Overheard a concrete guy say my post holes were too shallow

I was grabbing supplies at the local lumber yard in Springfield and heard this old concrete foreman tell his apprentice that most fence guys don't go deep enough. He said 36 inches for a 6 foot panel is the bare minimum if you want it to survive a freeze-thaw cycle. It hit me hard because I've been doing 24 inches for years now and I've had a few leaners. Are any of you running into frost heave issues with shallow holes?

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2 Comments

river_rivera455mo ago

Buddy of mine lost three posts last winter.

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chen.james5mo ago

Three posts in one winter man that hurts just reading it. I lost one post back in '21 and spent two hours digging it out with my bare hands like some kind of idiot archeologist. My neighbor drove by laughing his head off because I was just a guy in a puffer jacket wrestling with a block of ice and twisted metal. Now I mark my posts in the fall with those bright orange stakes so I can find them again if they disappear. Still probably gonna lose another one this year knowing my luck though.

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