how do you build in rocky soil?

[bgarrett]

I have been planning a pole barn with a concrete floor but I have spent this entire day with a tractor and a PTO driven auger and I got nowhere. The rocks prevent the auger from working. Is there another way to get holes to put the poles in or is a different type of construction required? What have you done that worked well? Thanks

 

[bob15]

Excavator for the pole footings, and a dozer for scraping away any topsoil and stones for a good gravel base.

 

[bgarrett]

Thank you. I have a backhoe but the holes will be huge and ugly. Do you have more advice?

 

[JWC07]

Hoe ram

 

[sickjuice]

Stick build on slab

 

[bgarrett]

Hoe ram

google shows that a Excavator Hydraulic Breaker (hoe ram) is terribly expensive
any other ideas?

 

[juicedz4]

Our lot is also VERY rocky. This is how they dug ours.

Even then it took some time. A few of the holes ended up quite large in diameter. One of the holes the rocks literally had to be picked out of the hole by hand one a a time.

So it can be done.

Dan

 

[wnstwolf]

Not sure where you are located but after trying the same thing you are in what I believe is the head of the marcellus shale formation on my property I gave up even thinking pole and went stick built on slab.

When we moved over to dig foundation for the home the excavation team started with a small excavator and ended up with what I would call a very large unit!! No way I would have been able to get through the stuff with my tractor.

This said I needed to put in sono tubes for my deck and I was on my own. We have a walk out basement and that side of the property had a good deal of earth removed when we did the foundation so I was already into the clay/shale ****. I tried the backhoe on my kubota 3200 and it worked but very slow and the holes were getting wide due to the amount of rock. I came across a guy who installs utility poles who has a large auger on his truck. He came over and drilled 10 holes in about 90 minutes whith half of that time waiting for me to confirm location. $350 with a $50 tip cause it was just that slick and cool to see this thing make a very tough job look so easy.

 

[Kevin54]

I'd have ugly holes because I'd use the backhoe to do it. Dig them sumbitches out as big as you need, set your poles and backfill with crushed stone.

 

[mrpowderkeg]

you can get an auger that will go through rock. They have special teeth that allows them to do this.

 

[dirttracker18]

you can get an auger that will go through rock. They have special teeth that allows them to do this.

Yup, that's the key there. Diamond tip drill.

You rarely see pole barns in my area since we sit right on the Canadian Shield. Hard thick rock is not that far underground.

Where are cottage is, the Shield rock is exposed in many places it is so close to the surface.

We had a guy come in with a diamond drill just to put a pole in to bring the electricity down.

 

[Mufrat62]

Bgarrett- My brother -in-law just finished up a slab/pole building. He poured the pad and then we placed the poles on the concrete and fastened them down with L brackets bolted to the pole and then we used a drill and drilled holes in the concrete and put two more bolts into the concrete that expanded when we pounded them into the holes with a hammer. Then we tightened up the bolt. I don't know what the bolts were called but the ends of them expand if or tighten if you try to pull them out. I know its not a typical pole building but that is what he did. This method took longer than when I did my the typical pole building method by drilling and setting the poles. I did mine the usual way as I couldn't afford the building and concrete at the same time. just my two cents worth

 

[theoldwizard1]

f you have a big hole, insert concrete tube forms and the back fill with soil around them before pouring the concrete.

I did that on a much smaller scale for some fence posts. Worked great !

 

[mrpowderkeg]