Advice re compacted gratefully received!

[Chickenbrain]

Hi. I am a 70 Yr old woman doing up my patio with the physical help of a handyman. We have reached the stage where we are compacting down hardcore. I bought an old compacter off Ebay because hiring all the equipment is so expensive and I have other work to do at the bottom of my long garden. Some helpful arbinger of doom has said that the compacter could damage my garden wall, well head and underlying services. There aren't any underlying services as we have dug the area over. Can someone put our mind at rest on this please? If used properly I don't see why it should. The walls have concrete bases. I sought the well head has but we could concrete round it. See pic of old compacter.Thanks.

[ProDave]

That's a serious "jumping jack" compactor.

 

I would have bought a whacker plate / vibrating plate type  (actually I did)

 

e.g. something like this picture randomly pinched from ebay.

 

 

 

[MikeSharp01]

Welcome to THE forum.

 

Those jumping jack compactors are really for trench bottoms, they compact a very narrow strip. You can use them all over but they are hard to control unless until you get into practice, have you started it up? As long as you don't set it too jump to high you should be fine but it will take longer that the type @ProDave is exhibiting above.

[markc]

Hi and  welcome.

i have to agree with both of the above answers, and will also add why they can damage fences etc.

Jumping Jacks or Trench Rammers are a bit like heavy pogo sticks, in trenches they are contained by the sides, in the open and especially on hardcore if the foot lands on a large stone they can bounce off in all directions if not controlled well.

Unl;ess you are doing a lot of very small jobs over a long period, it is worth hiring a good heavy weight plate compactor like the one pictured

[Conor]

Commented on your other post but didn't realise it was that kind of compactor.

 

Sell it and hire a proper vibrating plate compactor. Much better job and easier to use. It will only take a couple hours so you should only need to hire one for a day or weekend... So I doubt it will cost you more than £40 or £50.

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Conor

[Chickenbrain]

Thank you so much everyone. You have been very helpful.