Manual trench digging, a realistic daily rate.

[epsilonGreedy]

I am contemplating digging some service trenching by hand and would like to hear estimates on a realistic daily dig rate through soil comprised of 150mm of fluffy top soil and then sandy silt sub soil below.

 

This is my scenario. My part time building adviser has connected my foul drain up to the north wall block footings of my house and I now need to link this to my static caravan which arrived onsite yesterday and is situated south of the house. The route for the foul drain extension is:

 

4.5m under future block & beam suspend floor through the annex wing of the house.

6m under future patio to an inspection chamber.

 

The foul drain route to the inspection chamber will become a fixed element of the permanent drainage plan for the house.

 

The last 4m stretch to the caravan will be a temporary (1 year) fixture and as shallow as possible but below ground so as not to interfere with general site building activity.

 

The total dig effort is:

 

4.5m at 300mm deep through b&b oversite.

6m at 500mm deep through future patio area.

4m as shallow as possible to the underbelly of the static caravan.

 

 

 

 

[daiking]

1.5m3 which will see you get that done in a day.

 

good luck.

[jack]

A labourer working on the house next door to us in fairly sandy conditions dug about 15m at (at a guess) 400-500mm depth from first thing in the morning to mid afternoon. Depending on how fit you are, and how difficult the ground, you could in theory get your job done in a day. This was a fit, experienced labourer though (no offence ). 

 

The chances of a herniated disc and other injuries increase drastically as you fatigue though. Personally, if it isn't urgent, I'd break it into smaller chunks and do it over at least a couple of days.

[PeterW]

As @jack says I would split it over 2 days. Not a huge amount to dig but watch your levels and don’t forget that you need 50-75mm gravel under the pipe so it may need to be deeper and you do need to take levels into consideration. 

[ToughButterCup]

SPONS cost for a labourer per hour is £11.18. Times 16 = £185.60 . Two days

And no sore back.

 

A minidigger per day £55, delivery £30, Red diesel £10. Start at 9, finished by 3

And no sore back.

 

When was the last time you dug anything by hand?  

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I hired a local labourer for a day to hand dig some additional trenches when we had to move the position of our borehole.  Around here labourers are between £80 and £120/day.  Worth paying more for a labourer who's good at digging trenches, as they will do a better job in less time.  There's definitely an art to digging a nice clean service trench by hand.

[epsilonGreedy]

18 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

When was the last time you dug anything by hand?  

 

 

That would have been in a previous life that I cannot recall.

[ToughButterCup]

It will be gently does it, then.

[joe90]

At least you have decent ground, not like my solid yellow clay ?.