Last week was a nightmare from start to finish on a chain link job

Three days of rain in a row and the auger kept getting stuck in clay so bad we had to dig out every single hole by hand. What's the weirdest soil you've ever had to fight through?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jordan29d ago

Man I read somewhere that caliche is basically nature's concrete and they're not wrong. Had a buddy who worked a job in New Mexico and said they went through three digging bars in one afternoon trying to break that stuff up. Makes me appreciate regular old clay and rock even if it does turn into soup when it rains.

juliashah1mo ago

Clay is tough, but I've run into caliche in Arizona that felt like trying to dig through concrete with a spoon. That stuff practically requires a jackhammer or a truckload of dynamite to break up. It makes you appreciate a simple day of rain and sticky clay, believe it or not.

morgan8981mo ago

Is it really that bad? I've dug through some hard clay before but never anything that made me think about dynamite. Seems like an overstatement honestly. Most soil you can break up with a pickaxe and some elbow grease if you're willing to put in the work. Maybe the people complaining about caliche just aren't using the right tools or technique. I've seen guys break up hardpan with a digging bar and a sledgehammer without any explosives involved. Probably just a case of someone wanting an excuse to complain more than anything else.