen the auger, and this can lead to damage. If you purchased an unsharpened instrument, you need to sharpen it before using it. You can sharpen a hand drill yourself if you have a grinder on your household. You can also use a file, but it is very time-consuming and ineffective.

Such a drill can be used not only for preparing holes for fence posts. With its help, drainage and gardening work, they drill holes for foundation piles during the construction of light buildings on the site and other work related to digging holes. Its structure is quite simple, so no specific skills are required to use the drill.

A high-quality hand drill, purchased at a hardware store, will last a long time if the instructions for use are followed. The tool is easy to disassemble. This allows it to be transported in a car. If you use such a tool for drilling wells, you will no longer need others.

Drilling wells under poles with a motorized drill is one of the most quick ways, albeit costly. Motorized drilling rigs have a drive and drills with an auger attached to them. The drives of such an installation can be gasoline or electric, depending on the brand. This drill allows you to drill many holes up to 3 m deep, spending very little time on the job. But it has several disadvantages:

the device makes a lot of noise during operation;
if the device runs on electricity, you need to be close to the mains;
If the drill runs on gasoline, you need gasoline.

In order for the fence to be extremely reliable, the posts are dug in at least to a depth of 80 cm. If the number of holes is multiplied by the depth, it turns out that you will need to dig holes to a total depth of more than 35 m. It is very difficult to make so many holes manually. It is better to drill holes using a hand drill.

But there are times when you need a large number of deep wells. Hand drills are ineffective here. Then it is better to use drilling rigs mounted on a car. Such installations are used for drilling deep holes, most often for artesian wells. Such powerful installations are not used for drilling wells under fence posts.

Drilling holes with maximum effect

Let's say you need to drill a large number of holes for fence posts and save money at the same time. Then it is better to choose a garden auger with sharpened blades. In this case, the tip and edges of the drill must also be sharpened, and only after that can you start drilling holes. In pre-marked places, the drill is placed vertically. After this, it is turned by pressing the handle.

If the soil is clayey, then after 35–40 cm it becomes difficult to turn the drill. Then you need to pull out the drill and pour half a bucket of water into the hole. After 5-10 minutes the soil will become soaked and it will be easy to deepen the well. If suddenly the drill gets stuck tightly in the hole, you need to slightly rock it from side to side. After this, the tool can be easily pulled out. Adhered dirt can be removed with a knife, and while the auger is cleared of dirt, more water is added to the hole. To speed up the process, you can start several holes and fill them all at once. This way you can save a lot of time, and the soil soaks better.

Construction of a fence around a home or summer cottage, is a very important and responsible stage. Thanks to a high-quality fence, you can get a sufficient level of protection from external factors, you will cover your area from the views of passers-by and neighbors. Since the fence is a rather expensive structure, it is installed once for several decades; during operation, the fence only needs various types of care, cosmetic and preventive repairs.

In most cases, quality and durability will depend on how securely the tables are buried and secured, which, in turn, depend on the quality of the holes dug for them, which we will talk about today.

We carry out calculations

Pillar drilling is very important stage construction of the fence, since it is in this part of the structure that all its reliability will lie. If you make the holes too small, then the fence may simply fall under the influence of wind, water, external influences, and other things. For the quality of the design, you should very accurately calculate the depth and width, which are quite strictly regulated.

The minimum drilling depth for holes for posts should be at least fifty centimeters for low fences, up to one meter high. If you are going to build a high-rise fence from one to two meters, then the depth should be from seventy centimeters to one meter, depending on the density of the soil and the selected height of your fence. For fences over two meters in height, the depth should be at least thirty to forty percent of the height. In this case, the depth should not be less than seventy centimeters.

The width or diameter is not strictly regulated and does not have any mandatory conditions. You just need to make a hole of such a size that top part was completely installed above the surface of the concreted hole. For large and heavy fences, where the post will be a brick structure, it is better to make the hole a little wider so that the volume of concrete is greater than the volume of the post, then you can avoid subsidence.

How to place pillars correctly

Before filling the hole, a ten-centimeter layer of crushed stone is compacted at the bottom, which should not take away the depth, so when digging a hole, you should go deeper an additional ten to fifteen centimeters in order to pour a stone cushion under the pillar.

For low fences, less than one and a half meters, it is enough to make a cushion of crushed stone about five to seven centimeters high. For heavy structures with low height, the crushed stone layer is not reduced.

Selecting a tool

You can dig a neat or large hole in diameter using variety of instruments. Some of them can be found in any farm, some are specialized and are found quite rarely and only in those farms that are closely related to regular drilling.

Manual earth drill

The most effective and most commonly used means for drilling holes for posts are:

An ordinary hand shovel.
Garden hand auger various diameters.
A motorized garden auger, which can be either manual or machine-operated.

Now let's look at the main advantages and disadvantages of each of them while working on digging holes. Let's start in order with the shovel. A hand shovel is the most common and most accessible tool that is sure to be found in any household.

Even if you don’t have one, it won’t be difficult to buy one at the market, hardware store, or just borrow it from your neighbors. The cost of such a tool is cheap, which makes it a truly indispensable attribute.

Since the tool is manual, you will have to work with your hands, and sometimes it can be very difficult due to the strong compaction of the soil and the presence of stones and tree roots in it. Also, the pit is not very neat and minimum size limited by the width of the shovel.

And digging a small and at the same time deep hole is almost impossible. Maximum depth, which you will be able to dig is seventy centimeters, with a diameter equal to the width of the shovel. But in the case when a hole with a large diameter is needed or non-standard form, a shovel is indispensable.

Types of earth drills

Garden hand augers are an excellent alternative shovel, and can create holes of various diameters, usually it can be from a few centimeters to forty centimeters. With a larger diameter, you simply will not have the strength to turn the tool. Although, to simplify the work, you can make turns with a partner, then the work will be much easier. The hole turns out great round shape, neat and you can dig a hole with such a tool quite deep, with virtually no restrictions.

The pits should be made with a diameter 2-3 times larger than the diameter of the supports.

A garden motor auger is an analogue of a conventional hand drill and is practically no different, only you don’t have to wrap it with your hands. A diesel engine is connected to the drill itself, which gives required power to dig holes of the required depth and width, which is limited by the maximum drill diameter of forty-five centimeters.

There are two types of such drills, manual ones, which are in your hands and need to be directed to the drilling location you need, and in the form of a machine tool.

In the second version, the motor is located on a wheel frame, from which the revolutions are supplied to the handle to which the drill is attached. You need to carefully install the installation in the required place and support the handle, thereby gradually deepening the drill.

Drilling stages

Now we have come to the answer to the question of how to dig fence posts with your own hands. This is very easy to do, you only need to go through a few simple steps and the hole will be completely ready for installing a pole in it.

So what needs to be done:

Clear the area that will be drilled. Remove all weeds, stumps, remaining gravel and other debris.
Place the central spike of the drill in the middle of the future hole and begin to turn it towards the direction of the screw.
As you deepen, it is sometimes necessary to completely remove the drill to throw off excess soil.

Once you have gone deep to the calculated depth, the process is considered complete and your hole is completely ready. As you can see, there is nothing complicated or overwhelming in this process.

We install poles

In order for the fence to stand for a long time and not collapse, it is necessary to secure the posts as efficiently and reliably as possible, only in this case you can obtain the necessary reliability and durability of your structure. The entire installation process is divided into stages, following which you can get the job done very quickly and with the necessary reliability.

Fence support installation diagram

So, let's start building our supports:

First of all, you throw in ten centimeters of gravel to create a cushion. We compact it carefully; for better quality, you can pour plenty of water, wait until it disappears and compact it again.
Then we install two outer pillars on each side.
First, the pillars are fixed using various stones and bricks. They should be secured using the wedging method, while simultaneously leveling them.
Having secured the outer pillars, it is necessary to stretch a fishing line or rope between them, so it will serve as a guide for installing the next supports.
Focusing on the rope, we install and secure each subsequent post.
After all the supports are installed, fill them with solution and let it dry completely. To do this you need to wait two to three days.

After drying, the supports are completely ready and you can install the rest of the elements of your future fence on them.

The basis for reliable stability of any fence is a correctly installed support. The correct approach to drilling holes and accurate calculations their depth will avoid falling and subsidence of support pillars. Therefore, before starting work, you should study the general theoretical basis of this case.

Carrying out calculations

The post can only be installed in a pre-prepared hole, the diameter of which exceeds the diameter of the support. A hole that is too large will result in loosening the soil and distortion of the support, while a hole that is too small will result in the impossibility of pouring concrete into the base. Before you start drilling, you need to calculate the number of holes for the supports. To do this, you need to divide the perimeter of the fence by the width of the run and add two to the result.
On average, the width of the shoulder strap is 2.5 meters. If the width reaches a greater distance, then the fence canvas will be in a sagging state, and if it is less, then the number of support posts will increase slightly, which will entail additional costs.
It is very important not to make a mistake when calculating the depth of the holes for the supports. When calculating, the mass of the fence and the type of soil are taken into account. A deep hole should be drilled in soil containing sand and clay, since practical experience shows that such soil is considered unstable. In this case, the hole depth range should be from 1.2 m to 1.6 meters.
In case the holes fall under groundwater, then the depth should be drilled even deeper. Digging shallow holes of 1 meter can be drilled in an area with hard soil. But before calculating the length of the hole, you should remember that the support pillar must be dug to one-third of its length, regardless of what kind of land is located on the site.

Required Tools

Preparation of holes for the supports of the future fence is the most painstaking process in installing the fence. But it becomes even worse if done without special tool. As a result, the end of the work on preparing the holes can be called the period when all the holes have the same diameter and depth. This is facilitated by the monotonous work of throwing earth out of the holes and leveling it. The tool was designed to make the job easier. Therefore, saving time spent on work is carried out with the help of tools suitable for a specific task, in our case these are: a shovel, a motor drill and a garden drill, which you can make yourself.

A garden auger - a device, despite its heavy weight and expensive price, compensates for its ease of work. A garden drill is capable of drilling a hole up to two meters deep.

A motor drill will help you drill a hole even faster. However, its disadvantage is the consumption of a considerable amount of fuel and electrical energy. Unlike garden borer, a motor drill can cut a hole up to three meters deep.

The cheapest and most suitable for working on a certain type of fence is a shovel. Of course, a shovel is not suitable for digging narrow and deep holes. Good use The shovel will be used to dig square-shaped holes for a brick fence. Although a shovel entails heavy physical labor, its use does not incur fuel costs.

An effective way to drill holes for fence supports

After all necessary calculations measurements, you can start drilling holes.

Place the drill in vertical position to the place that was marked for the hole and turn it, focusing on the handle, as shown in the video. If the soil is clayey, then drilling difficulties will soon appear. To do this, you should take out the drill, clean its blades of the adhering dirt and pour several liters of water into the hole. As a result, the soil will become wet and will make further drilling easier. For efficiency and speed, when filling one hole with water, it would be logical to start working on another hole. And do this constantly - while the earth is soaking in one hole, work is being done in another. Thus, working on several pits will help save time.

Using our tips, you can easily cope with such a difficult process as drilling holes for supports. The key to successful work is the correct calculation, selection of tools and determination of the soil type of the land plot.