Fastest way to dig a 30m trench for electrical cable to shed.

BrokenArrows

I need to run an electrical cable down to the back of the garden for the shed.

The electrician is doing the electrical, ill be digging the trench.

Whats the fastest way to dig a 30 meter long trench, 10 cm wide.

Any handy tools, manual or electrical that will make the job easier.

Calahonda52

How deep did they sparks tell you?
250mm in high impact pipe
300 in other pipe
450 with no pipe
all assumes no traffic

good luck with trying to dig a 4 " wide trench

mini digger

BrokenArrows

Calahonda52 wrote: »

How deep did they sparks tell you?
250mm in high impact pipe
300 in other pipe
450 with no pipe
all assumes no traffic

good luck with trying to dig a 4 " wide trench

mini digger

300mm

Around 10cm wide, just indicating it doesn't have to be massive.

listermint

The fastest way ? A mole. Which you can't really get or rent.

So a mini digger


Alternatively get the spade out and the muskels

Bonzo Delaney

30 m ... take out the pick axe , spit on your hands and go for it. About 2 hrs of a decent cardio work out and your done

Darando

If its grass, cut the top into sods with a spade, then as above, go at the soil with a pick or a spade.

wait4me

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

30 m ... take out the pick axe , spit on your hands and go for it. About 2 hrs of a decent cardio work out and your done

and get somebody to give you tae for a few little breaks

Sharpyshoot

Put on a pair of socks so you won’t graze the back of your feet.

karlitob

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

30 m ... take out the pick axe , spit on your hands and go for it. About 2 hrs of a decent cardio work out and your done

Agreed. I have one of these.

I enjoy using it so much I’d almost love the opportunity to go out and dig 30m - at least at the start.



https://www.quickcrop.co.uk/product/chillington-heavy-duty-hoe

deandean

OP you want to buy a 4" trenching shovel. If you're in Dublin you'll pick one up in Grange Builders Providers.
This is yer only man for the job. And you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll dig the trench.
Buy 30m of 50mm red electrical duct at a builders provider.
Best of luck!

karlitob

deandean wrote: »

OP you want to buy a 4" trenching shovel. If you're in Dublin you'll pick one up in Grange Builders Providers.
This is yer only man for the job. And you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll dig the trench.
Buy 30m of 50mm red electrical duct at a builders provider.
Best of luck!

I presume that’s a protection and safety feature for anyone who might dig in future. Is that correct?

listermint

karlitob wrote: »

I presume that’s a protection and safety feature for anyone who might dig in future. Is that correct?

Always use conduit always. It's protection number one and it's provides access to pull more lines through.


Also get gloves if your not used to digging you'll pull the skin off your hands very quickly with this job.

Don't envy you. I wouldn't dig my backgarden but that's littered with slate it's a bollix.

Tippbhoy1

listermint wrote: »

Always use conduit always. It's protection number one and it's provides access to pull more lines through.


Also get gloves if your not used to digging you'll pull the skin off your hands very quickly with this job.

Don't envy you. I wouldn't dig my backgarden but that's littered with slate it's a bollix.

Will an electrician typically use armoured cabling as well?

What about hiring one of the home garden machines used for making drills for a veg patch. Not sure of the name. Digs a channel and piles up a drill, put the cable in the channel and cover it up again after. Or at least use it to soften up the route first?

daheff

Tippbhoy1 wrote: »

Will an electrician typically use armoured cabling as well?

What about hiring one of the home garden machines used for making drills for a veg patch. Not sure of the name. Digs a channel and piles up a drill, put the cable in the channel and cover it up again after. Or at least use it to soften up the route first?

Rotovator?

Tippbhoy1

daheff wrote: »

Rotovator?

Not sure. In farming if I recall from many years ago, you ploughed, then rotavated, and then the machine planting the crop made the drill. But in a home garden surely you have something that prepares the drills and has them nicely ready for manual planting? That gives you a nice channel on the side that you can then just fill again after.

Might be a bit too diy :-)

awec

Is your house a new build?

If so, expect the digging to be difficult as you will probably find all sorts of crap buried in your garden. Broken bricks, bits of blocks, I pulled out an almost intact capstone from mine. Once you get past the layer of topsoil progress could be very slow.

Calahonda52

awec wrote: »

Is your house a new build?

If so, expect the digging to be difficult as you will probably find all sorts of crap buried in your garden. Broken bricks, bits of blocks, I pulled out an almost intact capstone from mine. Once you get past the layer of topsoil progress could be very slow.

+ 100
Am digging out for a polytunnel, its very slow with large stones

barneygumble99

Whilst I know it’s not really feasible in the op’s case, I needed to dig a 100m trench for a sewer duct in my garden. Rented a 0.5 tonne mini digger for €50 half day hire. Smallest digger available, no cab on it, not much space other than to sit on it but by Jesus it was some machine to dig compared to a shovel or spade. Plus it’s breaks up the clay nicely for back filling.

Del2005

awec wrote: »

Is your house a new build?

If so, expect the digging to be difficult as you will probably find all sorts of crap buried in your garden. Broken bricks, bits of blocks, I pulled out an almost intact capstone from mine. Once you get past the layer of topsoil progress could be very slow.

Doesn't matter if it's a new build or old build, if it's in a housing estate the gardens where always used to get rid of the building rubble.

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

30 m ... take out the pick axe , spit on your hands and go for it. About 2 hrs of a decent cardio work out and your done

The OP asked for the fastest way to dig a 30m trench, a mini digger would be faster than a pick and shovel.

The Continental Op

Del2005 wrote: »

Doesn't matter if it's a new build or old build, if it's in a housing estate the gardens where always used to get rid of the building rubble.




The OP asked for the fastest way to dig a 30m trench, a mini digger would be faster than a pick and shovel.

Depends on how much damage you do with the mini digger to the ground surrounding the trench. Easy enough to make so much mess and damage an existing lawn so badly it would have been quicker to dig by hand. Good dry ground conditions and you should be OK but when its wet its another story.

The other issue with a mini digger is in stoney ground you can end up digging a much much bigger hole than you need so more mess. By hand you'll work around large chunks of debris but with a digger they all get ripped out widening the hole in the process.

Melzea

Get your shovel and dig down. Half a day should do it
You should put electric in red pipe
What soil have you got you could hire a digger

Run another pipe for internet

It depends your soil type and how fit you are

FileNotFound

Pick and a shovel with plenty of Tea and a few breaks for the sport.

An easy day to be fair.

Ignore the mini digger nonsense, a bit of work is too hard for some.

listermint

There seems to be a raft load of lunatics that love back breaking work digging trenches.


You'd be fckd if you see me digging a trench by hand to save fifty quid.

Its the definition of insanity away with the fairies.

Granted if you've no access for one that's a complete stop. Outside that , no your alright I've far better things to be doing with my time , hands and back.

Bonzo Delaney

Ah come on listermint it's a 30 meter cutting in the ground we're not talking about digging the canals here. A little bit of hard work never killed anyone ...except the Egyptians it killed loads of them lads.:D

listermint

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Ah come on listermint it's a 30 meter cutting in the ground we're not talking about digging the canals here. A little bit of hard work never killed anyone ...except the Egyptians it killed loads of them lads.:D

I know what 30 meters is I cut a 50 meter for a conduit for broadband last year. I'd welcome any fool to come to my garden to hand dig it. Knock yourself out while I sit and drink a beer 😉

It's fifty quid lads for a rental. Who's communion money are you keeping.

Calahonda52

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I need to run an electrical cable down to the back of the garden for the shed.

The electrician is doing the electrical, ill be digging the trench.

Whats the fastest way to dig a 30 meter long trench, 10 cm wide.

Any handy tools, manual or electrical that will make the job easier.

What I have done in the past is use a small ( not the road breaker) kango hammer with a wide chisel type blade on it and use it to cut down both sides of the trench, using a 4 by 2 or similar as a straight edge. the trench can then be dug out pretty handy with a narrow spade and then repeat for the next layer

Bonzo Delaney

Fair enough I suppose the point I'm making is, the question was asked, what was the quickest way to dig a 30m trench for I presumed amoured cable to a shed. I'm working on the logic that by the time you make the phone call and the machine is delivered out to site. You'd have it dug out and filled in by hand, depending on the condition of the ground.
Now if I'd a micro digger on site already to go I'd be sitting in comfort for 30 minutes.

Lumen

The regs I followed required 600mm. That is several times harder to dig by hand than 300mm, because you're into the subsoil.

I paid someone to do it by hand but in hindsight a mini digger would have been cheaper and more humane.

karlitob

listermint wrote: »

There seems to be a raft load of lunatics that love back breaking work digging trenches.


You'd be fckd if you see me digging a trench by hand to save fifty quid.

Its the definition of insanity away with the fairies.

Granted if you've no access for one that's a complete stop. Outside that , no your alright I've far better things to be doing with my time , hands and back.

24” side access. If only I could get a digger.

enricoh

Get the hose out n give the ground a good soak if ground is hard, I done a similar distance last year last year with a pick axe. I just used swa armored cable instead of pipe and marking tape on top. Probably down 6-8 inches.
No bother to the spark looking for a 4" trench - he won't be paying for the mini digger!

Lumen

enricoh wrote: »

Get the hose out n give the ground a good soak if ground is hard, I done a similar distance last year last year with a pick axe. I just used swa armored cable instead of pipe and marking tape on top. Probably down 6-8 inches.
No bother to the spark looking for a 4" trench - he won't be paying for the mini digger!

SWA at 8 inches depth is illegal. Nobody should be suggesting this on a public forum.

nagel

Get the spade out , dig wide enough to be able to fit your foot into . this will leave it easier to clean out the bottom,

jmreire

karlitob wrote: »

Agreed. I have one of these.

I enjoy using it so much I’d almost love the opportunity to go out and dig 30m - at least at the start.



https://www.quickcrop.co.uk/product/chillington-heavy-duty-hoe

Definitely a great tool, and has been in use for thousands of years, so its well proven to work.:D

aido79

See if you can hire one of these

https://georipper.ie/

The Continental Op

aido79 wrote: »

See if you can hire one of these

https://georipper.ie/

Looks a great idea. Hyundai have something similar https://hyundaipowerequipment.co.uk/garden-machinery/earth-augers/hyundai-hytr150-420cc-14hp-600mm-max-depth-petrol-trencher/

Really not sure how either would cope with a backyard full of builders rubbish?

aido79

The Continental Op wrote: »

Looks a great idea. Hyundai have something similar https://hyundaipowerequipment.co.uk/garden-machinery/earth-augers/hyundai-hytr150-420cc-14hp-600mm-max-depth-petrol-trencher/

Really not sure how either would cope with a backyard full of builders rubbish?

Depends how much rubbish there is I suppose. Might have to start shallow and go over it a couple of times getting progressively deeper and using a shovel if you come across something it can't handle.