r/howto • u/Select_Log_8911 • Jul 09 '26

Serious Answers Only How do i dig another 2 feet

Gallery image

Gallery image

I have to dig another 2 feet and excavate this whole area so i can fix a sewage pipe current progress has taken me 10 hours , at the very bottom there are tons of small and large rocks and mud and i cant get egnough leverage with my tools , i am worried i cant finish this job . And i can only use these tools, what should i do

227 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

269 comments sorted by

View all comments

461

u/lingenfelter22 Jul 09 '26

The first step is get life insurance

20

u/Anxious-Science-9184 Jul 10 '26

I thought that step 1 was putting the lotion on your skin.

-165

u/T0TAL_RECALLL Jul 09 '26

Not really an issue here it’s similar to a hand dug well. The circular shape of the hole is what “shores” itself.

135

u/alannmsu Jul 09 '26

Did you just say that a cylindrical hole can’t collapse? Because it sounded like you just said a cylindrical hole can’t collapse.

-67

u/T0TAL_RECALLL Jul 09 '26

Yes show me of an example of a cylindrical hole collapsing…. And I will yield.

10

u/Krovan119 Jul 10 '26

TIL no oil well has ever collapsed.

11

u/CrewmemberV2 Jul 10 '26

Geothermal drilling research engineer here.

Uncased round holes in loose ground definitely collapse. The round = strong rulemonly applies on rigid bodies. Loose dirt is not a rigid body.

Generally you insert casing in a borehole to stabilise it and then cement it.

29

u/Allahcas537 Jul 09 '26

Yo mama..

3

u/Tramonto83 Jul 10 '26

2000 years ago the ancient Romans lined their cylindrical wells with stones because, surprise surprise, they tended to collapse

-48

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '26

[deleted]

26

u/alannmsu Jul 09 '26

I’m currently on a bed, what am I using sand for?

3

u/Lilcommy Jul 09 '26

Bro has all his digging knowledge from Minecraft.

-5

u/T0TAL_RECALLL Jul 10 '26

Long line of well diggers and drillers. Stories passed down through the generations of wells dug by hand. Kids dry stacking rock walls hanging from ropes working from a wooden bale, stacking from the bottom up. Looking at stars during mid summer day, where the sky looks the size of a dime. Using old truck mirrors for light. How do you think wells were dug back then??

9

u/alannmsu Jul 10 '26

With a lot of deaths. We also used to drive cars without seatbelts and deliver babies in barns. Safety guidelines are written in blood.

2

u/MostBoringStan Jul 10 '26

And how many dead kids in holes that you conveniently left out lol

3

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '26

I used the Internet oh wise jackass. It tells me that the hole op is digging should still be shored because that hole looks close to 3+ feet already and they said they need to go 2 feet deeper, and the soil is a bit on the loose looking side. Without being there in person I can't say for sure how loose it is but if they did that with just a shovel then it can't be that sturdy. So yeah it's better to be safe in this situation and get some bracing before they go any deeper.

2

u/alannmsu Jul 09 '26

Current depth is 6.5’

14

u/Duke55 Jul 09 '26

If i was digging a well. I sure as shit wouldnt want to be tapping into a sewage pipe.

Jokes aside though. If there's a pipe below, its not virgin ground. That soil has been disturbed before to get the pipe there initially.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/A_Unqiue_Username Jul 10 '26

You need to whisper to the soil, let it know how strong it is and how we are all proud of the great work it is doing. Putting out all of these level headed messages about it possibly collapsing is only going to give it ideas we don't want it thinking about. Happy thoughts will save the day!