Vent: Hidden rock shelf cost me 4 extra hours on a gate post hole

I was digging a post hole for a 6 foot gate near Lakewood yesterday and hit a granite shelf about 18 inches down that wasn't visible from the surface. Wasted 4 hours with a digging bar and an SDS max trying to chip through it before I gave up and moved the post 3 feet over. Anyone else run into surprise bedrock that threw off your whole layout?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_lopez22d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. I had almost the exact same thing happen on a fence line up near Golden last fall, hit a massive slab of rock maybe two feet down and spent half a Sunday trying to muscle through it with a pickaxe before I gave up and moved the whole run over like four feet.

elizabeththomas22d ago

Spent half a Sunday trying to muscle through it" - I feel that pain. I once spent an entire Saturday trying to dig a hole for a mailbox post, only to discover later I was trying to dig through the cap of an old buried septic tank.