Written by: Emily Joswiak • February 16, 2024• Outdoors

4 Tips To Safely Dig a Hole in Your Backyard

How hard can it be to dig a hole? Not hard at all, mostly, but to dig one safely and properly…there’s the rub. Here’s how to ensure you do it right.

Ready to start digging in your backyard? Hold on there. While digging a hole takes no special skill or training, there’s a right way to do it and a whole lot of wrong ways. Done wrong, digging a hole in your backyard can lead to damage, injury, lost service, and more. Consider reading and following these four tips to safely dig a hole in your backyard before you grab your shovel. You could save yourself a tremendous amount of time and hassle.

What Lies Below?

Finding out what you might run into along the way is one of the biggest considerations when digging a hole. Mostly, you’ll encounter more dirt, but sometimes there are other things underground that can cause havoc should you clip or cut them with your shovel. Check out your property’s plot map to see where the utility lines, pipes, or similar objects run and determine where you should dig. Even better, call the electricity, gas, cable, and other companies in your community and ask them to identify where such things might be in your yard. Often, these companies will post signs nearby with their number, requesting that you call before you dig. Do it, or face the prospect of no utilities, your neighbors’ wrath, or an explosion or electrocution. Also, consider renting or hiring a vacuum excavator, or potholer, to suck up dirt, revealing cables, pipes, and more.

Tool Time

Sometimes, you need more than a shovel or spade to dig a proper hole. You’ll need a clamshell digger if you’re digging post holes. Simply thrust this tool into the ground and use it to make neat cylindrical holes. Having a steel digging bar nearby can be handy if you’re working on rocky soil. It can loosen soil and dislodge large stones. Use a pointed spade to start a hole but employ a sharp-edged tile shovel to cut through hard-packed dirt. Use a powered reciprocating saw if you encounter roots. This tool will easily cut them up.

Whether the Weather

You probably weren’t planning to dig on a stormy day, but what if the stormy day happens when you aren’t expecting it? Watch the weather. Reschedule your dig if it’s going to rain. Rain, naturally, makes your job that much harder, but it also increases the chance of collapsing your hole. That’s especially bad if you’re standing in it at the time. Cold weather is also really no time to dig. Remember, the ground can freeze, which can damage equipment. Save your dig for a warm day.

Well-Dressed

Here’s the last of our four tips to safely dig a hole in your backyard: dressing to dig a hole. Keep things loose on hotter days so you don’t risk overheating and experiencing heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Wear protective footwear. A strong pair of boots should suffice, but steel-toed boots with tarsal plates provide extra protection. Gloves are a necessity. Pick ones with a good grip to protect your hands from developing blisters. Finally, goggles and safety glasses can protect your eyes from anything that springs up as you dig.

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Last modified: February 16, 2024