I need to dig a circular hole, 20 ft in diameter, and approximately 4 ft deep. The shape is important, it shouldn't be approximately a circle, but a nice clean circle. The bottom can be flat or round, doesn't matter. I can clean it up with a hand shovel afterwards, but want to minimize manual labor as it is a big hole.
If I use a backhoe like this in the picture, the backhoe can only park in a couple of places.
In the illustration below, I've marked red areas where there is something in the way preventing the tractor to park. Mostly these are short stone walls, fencing, swimming pool, etc. I tried hiring a contractor to dig the hole, but he said he'd smash down my stone walls and break many things to get the job done, so I want to try myself and be more careful.
(illustration not to scale)
Basically I can only park the backhoe along 1/3 of the perimeter of the hole. Dirt will be piled nearby and taken care of later with a skid steer.
Is it possible to complete the project, being only able to park the backhoe along this limited angle?
Best Answer
Not sure why this is a problem. You drive in and dig the farthest part first, with a lot of trips back & forth to bring each bucket of dirt all the way out. Then you work out a couple of feet at a time. Exactly the same thing you would do if you were shoveling by hand and putting the dirt in wheelbarrows.
Mark the entire circle at the beginning. The biggest issue I see is making sure you don't dig too much. Unlike Kindergarten drawings, you must stay inside the lines.
Really not that much different from a much more common problem - how to paint the floor of a room. Start at the farthest spot from the door and work your way backwards to the door so you don't literally paint yourself into a corner.