Frost!!!

wilddanz71 · Feb 6, 2009

Can any one give me some advise about diging in frost. Ok so I need to put in about 7 five foot tall sono tubes for the house that im building. Im have a 120ex excavator with a 30" bucket. I am on a tight budget, so I cant buy any new atachements. I need to do this next week. I am guessing that I have 2-3 feet of frost to deal with

Canadian_digger · Feb 6, 2009

Put new teeth on your bucket and scratch at the frost do not try and chip away at it. Scratch in one spot them move your bucket over one or two teeth and scratch some more. You should eventually get through it.

DigDug · Feb 6, 2009

2-3' is alot of scratching with a 30" bucket. If you have a week before this has to happen , how about tenting the area in and heating for a week to drive the frost out. More costly solutions would be to use a small jackhammer and auger on a excavator. Good luck.

STX 500 · Feb 6, 2009

Put some coal down a day before you want to dig. Light it up and the next day the frost will be gone.

wilddanz71 · Feb 6, 2009

STX 500 said:
Put some coal down a day before you want to dig. Light it up and the next day the frost will be gone.

will it melt 2-3 feet of frost??

STX 500 · Feb 6, 2009

Up here we get about 5 to six feet of frost and it does the trick

wilddanz71 · Feb 6, 2009

DigDug said:
2-3' is alot of scratching with a 30" bucket. If you have a week before this has to happen , how about tenting the area in and heating for a week to drive the frost out. More costly solutions would be to use a small jackhammer and auger on a excavator. Good luck.

I have a friend that works for a company that has a drill truck, It can drill through frost no problem, I might go this route, that way I am not beating on my equiptment. It al depends on his price.

My teeth are preaty good but I still think It will take for ever scraping away.

Steve Frazier · Feb 6, 2009

I don't think your frost will be as deep as you think. We've had a snow cover all winter and the snow insulates the gound. Hay bales or concrete blankets will draw out the frost too.

bill onthehill · Feb 6, 2009

I have to agree with steve. We are only about 5-8 inches deep at most. As an option I have hammer drilled a series of holes with an 18 inch long bit and dug post holes in frost over 30 inches deep. I have also used a tarp over saw horses and a salamander heater with an 8 inch stove pipe elbow on the end to blow the heat down on the ground. try digging a little with good sharp teeth on the corners of the bucket and you may be surprised at how it goes.

greywynd · Feb 6, 2009

I was digging yesterday with my mini ex, mostly it was a couple inches of frost, one area that was at the edge of a 'bank' had 6-8", though I suspect it had been exposed without snow for a chunk of the winter.

Tacodriver · Feb 7, 2009

Last week I was ripping down to 5 1/2 feet to get through the frost.

No snow to insulate and traffic to pound it in. Was using a JD 200lc and a ripper wouldn't want a smaller machine. Heat is your best bet.

Northart · Feb 7, 2009

Solutions ?

Reading all the material, I'd suggest get the drill truck and get it over with !

Other options, 4 -6 laborer's and a 185 cfm air compressor and jackhammer, and dig out by hand with post hole diggers.

Other way, get Frost Tiger Teeth by Hensley, for the dig. Spendy but they work. But you also over dig to get down to the elevation you desire. Bigger hole.

Consider the backfill material also, non frost suceptible, as also on the bottom of the hole. No clay,organics, etc of the material that cause frost jack heaving ! Only clean, sands or gravels.

Sonotubes do heave, if not founded in non frost suceptible material ! The result is binding doors, broken windows, uneven floors. Tricky ! Surprises later !

wilddanz71 · Feb 7, 2009

unfortunatly the ground I am diging in has been exposed all winter with no snow cover, aswell it has been driven over and over by my lull and backhoe. So I am asming there will be alot of frost. I will give it a try this morning and that will give me an idea what Im up against. And yes I plan on backfilling with fresh unfroven sand or gravel.

EZ TRBO · Feb 9, 2009

Friend of mine just had a frozen water line at his house, from the water main to the curbbox. Water main was plastic so the good old welder wasn't going to do the trick. City PW director grew up in the UP of Migh. and said they used that trick all the time. This was frozen down almost 5 feet on bare ground. Took about 4 days to get it thawed but it did the trick.

Trbo

When the wife gets home I'll post pics of the "barrel" thawing, shes got the camera.

wilddanz71 · Feb 9, 2009

EZ TRBO said:
Friend of mine just had a frozen water line at his house, from the water main to the curbbox. Water main was plastic so the good old welder wasn't going to do the trick. City PW director grew up in the UP of Migh. and said they used that trick all the time. This was frozen down almost 5 feet on bare ground. Took about 4 days to get it thawed but it did the trick.

Trbo

When the wife gets home I'll post pics of the "barrel" thawing, shes got the camera.

Are you talking about the coal trick?

I scrached at it today with the excavator for about 10 min and only got through about 1' of frost in a 3'x3' area. I am still waiting for the price to have them drilled, or i will just try to dig them

EZ TRBO · Feb 11, 2009

Yeah I was talking bout the coal trick, thawed my friends house line out the other day, on bare concrete. Took a few days to do it but with the city putting in plastic water main its kinda hard to hook a welder up to thaw out from the main to the service valve.
Trbo

oriden · Feb 11, 2009

good job there nice idea!

Cat 236 · Feb 11, 2009

Thawing the Ground

For a faster set up then Coal or Wood we have used a Propane (Weed Burner) Torch. Cut a hole in the end of one of the half barrels and stick it in. Also you can cover the half barrels with some Batt Insulation. Works good. Cat 236 Alaska

hammer66 · Feb 11, 2009

do you need a special permit to burn in the road like that in the picture(wich ironicly looks simmilar to my st. hill and all,and ivv naver seen or thought to do that, what about a fire marshell?????????????

wilddanz71 · Feb 11, 2009

great pictures!! I might look into that idea on my job, my only thing is, I have frozen dirt, and I think when it starts to melt it will turn to mud and alot of water, and maybe put out the fire? do you leave a vent for the charcoal or will it stay lit without one?
thanks again
DAN

Frost!!!

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