I finally had a gate post sink 3 inches after a week of rain in Fort Worth | Fence Erectors - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
I finally had a gate post sink 3 inches after a week of rain in Fort Worth
Set a 6x6 cedar gate post in concrete 3 weeks back on a job over in Fort Worth, dug it 30 inches deep, packed the bottom with gravel, thought I was golden. Then we got 4 straight days of rain and the whole gate started sagging, the latch wouldn't catch, and the bottom of the gate was dragging dirt. Turned out the soil there was mostly clay and the concrete just floated up on the water instead of gripping anything. Had to dig the whole thing out with a spade, go 42 inches down this time, and redo it with a wider bell at the base. Any of you deal with clay soil pulling your posts up after a big rain, and what do you do different on the dig?