Thread: Trouble Staking Down Tombstones

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I'm having an awfully hard time staking down my tombstones. The ground in the front yard of our new house is terrible. I've tried everything I can think of to get a pilot hole deep enough for my tombstones; hammering a stake in the ground, a shovel, screwdriver, camping stakes, watering the ground while I try to get the stake in. But I'm only getting about 2 inches into the soil. I was hoping maybe someone has some tips I could use to get them into the ground. I'll be devastated if my cemetery is going to be an empty one this year.

Drill with and auger bit?

I asked the hubby if we had one, but sadly we don't have an angular bit. I should have figured I was going to have trouble, it took me two days to til the soil in our garden. I know we have a pretty heavy deposit of clay in the ground, that might be what i'm having a hard time breaking through. :/

yeah, i was thinking about a big spiral wood drill bit

good luck

amk

It sounds like you have some pretty rocky soil. What are you using for stakes? I use 1/4" threaded rod (aka all-thread) in 12" lengths (6" in ground, 6" in tombstone). That's all I really need to keep the wind from knocking them over. You should be able to pound 1/4" all-thread into any soil. If you hit a rock, pull it out and move it over an inch.

I wonder if you had a sod farm before your house was built. Rebar with a sledge hammer should do the trick.

if its because the soil is hard then heat the rebar with a torch and it should hammer in like butter.... get it to a decent temp where it will heat the ground that could be hard layers...

We have heavy clay as well. Rebar & a rubber mallet works most years. It's been a supper dry last few weeks so I'm thinking we will also need the sledge hammer this year.

To clarify just in case you haven't seen the talk about rebar it's used in conjunction with white pvc pipe painted & glued to the back of the tombstone. It then easily slides over the rebar and that stuff ain't goin nowhere!! (because we have 50 mph gusts I use 2 pipes glued into routered channels in the back of tombstone)

Thank you everyone. I was trying to get these little 1X2 wooden stakes in the ground and they weren't going. I convinced the hubby to let me get some more conduit, and some rebar. A couple were a little hard to get in, but they're in and look good.

Even a pic-axe would work with the soil you have. It should get you through the top layer that way. If not the drill bit would work best to get through the first layer. Every thought about C-4.............. just kidding !