Backyard dig with a rented skid-steer taught me a quick trick

I was digging a trench for a new patio at home and rented a small skid-steer. Found that marking the depth on the bucket with tape saved me from over-digging and saved time. Does anyone else use simple markers like that on smaller equipment for home jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

riveradams2d ago

In a contractor group on Facebook, a guy posted about using bright zip ties on his auger bit. He threaded them through the spiral part to mark depth intervals. Said it was way more visible than tape when covered in mud. He even used different colors for different depths, which helped his crew know when to stop without yelling over the engine noise.

jessep162d ago

That color coding for depths is such a simple but good idea. My friend worked on a site where they used marked tape on their bits, but it always wore off too fast. One day his crew lead saw the zip tie trick online and tried it with just white ties. It worked okay, but they kept mixing up the depths because everything looked the same. Hearing about using different colors like that, it totally makes sense and would have fixed their problem.

adam_dixon912d ago

We switched to colored ties... no more guesswork for depths, @jessep16.