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Pro tip: I stopped setting posts in concrete after reading a soil report from Fort Worth
I used to dump a full bag of quikrete around each post without even thinking about it, and last spring a client in Fort Worth handed me a soil report showing his ground was 60 percent sand down past 3 feet. I figured the concrete would hold it fine, but he pushed back and I dug into the numbers on his lot, and sure enough sandy soil drains so fast the mix cures weak and the post starts to lean inside 18 months. I switched that whole run to a dry pack mix with gravel at the base and tamped it in wet, and those 14 posts have not budged through two summers and one hard freeze. The part that got me was pulling up his neighbor's old fence and seeing a post foot that had basically turned to loose grit after 4 years. Now I ask about soil before I quote, which feels like overkill some days but has already saved me a callback. What are you all doing on sandy lots, dry pack or do you still go straight concrete?
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