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Greg from K/W
June 7th, 2011, 05:40 PM
I am going to put a fence up on part of my property. I have 3 problems though.

1 There is an old chain link fence there that is leaning over. The ground was dug out on my neighbours property and the earth pushed to his side and the fence is tipped in that direction now.

2 The reason for the chain link fence tilting over is the grade level. The earth has pushed the fence over in that direction. And it has ruined a block retaining wall that has sense been replaced.

3 There is a maple tree that is growing (My wife really likes it) and the tree has busted the new wall that was built to replace the old one. The wall was heaved up by the tree roots and cracked about 5 feet away from the tree now.

So this leads to a few questions now. I want to put up a PT fence there now. Do I forget about the wall problem and the tree and sink some 4 X 4's down 8' into the ground encased in cement inside a sono tube? The old and new fence is about 2' from the cement block wall that is broken.

Will that prevent the dirt and tree from heaving the fence up?

Or is the tree going to have to go and only put the 4 X 4's down to 4' so its down past the 3' frost level.

That is standard in my area for frost heaving. ANy other suggestions would be helpful thanks guys. I dont have a lot of experience with earth pushing or the pressure that it can put on a wall or fence posts. So any help would be appreciated.

DavidC
June 7th, 2011, 05:56 PM
I'm confused, could you post a pic?

One thing I believe is we shouldn't encase posts in concrete unless we are trying to rot the posts prematurely.

One thing I know is it's dang near impossible to stop the growth of a determined tree.

Off the cuff I would go with fence post set below frost line packed in gravel have proven dependable for us. The new/old wall/fence has me confused though.

Good Luck
Dave

Greg from K/W
June 7th, 2011, 09:28 PM
Ok I will try to post a couple to help show what is going on.

SLS-Construction
June 7th, 2011, 09:54 PM
I am with DavidC - frost line, post & gravel

Unless you fix any earth issues / tree issues you will always have problems, but quite honestly I would just plan on fixing that post every few years or so (i.e. let the wifey win without saying a word)

The only time I would over rule a tree being left is if it is to far gone or doing damage to the structure - just my .02