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Watch out for guys who say you don't need concrete for gate posts
An old fence crew lead told me I could skip concrete on gate posts if I just tamped the dirt hard enough. Took me three tries over two weeks before that 12 foot gate sagged so bad the latch wouldn't catch. Had to dig out a 3 foot deep hole in Austin clay and set it with 80 pounds of Quikrete anyway. Has anyone else had a gate fail because of bad advice like this?
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grace8925d ago
...and here's the thing, after that first fail you'd think twice, right? But that fence crew lead probably had that confident, knows-it-all tone that makes you doubt your own gut. Plus you're probably thinking, "Well, he's done this a hundred times, maybe I just didn't tamp hard enough." So you go back, tamp harder, maybe even wet the dirt a little. Then the gate sags again and you're out there with a level at 10 PM swearing at a piece of wood. By the third time you're just stubbornly hoping the laws of physics will bend for you. That Austin clay is no joke either, it moves like it's alive when it gets wet. Should have just poured the concrete from the start and saved yourself two weekends and a backache.
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claire_hart5325d ago
Took you three tries before you finally listened to your gut. What made you keep going back to tamping after the first fail?
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