The day my post hole digger got stuck on a pipe underground

Was putting up a privacy fence near my garage in Phoenix last Tuesday, and my post hole digger hit something solid about 18 inches down... turned out to be an old irrigation pipe from the 70s nobody told me about. Took me an hour with a shovel and a hacksaw to dig it out and cap it off. Has anyone else ran into random junk buried where you least expect it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason5242d ago

Hold up, I'm gonna play the other side here. Calling it "random junk" is kinda dismissive when that pipe was probably installed for a reason, like keeping your yard from turning into a dust bowl. An hour of digging in Phoenix sun sounds rough but honestly that's a pretty quick fix compared to what could've happened if you'd just ripped through it with a power auger. Those old irrigation lines are often still tied into the main system somewhere and capping one without checking if it's live can cause pressure issues or flooding later. Plus a hacksaw on copper? That's light work compared to hitting rebar or an old gas line that's been abandoned but still has fittings. You got lucky it was just a pipe and not something that would've cost you a plumber's visit.

ellis.susan3d ago

That Phoenix heat makes everything worse too. An hour with a shovel and hacksaw? Those old pipes are usually just copper or PVC, not like you hit a gas main or anything serious.