How to pump mud out of a hole?

[Nittus]

Me again. I had an issue with water getting into my post holes and filling up. I was recommended using a submersible pump, which worked fine to remove the water, however something i didn't account for was the approximately 600mm of very sloppy mud that found its way into the holes.

The holes are 450x1500 deep, and using a post hole shovel is next to useless as the mud has the consistency of melted ice cream. A friend of mine has a 60 litre vacuum separator tank that he said i could borrow,  i just need to supply my own vacuum. Unfortunately our dyson will not be allowed to assist me in this job, so i need to buy a shop vac that will have the suction power to suck the mud into the separator.

What would be a good shop vac for the job?

Thanks in advance 

[Dave-1]

Evening @Nittus 

Clay is a pain, I dont know of any vacs that will suck up that density (havnt tried I admit but have looked at the specs of them as wanted one for work.

Hard yakka is about all I can suggest 😕 maybe do the amount of holes you can concrete in a day and leave the others until you have time?

Dave

[Nittus]

I ended up stirring up the mud with a shovel and dropping the submersible pump in before it could settle, i pumped out a heap of water and just used my post hole shovel to grab the rest. I need to repeat this 7 times, but I'm concreting in the posts as i go. Filled a wheelbarrow with slop.

 

 

[JacobZ]

Hi @Nittus,

That sounds like a good technique to speed up the process.

I feel your pain as I've had to clean out many post and pier holes in my time.

I hope the technique continues to work for the remaining holes.

Good luck.

Jacob

[Dave-1]

Morning @Nittus 

Cheering! and wise filling with concrete as you went  

Dave