Got a new 9" auger today, how much do you charge for drilling post holes?

Hey guys, I have had an auger drive and 12" and 36" augers for a few years now. My neighbor across the street asked me the other day what I would charge him to to drill 150 holes for his fencing project. I asked him what sized holes he wanted, he said 9". I asked him if 12 inch would be ok and he said that it would take too much concrete (it does take about twice the concrete). So, he said that he would buy me the auger and pay me $5.00/hole.

I have since talked to a fencing contractor about drilling holes for him. Of course, his first question was how much. I gave him my hourly rate and minimum and told him that I would research it and get back to him. My research has shown that prices for 9" holes 2'-3' deep range from $7.00/hole to $180.00/hole. As you can see, quite a wide range and this is just for the hole (not setting the post). The biggest majority seem to charge $10-$20/hole for normal digging (no rock or water or other obstacles).

My question is what do you charge for digging fence post holes? The typical job might have 50-200 holes. Do you charge by the job? by the hole or by the hour? I realize that rock and water can complicate the digging so for the sake of this discussion lets say that these are easy digging, say maybe 10 minutes/hole or so with maybe a little hand clean-out to make sure that you have a good 2-3 foot of depth.

Thanks

Tim

Yair . . . tmc_31 . To me something seems amiss with your numbers.

I have an old Ford 1210 (about twenty hp) and with an ordinary linkage auger in reasonable going I do twenty holes an hour without even trying . . . I sure would like to get two hundred bucks an hour for that little rig. (big grin)

That is just digging time of course. Clearing the line, sighting and marking the hole centres are not included.

I always mark the centres with a crowbar, drive it in six inches and wriggle it around to make a nice cone shaped starter hole . . . that's the old timey way to do it and is much better than those stupid bloody paint dots that come out of a $8.00 spray can.

Cheers.

Hey Scrub,

You could be right, I am figuring about 10 holes per hour. I have drilled quite a few holes but mostly in quantity of 3 or 4. In that case the setup takes longer than the drilling. The most I have ever drilled in one setting was 6-36"X10' holes for sports lighting poles. That took 8 hours. But the fence post holes are a different animal. I don't have a good feel for how many I can do in an hour in a larger quantity like 30-50 holes. When you are doing 20 holes an hour are you doing a final cleaning with hand post hole diggers or not?

Tim

You need to charge a minimum to show up. It costs you the same amount to show up and drill one hole or 1000. From there figure out how many you can drill in an hour roughly and price it by range. 1-10 holes $500. 10-50 holes 700$ etc etc. after a few jobs you will figure out if your making money then go from there

Yair . . .tmc_31.

We are probably talking completely different applications here.

I am talking cattle fence, four barbed wires, seven inch split posts, back filled with dirt and rammed (compacted all around) with the head of a crow bar. Inch and a quarter holes for the barbs are bored with a chainsaw (or inverter) powered drill after the posts are standing.

These days the fence is the same but the posts are driven in with a thumper and to some extent post hole digging with a PTO driven auger as I describe is a thing of the past.

I still find it handy though for small jobs. Because it is not critical I always make the holes a little deep to avoid having to clean them out to grade . . . its easier kick a bit of dirt back in than to clean the buggers out . . . a few inches up or down makes no never minds to cows.

The most important thing is to have a good cleared line. As I said I make nice cone shaped starter holes and just drive down the line with the worm of the digger slightly dragging to keep it stable. . . once it drops into the starter hole I might have to back up a bit to get it straight.

I have the hydraulics set for depth and, in good clay/sandy digging and for a two foot hole I let it drop into about two foot six lift it out, and without stopping the auger drive forward to the next hole and drop it in again.

As I say this is pretty basic stuff and if you were doing construction holes it is a whole other ball game.

Cheers

I think you're right on Scrub. We're talking about fence posts 2-3' deep. A crowbar pilot hole is close enough to get the fence to look straight with a 4x4" post. I've only ever used a rental tow behind rig, but that would easily do 10 holes an hour if they were marked already. Can't see how a skidsteer would be slower to move and line up.

On my 1975 case 1845 uniloader with a Lowe head and an 9 inch auger in sandy clay, at 8 foot spacing 30 inch deep, I avg 3.5 mins a hole from start to ready to dig next hole When I did my horse pasture fence about 140 holes. I do allot of board fences and get about the same time digging holes but spend allot more time fighting tight areas. I also use my bobcat t320 for running the auger head but it is kind of a pain in tight areas as it is about 80 inches wide.

I am hundreds of miles from merkel but I have been there and would drive all the way there to drill fence post holes for $10 a pop with no extra travel costs. If you are not in the rock you can easily drill a couple hundred a day. I drilled around 500 holes 42" deep on my place for the fence and averaged about 20 per hour.

For an extra $3 a hole I would even mark all the locations using RTK GPS. Just tell me where to start and where to stop and I will drill holes at whatever interval in a perfect straight line within an inch.

Whats in the ground structure ? That determines how fast,what type of drill point time factor per hole. If we could see what was in the ground,we wou;ld all be millionares

A little off topic but I just got a digger for the skid and have a question for you guys that have used one allot. The diggers work great but when I press down with the loader it robs flow from the auxiliaries, in hard digging this stops the auger. Also are yall using a vertical or radial lift? Mine is a radial lift and without help the hole get a little off. I have a 9" and 12" auger and think I'm going to order a 6" also.

I have 4,6,9,12,17 and 24" augers and I charge by the hour. Lots of local guys charge by the hole ranging from $50-85/hole. I have done upto 40+ holes in one hour (4" at 3' depth) and yesterday I did a 12" hole 5' deep that took 1 1/2 hours with lots of picking of rocks out and hand work to even get down to the 5' mark. We have a hugely varying ground conditions here. I always tell people that I "might" be able to auger but depends on rocks. I normally have a spotter outside to help make sure I am plumb fwd to aft, side to side you can see from the cab. And don't forget to check for underground utilities.

Our locale soil can very from river silt to muskeg to glacial till, I explain this to my customers and if they insist on a per hole price I insist they are there with a bar and charge as if it is glacial till, they always choose hourly, wonder why ?

I don't know what is fair in your neck of the woods. But up here, they charge absolutely ridiculous amounts per hole...or anything else for that matter. A friend of mine just got a quote for 20 holes at $80 per hole since they were in the neighborhood. If they had to come back or make a special trip, it was going to be $180 per hole.

Florida sure is nice for some things. It is all sand here.

I have only used my auger once, to test. I dug a 12" hole as deep as the loader could reach. I would guess it was close to 4'. The actual digging part too way less than 1 minute, probably less than 30 seconds.

As for technique: I would try to talk your customer into the 12" holes. I makes your job easier as you can be off by a few inches and he can still get the post where he wants it. I would also be sure to dig 6" deeper than desired as it is very easy to push some material back in the hole with ones boot to achieve the correct post height.

Although this one is 3 years old, now, I'll chime in...

I generally tell customers My minimum is $450/half day. If its a 6 or 9" hole, I can do 50+ holes per hour.(assumes new work, in a straight line, with no trees or junk, to maneuver around) Remember that your customer should call miss utility, and plan hole placement, before you even look at the job! Once they have some idea of where they have to avoid, it takes the onus off of you. I generally tell them to take a child's shovel, and take a little 3 sided divot out at the center of each hole location, to make your work more accurate. (actually, it means less work for you, to have them do this.) Once hole count and locations are set, you call miss utility, and have your name added to the ticket, as contractor. Only experience will tell you where rocky areas are in your service area. I generally limit my area to the closest scale house, from home, in each direction. Nothing takes the profit, out of a job, like a 45 minute wait at a scale house, or gung ho DOT inspector...

Another thing to ask the customer is what size post are you putting in the ground? Remember that a 4x4 post has a diagonal measurement of 5.65inches (lets assume that actual measurements are 4" X 4"). if you drill a 6" hole, that means you can get .343" divided by 2, or .17" of concrete next to the post, at the corners... so for 4x4's you need 9" hole to properly set the post in concrete. Similarly, a 6x6 post has a diagonal measurement of 8.48" (same assumptions as above). In actual practice, a 6"X6" going in a 9" hole has about the thickness of a shovel handle width, at the center of each side. So its 12" for 6x6's...
As for digging any extra depth, from my experience, its better to pull extra dirt out of a too shallow hole, with a hand digger, than to dump dirt back down the hole, unless you compact it thoroughly... (or you risk the possibility of water infiltration, under the post...) I have made a simple depth gauge that bolts on the side of the augur, at the correct depth. it is just a simple ear made of the same thickness material as the augur, stick it on, turn a set screw, and when you see the ear hit the sod, you're done...

Gotta love these old threads

Lots of great suggestions in the above replys.

Around here soil conditions vary a lot just a few hundred feet one way or the other... when rocks are involved the hole positions can move a foot or more!! plus you can't clean them out by machine... If you get lucky and get a good mix of clay,sand,and small rocks then all is good... digs easy, digs where you want it, and cleans out nice!!

So on to placement... if you want a nice tight straight line while using an auger then better up size the bit because no mater how good you are some holes will move at least a couple inches when you don't want them to... unless someone wants to shave the awkward holes into alignment after drilling???