I’m retarded: setting a floating fence post

[[486]]

Well, what do you do when you need to set a post in disturbed soil?

What do you do when the native fill isn't suitable?


Concrete adds surface area and weight. It's kinda the easiest way of doing things for most people.

end the concrete a foot or more below the surface, so that dirt will pack in atop to seal the post off from oxygen

 

[[memphis]]

I am sure glad I didn’t concrete this second post in place. The 4” pvc is tied to a 12” pvc catch basin pipe.

My Lot is angled backwards. The street is higher than my backyard by about 5ft but the catch basin is at the rear of my yard and drains toward the street under my driveway. No way the 12” pipe is clogged

The water you see inside the pvc is about 2ft down from ground level. When the sump pump cycles water almost breached the top of the 4” PVC and drops down quickly but at the same time pools where my fence post is and has washed away the majority of the 1/4 chip I packed in there

So does this sound like I have a partial clog and a leaking pipe?

The good news is the sump pit is not filling back up instantly and continuously dumping the water outside. It is cycling about every 15 minutes

I think this was a previous unknown problem and I just didn’t see the issue because the concrete was covering it up. I didn’t expose any of the PVC pipe using a manual post hole digger when I set this post and I definitely didn’t hit it

I feel like the pipe was leaking and this is what caused my patio to heave in the winter as ground water leached two feet below grade and froze

Digging is definitely in my future 🤦‍♂️

 

[Crimsen]

Almost certainly the issue. Heaving is from freezing water in the ground. If it was well saturated and froze, its going to expand a bunch.


Call a plumber with a drain cam and have him inspect the run. If water is leaving the pipe, its either due to a break, or maybe an unglued/ sealed joint. Either way you will need to solve the water issue to solve your heaving issue.

 

[[memphis]]

Almost certainly the issue. Heaving is from freezing water in the ground. If it was well saturated and froze, its going to expand a bunch.


Call a plumber with a drain cam and have him inspect the run. If water is leaving the pipe, its either due to a break, or maybe an unglued/ sealed joint. Either way you will need to solve the water issue to solve your heaving issue.

My current solution 😂
I am going to run to HD. Buy a length of 2” abs and another elbow so I can shoot it out onto the driveway like I have the eavestrough downspout at the moment

The driveway slopes towards the neighbours so anything will help at this point because the rain is not letting up

 

[Opiebennett]

I'd be concerned that you have ground water on the surface next to your house above the window level. Seems like your foundation drain isn't draining.

 

[[memphis]]

I'd be concerned that you have ground water on the surface next to your house above the window level. Seems like your foundation drain isn't draining.

That ground water is due to the break in the 4” pvc. Every time the sump fires it enters the tube and then immediately the water starts coming out of the ground around the pipe and rinse and repeat. I was dumping water at the street last night from the sump pit but more heavy rain started so I had to improvise

Hasn’t rained all morning but the pump is still firing water out away from the house and down the driveway. I’m assuming the 4” pipe cracked and silt has got into the pipe and plugged it because there is an elbow in there somewhere to connect to the 12” pvc going to the street.

I hope the footing drain isn’t on the verge of being plugged. The water coming in this morning is clean and not murky mud water now

I guess I’m digging this weekend

 

[[memphis]]

I must have a significant break or the pipe detached. It’s stuffed solid

 

[Dead Pool]

Drilling through buried concrete or rocks is a bitch. I also have playschool stuff. Set two posts for a clothesline the missus wanted last week. My yard is deceivingly sand, but it turns into rock about a foot down. Took me drill extension, a couple of fabricobbled adaptors, and a concrete drill bit and just set to drilling holes in the rock, then busted it up with a long crowbar. Finally got there, but if I was to do any real work, I'd want to upsize my tooling.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Drilling through buried concrete or rocks is a bitch. I also have playschool stuff. Set two posts for a clothesline the missus wanted last week. My yard is deceivingly sand, but it turns into rock about a foot down. Took me drill extension, a couple of fabricobbled adaptors, and a concrete drill bit and just set to drilling holes in the rock, then busted it up with a long crowbar. Finally got there, but if I was to do any real work, I'd want to upsize my tooling.

Man, that's fucking awesome.

Sure, you gotta buy big boy tools for drilling but when it comes to anchoring shit you've got it real easy.

 

[[memphis]]

I managed to suck up a lot of the debris with the shop vac. The pipe pulled away about an inch and I suspect it’s been that way for a while.

When I painted the top of the pipe I went right down to the concrete slab and even last summer there was about an inch of green showing from where I stopped painting.

I suspect when I went to install the metal fence post, I removed some clay that was surrounding the pipe that was providing a natural seal. I disturbed it and the 1/4 chip gravel I stuffed in the post hole let go and washed itself out.

I am very glad I did not concrete that post in place now as it is within inches of the elbow connection and would have sucked to dig around.

I am wondering if I should silicone seal the outside of the pipe with RTV? The seal is slightly torn. I am going to dig a bit more and wrap it in landscape fabric too

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

That's probably the end of the pipe.

Also, as I understand it, you need a continuous source of water to have frost heave (if just the water in the dirt freezes, it doesn't expand enough to cause much issue, the issue arises when it freezes then more water arrives and freezes and so on).

 

[[memphis]]

That's probably the end of the pipe.

Also, as I understand it, you need a continuous source of water to have frost heave (if just the water in the dirt freezes, it doesn't expand enough to cause much issue, the issue arises when it freezes then more water arrives and freezes and so on).

I have re-installed the vertical pipe. Added a bit of silicone Rtv to the outside of the flange since the seal was slightly torn. It’s not going to do much but the pipe doesn’t spin around in the elbow at least.

After the elbow it travels about 6-7ft to the 12” main. I was able to get the shop vac hose down there most of the way and flush it out with water (I could hear it draining into the catch basin in the rear corner of my lot)

I wrapped the pipe in landscape fabric so the frost can’t grab it as easily and filled the first 1/2 the hole with clean washed gravel.

When I set the first floating fence post which is 8ft from this location I was hitting water at 4ft. The water table is crazy high here, I never water my back lawn and while it’s not soggy it’s always green.

Edit: 30mm of rain is calling this week. We will see how my repair goes. It’s better than it was… the 4” PCV is 4” lower than was and confirmed to be attached to that elbow 😆

 

[[memphis]]

Some updates since I’m doing home repair instead of building and repairing my two jeeps…

Reset the second fence post in a sono tube since I had to dig out the back of the house to fix that 4” PVC pipe.

I also trenched to run a separate line to dump my eavestrough as far as I could away from the house. I could have tied it into the sump pump drain but if that pipe ever heaves again I wanted the option to quickly swap the house outlet to dump into this new drain line which will carry the water +30ft away from the house.

 

[[memphis]]

Buried two conduit lines, one to power the gazebo. Ran 3/4” so I can easily pull 12 awg

For the shipping container/potential garage site I ran 1.25”

For trenching I bought a field hoe from Adler Axes in Germany. $22 shipping but it was so worth it and made trenching super easy

Buried my 4” PCV drain with 1/2” pex ran to the back which is tied in with my conduit trench on Friday. Turtle progress but getting there!

It’s so hard working, doing Reno work and juggling kids

 

[shortbus4x4]

Don't you just take the fence post and throw it in water? Hint, wooden fence posts float. Others? Depends.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

It’s so hard working, doing Reno work and juggling kids

Cry me a river!

Buck up and quit your fawkin whining. That's life, and looks like you've got a darn good one.

House AND young kids? You're the envy of 99.9% of the population.



Put those little bastards to work!

 

[shortbus4x4]

Put those little bastards to work!

Yep, my dad told me when I was 5 or 6, "no work, no eat". And he put me to work doing simple jobs like straightening and sorting old nails at that age.

 

[[memphis]]

Cry me a river!

Buck up and quit your fawkin whining. That's life, and looks like you've got a darn good one.

House AND young kids? You're the envy of 99.9% of the population.



Put those little bastards to work!

The 2y/o did a great job throwing rocks back in the trench I was trying to dig

I just meant this has been a +3 month project with no end in sight with family delays

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

The 2y/o did a great job throwing rocks back in the trench I was trying to dig

I just meant this has been a +3 month project with no end in sight with family delays

Here's a pic of my little guy helping me with my truck.

I've now had that truck 20 years, and last year (in the fall) I finally got to drive it on the road a couple times.

Life's full of delays (no garage, too poor, kids in the way, too old). I don't think of them as delays anymore. I miss those days with the little guy. Just bought him size 13 steel shoes for his first job.

...I'm just giving you shit for fun! Your work looks good man.

 

[[memphis]]

Got water out back now! I feel like I lost a bit of pressure and will likely swap out this hose for something smaller ID.

House is 1/2” copper
Outside hose is 1/2” Gardena (50ft)
Gardena connection to 1/2” Pex B (about 45ft underground) with 27” copper stubs because I had it kicking around.

The hose you see in the photo is a 5/8” hose also 50ft but it still shoots a good 20-25ft

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Got water out back now! I feel like I lost a bit of pressure and will likely swap out this hose for something smaller ID.

House is 1/2” copper
Outside hose is 1/2” Gardena (50ft)
Gardena connection to 1/2” Pex B (about 45ft underground) with 27” copper stubs because I had it kicking around.

The hose you see in the photo is a 5/8” hose also 50ft but it still shoots a good 20-25ft

You're not gonna get more pressure with a smaller hose.