Warning: That job on a muddy slope near Pittsburgh almost cost me my crew

We were putting up a 6 foot privacy fence on a steep hill in Oakmont last fall. Ground was soaked from three days of rain. I figured we'd just set the posts deeper and call it good. First big gust of wind and two sections just folded over like paper. Turns out the soil was so loose the concrete couldn't grab. We had to pull everything out and dig down 4 feet to hit solid clay. Now I always check soil composition before I even quote a sloping job. Has anyone else run into this with wet ground on a hillside?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_blair12d ago

Man oh man does this bring back a story. Buddy of mine tried to do a similar fence job on a hill in Wexford. He skipped the soil test too. Three weeks later the whole thing was leaning like the Tower of Pisa. Had to rent a mini excavator and dig down almost 5 feet before they hit anything solid. The concrete just sat in that wet mud like soup. He ended up having to pour footers with those big helical piers just to get it stable. Cost him an extra two grand and a full weekend of his crew's time.

evan29512d ago

@the_blair I hear that, reminds me of a time my auger hit a buried boulder and we had to start over.