Garden Trench for Water Main - Right tool for the job?

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Hi All,

I have been lurking for ages as there is such great info on the site. I am wondering if you might be able to offer some advice:

I need to dig an 800mm trench for a new water main. I have a TAP5 registered plumber prepared to do all the plumbing stuff, but he has admitted that he hates digging the trenches and is therefore encouraging me to do it myself (it knocks £500 off the price!).

The trench will be 3 meters long, 500mm wide (or thereabouts) and 800mm deep. This sound like it is going to be a pain to dig!

Short of renting a digger which feels like overkill, what kind of tools would you guys recommend to loosen the soil up ready for me to shovel it or should I just rely on a pickaxe? Is it worth renting a hydraulic breaker for a day for £40?

Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Thx,

Jon
 
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A pick-mattock rather than a pick-axe. Depending on the soil type it should be pretty easy. Does it really need to be 500mm wide?
 
A pick-mattock rather than a pick-axe. Depending on the soil type it should be pretty easy. Does it really need to be 500mm wide?

I guess it doesn't need to be that wide, was just assuming that I would need a certain width to get my shovel in and to put some wood either side to stop the walls from caving in.

Not sure what the soil is, but I know that it is going to be very wet as I live directly next to the Thames which is currently flooded!

J

PS - good call on teh Pick-Mattock. That is what I meant :)
 
A draining spade is what you want. Its for digging drainage trenches and so will be the narrowest tool for doing it. ~Hence the least digging. A pick is the right tool for loosening.
 
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At 800mm it will be a fair job to do by hand on your own, an average garden spade is only about 900mm long itself!

If you knew someone locally with a mini digger, they could do it in no time at all, and maybe very cheaply if they were passing on their way home ;)
Backfilling by hand isn't so bad! and you will probably want to lay it in sand aswell.

The only drawback with a digger is if there's any existing pipes or cables it will rip through them without even feeling it :eek:
 
Alternatively you could get someone to do the lot using a mole: they would dig a hole at each end, and set the mole to work running the new pipe from one hole to the other. They should manage all of the connections as well, and make good any holes they make. Likely to cost a few hundred.
 

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