Weight restrictions and picking a move date (Sandpoint: real estate market, to rent)

[Cnynrat]

We’re going to be moving to Sagle next year. We’re currently thinking about sometime in spring/early summer. I know only a little about the weight restrictions that are imposed during the spring thaw, and I’m trying to understand how we should factor that into our planning.

So, some questions:

1. When are the weight restrictions typically lifted? I know they were lifted county wide on May 12th this year, but it was a warm winter. I realize it’s going to vary from year to year, but some good estimates based on the experience of longtime residents would be helpful. I'd like to choose a date that is late enough that there is little chance of us running into an issue with weight limits.

2. Looking at the ordinance, it appears that when the weight restrictions are in effect they impose a speed restriction on vehicles over a certain weight. Do they also completely restrict travel on certain roads for vehicles above a certain weight?

Thanks,
Dave

[banjomike]

Hi, Dave…
The weight restrictions were written to help keep rural pavement from breaking up in the springtime. Spring is a damaging time for farm roads, as pavement undergoes frost heaving problems at the same time the roads are being heavily used for spring farm work. That's why both the weight and speed are restricted. The restrictions are intended to most apply to farm trucks and semi tractors. The heavier they are and the faster they go, the quicker the cracks and potholes from frost heaving open up and become big problems. Logging and mining paved roads are the same as farm roads.

It's the gross weight of vehicle and load that counts. The restrictions are lifted once the ground is frost free and is not longer moist under the roadways. Even after the restrictions are lifted, many county roads still have lower speed limits than state/fed highways. Enforcement, in my experience, is pretty lax except for the roads that are feeders- the roads that provide access to many little side roads.

You can always tell when a county is enforcing the restrictions; the roads that are enforced will have hot patches on them. The roads that aren't enforced will have spots where the pavement has completely failed and it's down to gravel. Counties with bigger road budgets usually have much better roads than counties that don't have much revenue available for road repair.

I don't know of any restrictions on unpaved roads, but there may be some; I think it's up to individual counties with all the road restrictions. The counties are responsible for roadway upkeep on roads that lie within them that aren't state or federal highways.

But graveled dirt roads have their own way of restriction; when trucks are too heavy and gong too fast, washboarding immediately starts, and the faster a truck passes over washboarding, the rougher the ride gets. Once begun, the washboarding steadily becomes worse. Top speed on severe washboarding is only about 20 mph max, and often, that's a real beating for vehicle and driver at that speed.
The only way washboarding stops is when the county grades, compacts and re-gravels the roadway. Sometimes there is no compaction- the graders go out followed by gravel spreaders and that's all the road gets. it all depends on where the rollers are needed most, and they're always used on the paved roads undergoing major repair.

Most counties only respond to the most heavily used dirt roads. A lot of the secondary dirt roads that are county property will be ignored far longer, sometimes for years at a time. It all depends on how bad it gets and how loud the residents holler.

[Disciple1975]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

We’re going to be moving to Sagle next year. We’re currently thinking about sometime in spring/early summer. I know only a little about the weight restrictions that are imposed during the spring thaw, and I’m trying to understand how we should factor that into our planning.

So, some questions:

1. When are the weight restrictions typically lifted? I know they were lifted county wide on May 12th this year, but it was a warm winter. I realize it’s going to vary from year to year, but some good estimates based on the experience of longtime residents would be helpful. I'd like to choose a date that is late enough that there is little chance of us running into an issue with weight limits.

2. Looking at the ordinance, it appears that when the weight restrictions are in effect they impose a speed restriction on vehicles over a certain weight. Do they also completely restrict travel on certain roads for vehicles above a certain weight?

Thanks,
Dave

I thought you already lived in Sagle, Dave...near Shepherd Lake.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by Disciple1975

I thought you already lived in Sagle, Dave...near Shepherd Lake.

No, must be someone else here. We bought our house in Sagle a couple years ago, but have been waiting for my retirement before we move up. Our place is further east in Sagle near Gamlin Lake.

I'd still be interested in anyone's best estimate of when these restrictions are typically lifted in the spring.

Thx,

Dave

[banjomike]

Contact the courthouse, Dave. They will tell you when the restrictions are lifted.

[ScottStielow]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

No, must be someone else here. We bought our house in Sagle a couple years ago, but have been waiting for my retirement before we move up. Our place is further east in Sagle near Gamlin Lake.

I'd still be interested in anyone's best estimate of when these restrictions are typically lifted in the spring.

Thx,

Dave

Hi Dave who watched your home, you bought, two years ago. Just curious on how you went about that.
Thank you,
Scott

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by ScottStielow

Hi Dave who watched your home, you bought, two years ago. Just curious on how you went about that.
Thank you,
Scott

Sort of a long story, but it turned out the people we bought the house from had rented the home a month before we first looked at it. It had been on the market for a while, and they were headed into fall, so I think their realtor convinced them they should think about renting since they were headed into the slow season for real estate. We met the tenants when we looked at the house, and they told us they planned to rent for a few years before buying a place, so it was a good situation for both of us.

We had gone through the consideration of how would be deal with a vacant home before we embarked on the process of looking for a home. I think most of the local property management companies in the area offer home monitoring services where you can pay them to go out to your home and check on it periodically. Depending on how much you want to spend they'll go out monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. The cost is somewhat dependent on where your home is located since they want to be paid for their travel time, but generally speaking we got estimates in the $250-350/month range for weekly visits. Our house is about a half hour drive from Sandpoint. They also will take care of snow removal, cutting the lawn, etc. for an additional fee.

Had the house been vacant we also would have put in an alarm system including freeze and water sensors. Those systems will also typically give you an indication that power is out at the house.

Another solution would be to rely on a neighbor you trusted, but we didn't know anybody at the time being completely new to the area.

Dave

[ScottStielow]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

Sort of a long story, but it turned out the people we bought the house from had rented the home a month before we first looked at it. It had been on the market for a while, and they were headed into fall, so I think their realtor convinced them they should think about renting since they were headed into the slow season for real estate. We met the tenants when we looked at the house, and they told us they planned to rent for a few years before buying a place, so it was a good situation for both of us.

We had gone through the consideration of how would be deal with a vacant home before we embarked on the process of looking for a home. I think most of the local property management companies in the area offer home monitoring services where you can pay them to go out to your home and check on it periodically. Depending on how much you want to spend they'll go out monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. The cost is somewhat dependent on where your home is located since they want to be paid for their travel time, but generally speaking we got estimates in the $250-350/month range for weekly visits. Our house is about a half hour drive from Sandpoint. They also will take care of snow removal, cutting the lawn, etc. for an additional fee.

Had the house been vacant we also would have put in an alarm system including freeze and water sensors. Those systems will also typically give you an indication that power is out at the house.

Another solution would be to rely on a neighbor you trusted, but we didn't know anybody at the time being completely new to the area.

Dave

Thank you Dave.
I will have to do something simular. When i start to look up there in Idaho before Retirement. I want to buy a place before arriving.
Thank you for the information.
Scott

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by ScottStielow

Thank you Dave.
I will have to do something simular. When i start to look up there in Idaho before Retirement. I want to buy a place before arriving.
Thank you for the information.
Scott

That's exactly the situation we were in. We'd been following the NID real estate market for a while, and recognized it's a pretty thin market. At any given time there are only a small number of homes on the market the would meet our objective criteria such as size, # of bedrooms/bathrooms, size of the property, price, etc. Then subjective criteria would eliminate a number of them (like, oooh, that one is ugly), leaving an even smaller set to choose from. We figured we could be looking for a while to find our forever home, so we decided to start early to be sure we had something when the time came to move.

Back to my original question, anybody have any thoughts about the typical time frame when weight restrictions are lifted in the spring?

Dave

[lakerat]

I believe Bonner county Road and Bridge would probably have the info you need, (208) 255-5681.