sslivesteam  

Re: posts and frost heave

Jim Stapleton
Tue, 04 Jan 2005 18:00:14 -0800

At 07:40 PM 01/04/2005 -0600, you wrote:
>At 07:58 PM 1/4/05 -0500, you wrote:
>>I am located in the Harrisburg, PA,
>>I plan on digging post holes about a foot and a half deep, - Joe
>
>Joe,
>          MY frostline is 18" so yours will be more, as much as 36".  Your
>local building codes office will be able to tell what the local minimum
>recommended building frostline is.  
>>>SNIP
 I'm not saying you absolutely must drill
>to Oz with this but you KNOW that if my building frostline is at 18" then
>yours should be somewhat deeper than that.
>
>Harry Wade
>Nashville TN
=========
Joe / Harry
When I replaced all the single 4x4 posts on the IE&W with pairs I went down
18-20 inches.  I backfilled with Sakrette.  On the first layout we set the
posts at 24-30" and backfilled with earth.  This was not stable enough when
someone leaned on the track.  I have seen no frost heave or settling in the
four years since I did the reconstruction.

Jim Stapleton
Purcellville -- in northernmost VA