Frost Heave (Portland, Bangor, Orono: condo, house, yard)

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by ribbets

Those railroad tracks near the little seafood restaurant almost got me, beautiful downtown Readfield

Oh I pass those daily...compared to the tracks on Plains Rd. that feels like a freshly paved road. What a winter we're having!

At least we'll get a little bit of bragging rights for our first winter here.

[Submariner]

I have been told that wrapping a post or piling in two layers of trash-bag before setting it into the ground, may have an effect on minimizing how much it heaves up out of the ground.

[maine4.us]

Try riding a motorcycle on a dirt road with heave. It is a religious experience. If you don't have religion and you survive, you will have it. BTW, heave is not just common to the NE, we have it in Tennessee also. We call it crunch. You walk, you crunch on the ground, you drive, and you hold on for dear life.

[McMar]

Maine4, I suppose I just haven't noticed it in TN. I guess it just takes many more years to heave a fence post up or create paved road problems. I always though those huge bumps in unpaved roads were from rain runoff/erosion. Makes sense that it's frost heave as well.

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I have been told that wrapping a post or piling in two layers of trash-bag before setting it into the ground, may have an effect on minimizing how much it heaves up out of the ground.

hmmm...we're putting in a little wooden fence around our patio and I'm thinking about trying this. Can't hurt right? Thanks for the tip Forest.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by CapeCodder

hmmm...we're putting in a little wooden fence around our patio and I'm thinking about trying this. Can't hurt right? Thanks for the tip Forest.

I have seen it recommended a lot for doing a 'pole-barn' type of structure.

If you are going to drop each pole into concrete, instead of filling a hole with loose concrete, use a round cardboard form [called a sonotube] to form the concrete and wrap it in multiple layers of trash bags. Then once you have the rows of poles standing up, you can do rafters, walls and seal it in.

[Maineah]

I put in a fence for a turkey pen setting it in 6 inches of concrete just below the ground in an effort to keep coyotes at bay. It kept the coyotes out but the frost heaved that concrete right out of the ground after the first winter. I reburied it every spring and it lasted as long as I needed it to. I should have gone deeper buy there was no way I was going to set fence below thw frost line.

[maine4.us]

Question: How deep is the frost line? Also, if the heave can do that to highways, what about concrete foundations of houses? How deep does a Maine foundation have to be?

[AustinB]

The frost line varies depending on where you are in the state. Along the coast, 3 1/2- 4 feet. Inland it is deeper.
A maine foundation has standard sizes. The usual form is 8 feet tall. They don't have to fill it all the way to the top. Head room in a basement is a good thing.

Up at UMO, they once poured a large concrete block to use as a stable point of reference for one of the ballfields. When they came back and did some checking a couple of years later, they found that the block of concrete(4' x 4' or so) had heaved. they couldn't use it for the bench mark afterall. This was mentioned by Dick Hill on Hot and Cold.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by maine4.us

Question: How deep is the frost line? Also, if the heave can do that to highways, what about concrete foundations of houses? How deep does a Maine foundation have to be?

I was told that Penobscot code requires four feet to get under the frost line.

Our site-work contractors insisted that we place freshwater pipes at below four feet and cover them with styrofoam.