Heave ho

[Jeff]

Everybody in the north knows how extreme this past winter was. I wanted to post something to show it. Our southern members have probably saw where a northern member may talk about frost laws, or mentioned frost depth for building or maybe the mention of frost heave, but never really could relate.

This winter the frost was so deep here at the cabin that it pretty much threw the sheds out of the ground that we built in the mid 90's.  When I came up this spring for the first time, the latch was ripped off the shed from the building twisting so hard. The pole structure's concreted in poles were heaved up over a foot out of the ground. I should have got a picture of the quad in  the shed that first day. Within the shed, the ground have heaved up almost two feet. I was a bit shocked when I opened the door to have the back of the quad at chest level. That ground returned to near normal when the ground thawed, but the damage was done to the buildings.

Today I spent all day fixing the buildings back to a usable state. We decided to simply cut all the poles off, lower the buildings back to ground level where they would just sit on concrete patio blocks, free to rise and fall from now on if we get such frost heave again.  Here are some before photos, and the after photo.  I dug all the old concrete out and the remainder of the poles, leveled under the building the best I could, and lowered it back down.



  

  

  

  

 


 

[Ed]

Holy carp!....never seen frost heave that bad in just one winter, even over time I've never seen it like that.

Did have 2 doors here that needed a little tlc to stay latched last winter though.

Ed

[Autocar]

Maybe your next project you can built it with runners under it and just set the runners on cement blocks. We always built smaller buildings chicken coops and such on 4 x 6's then pull them to where we wanted them. I once saw where a tornado ripped a pole barn apart and what amazed me it pulled 18 foot 6 x6 's out of the ground that were four feet deep with cement on them.

[Chuck White]

Wow Jeff, that's the worse I've ever seen, what a mess!   

And to think....... I get upset when the front door sticks a little during the Winter!  :

[Magicman]

Our southern members have probably saw where a northern member may talk about frost laws, or mentioned frost depth for building or maybe the mention of frost heave, but never really could relate.   

That is an understatement for sure.  Our frost line extends to just below the grass roots, plus we do not have rocks, so it is a totally different world.  The pictures were very graphic.   

[thecfarm]

Ayup,that did some moving.    I only put cement blocks under the woman cave. Did not move. The horse run in has been in place for 8 years. I just put PT 4X4's in the ground. So far so good. But my ground is not wet where we have the house.

[isawlogs]

  Thats some moving for sure, lots of labour to get it from where it was to how it is now, good job Jeff.
It was also bad here, frost was over eight feet deep, as that is where my water line is. pump does not pump ice, Had to get it thawed, then I bought an inline heating cable that cost an arm and a leg, put that in the watr line so not to have it freeze.

[yukon cornelius]

I have never seen anything like that! how deep do house footers have to be there?

[Jeff]

I have never seen anything like that! how deep do house footers have to be there?

code here is 42"

[yukon cornelius]

That's not as deep as I expected.  i think id like a warmer climate  ;D

[clww]

Very impressive pics of Mother Nature's power!

[easymoney]

i still like the south no matter if the northern folks feel they are smarter than hillbillies.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I hate this happened Jeff but I appreciate you sharing the pictures. I have honestly never seen anything like this.
I gotta show these to my Dad.
Our freeze line in S.C. is 18 inches. Our footings have to be at least that deep per code.

But your building?....OMG....I would have never imagined something like that.

........and we thought we had a bad winter. 

[WmFritz]

i still like the south no matter if the northern folks feel they are smarter than hillbillies.

I don't feel I'm smarter then my Southern Friends;
I just enjoy the cooler weather then all that heat down there.  


If anything, our cold winters may numb my brain a bit. ;D ;D
And we've got plenty of Hillbillies up north too.  ;)

[Barney II]

Just south of you Jeff, the frost was down maybe 6 inches i.e. right at my place here in Cable.  The whole area around (10 miles or so) had very little frost.  We got that first heavy snow very early on and it kept coming keeping the frost out of the ground.  I have never seen frost do what it did to your buildings.  Makes one wonder if he should even go down that far???   Nice job of fixing up.------Don

[Jeff]

i still like the south no matter if the northern folks feel they are smarter than hillbillies.

Some of the smartest friends I have ever had come from or are from the south, but clearly there are a handful down there, and I ain't naming names, that some how have an inferiority complex that I simply do not understand.  My post certainly was not meant to belittle anyone, but to simply show something I find interesting, that I thought you might find interesting, and never have had a chance to observe.

[LeeB]

Tornados and Hurricanes pull our building out of the ground. There's usually not much left of them to fix after that. Even  so, I'll stick to the warmer climes. I'm just not a cold temp person.

[Roxie]

I've never seen frost heave like that, except for the pictures of isawlogs swimming pool.   

[red oaks lumber]

frost is some crazy stuff, every year more rocks get pushed to the surface in the fields. i fill my posts with pea gravel allowing the earth to rise and fall witthout moving the post. my water lines at the farm are buried a 9 feet underground , this spring for about 2 days slush was flowing out when i first turned the water on.the line runs under the driveway,that was real close to freeze up.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Some of the smartest friends I have ever had come from or are from the south.......

Well I appreciate that Jeff. That means a lot.  ;D

Us Southern Boys likes you too! 

[Corley5]

  In mid winter we can shovel the snow off a spot in a field and dig a hole.  There's zero frost.  Even if the ground freezes before we get snow cover it'll thaw quite fast once it's covered.  The issue is the bare ground under a roof  ;D   Not only was the winter very cold but we had an extremely wet fall that turned to a cold winter earlier than in recent history so there was lots of moisture in the ground to freeze and expand. 
  Our codes in this county call for 48" deep footers.  In 1995 MDOT did some core drilling in late February on US23 east of Cheboygan.  The frost was 29' deep in the road bed. 

[StimW]

It's all that Global Warming!

[kczbest]

Thanks for sharing this Jeff. As a home builder I am definitely glad we don't have to deal with that down here!

[Seaman]

Jeff, that is wild! I have always wanted to spend one winter where it gets really cold, just to see it. Thanks for the photos.
Frank

[isawlogs]

Jeff, that is wild! I have always wanted to spend one winter where it gets really cold, just to see it. Thanks for the photos.
Frank

You're more then welcomed to come on up and shovel all the snow your heart desires, all the cold your fingers, toes, cheeks and what ever else you think can get cold, then you can keep the fire going in the furnace till you thaw.