No matter how you approach it, digging foundations is never an easy feat. However, when you choose to complete the task by hand, you make it much harder for yourself. Even when tackling the smallest of houses, hand digging can take weeks at a time. In comparison, using an excavator or digger can shave that time down to a few days. Before you begin your work, it’s important to understand the effort that goes into digging foundations by hand.
Your project will last for weeks, rather than days
There’s no way to sugar-coat how strenuous and cumbersome digging foundations by hand can be. As this is a precise art that requires close attention to detail, you’re combining heavy manual labour with the need to be exact. This is fine if you have a lot of time available, but the majority of people want to complete their work as fast as they can.
If you’re living in the Auckland area, you’ll already know that there are times of year when this kind of work is impossible because of the weather. If you choose to hire a mini digger or excavator, avoiding some of those periods is possible. When digging by hand, there will always be a time when the weather interrupts your work.
You’re going to need a lot of man power
No man is an island, especially when it comes to digging foundations by hand. With that said, you’re going to need a lot of man power on your side. Unless you have a litany of friends who are willing to help you complete the job, this will probably mean hiring a team to help you out. When you’ve done this, you may as well have spent money on hiring a bobcat or digger anyway.
Getting the measurements right is difficult
The way you lay your foundations now can have serious repercussions for your project in the future. Get it wrong, and the chances are your structure is going to suffer. When you hire machinery that’s being operated by trained professionals, you’re also hiring people who are familiar with the terrain, your plans, and the local area. When they get to work on preparing your foundations, they’ll use their knowledge to produce results that are as close to perfect as you can get. The money you spend on doing this now can save cash in terms of repairs in the future.
You’re at higher risk of injury when performing the work yourself
Unless you relish the thought of encountering a back injury, you may want to reconsider carrying out this work by yourself. Many back injuries occur because of repetitive strain, rather than single incidents. When you spend day after day bending and lifting, the chances are that pain is going to hit at some point. While you won’t avoid manual work altogether when hiring plant machinery, you do significantly reduce the risk of hurting yourself.
It’s really boring
Shifting dirt is particularly boring, which means you can soon lose the luster you had for your project. Why spend hours shifting bags of soil, when you could use a bobcat to do the job instead?
If you’re prepared to save yourself weeks of backbreaking labour, consider hiring the appropriate machinery and a trained professional who can help you out. Once you see the results, and fast, you’ll be glad you did.