Ever seen one of these?

[J. Peterson Grading]

One of my biggest complaints is in my field of work is digging under sidewalks and bike paths.

It costs to much to cut a section out and then pour it back, and it takes way to long to hand dig under one. In my area we can't just cut a section out, then put it back in loose like the southern states guys can due to the frost we get in the winter.

So last night I came across this. Its just a simple earthquake one person auger but modified just a bit. I talked to the owner/designer of this tool today to get some pricing. $1250.00 with out shipping. Comes with the power unit, a 3" head, 6" head, and 2 4' extensions.


If it could cut my labor and time down, then the price would be worth it.

http://siboredrill.com/

J.

[Dirtman2007]

Thats seems like good idea, not sure how hard it would be to get it out if it got buried under the sidewalk pretty good. Thats whats nice about being down here, just cut the concrete joints and pick it up, install pipe, and set it back in place.

How would you pack the dirt back around whatever you put under the sidewalk?

[J. Peterson Grading]

6" hole, 4" ADS tile. I wouldn't worry about any fill around it.

J.

[Barge Man]

Hey J I just have a 6'' steel pipe that we have welded a point onto it on one end and the other end has a hook for a chain. Just push it under with the mini and pull it back out. One time we pushed a 2 1/2" pipe 25' with the mini. Something to think about

[Blue Goose]

Hey Derek, if you ever do that again, weld a collar about a foot or so from the front around whatever pipe you're pushing like that. What that does is hog out the hole you're making to a larger diameter than the pipe you're pushing and relieves a bunch of the resistance or drag of the following pipe. It makes a lot of difference...

[DirtMerchant]

Used one last summer!

[J. Peterson Grading]

Not to shoot anyones ideas down or anything.

We do the pipe thing to. But, the problem is, most of the time the reason we are putting a tile under a walk is because there is water running over it to begin with. When water is running over the walk, then we dig, it create a slick greasy film underneath my excavators, I like to call this substance Mud.

When we go to push the pipe through, we just slide around and don't really get any place with out a major time and energy loss. I could go into the yard to push, but the problem there is, I don't want to tear up anymore than I really want to fix.

Moral of this story is, The pipe idea does work, but not for what I am doing.

We aren't pulling a 1 or 2 Inch water line here. I am talking about 4" and 6" drainage tile. Those little pushes are easy with a smaller diameter pipe. The tile lines are not as simple. Plus, I am not worried about a 4' walk either. 4ft isn't a big deal to shovel under for us, its the 8 and 10ft bike paths that I get to repair on a regular basis that give us the most problems.


J.

[YellowDogSVC]

I used one similar to drill under a sidewalk. It worked really good. I bet you could use it to start the clean out on a clogged culvert.

[DirtMerchant]

Originally Posted by J. Peterson Grading

Not to shoot anyones ideas down or anything.

We do the pipe thing to. But, the problem is, most of the time the reason we are putting a tile under a walk is because there is water running over it to begin with. When water is running over the walk, then we dig, it create a slick greasy film underneath my excavators, I like to call this substance Mud.

When we go to push the pipe through, we just slide around and don't really get any place with out a major time and energy loss. I could go into the yard to push, but the problem there is, I don't want to tear up anymore than I really want to fix.

Moral of this story is, The pipe idea does work, but not for what I am doing.

We aren't pulling a 1 or 2 Inch water line here. I am talking about 4" and 6" drainage tile. Those little pushes are easy with a smaller diameter pipe. The tile lines are not as simple. Plus, I am not worried about a 4' walk either. 4ft isn't a big deal to shovel under for us, its the 8 and 10ft bike paths that I get to repair on a regular basis that give us the most problems.


J.

We were using it under paved two lane bike paths which would be right in the 8-10ft width range. We went through hard pan, soil, gravel, and other materials. beat shoveling or picking at it with an excavator. And was pretty manageable. Make sure you get a few augers, having the right one for the right material made a big difference.

[bearmtnmartin]

I use a tool called a borzit. It was 250 dollars I think. It is a bit of a pain to use and it doesn't do well in rocks, but I have drilled a 4 inch sch 40 pipe 50 feet under a slab or a road a few times. And I charge huge dollars to do it. I paid for it about 10 minutes into my first job. All it is is a little doo dad that you can attach a 3/4 inch electric drill to and a garden hose, and you add 4 foot sections of 3/4 inch pipe with a drill bit on the end. Unless you are just doing a sidewalk or something, its a muddy job and its hard on my labourers back. I sometimes get my boots dirty watching him......