The level I set with shims came back to bite me in St. Albert

I put up a fence line last spring and used those little plastic shims to level the posts before pouring concrete. Looked perfect on day one, but by August the gate was dragging like crazy. Turns out the ground shifted and my 3/4 inch gaps on the bottom rail were way too tight, I shoulda left breathing room for frost heave. Anyone else in the city deal with this after a wet season, or am I just cursed with clay soil?

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angela_grant2mo ago

Clay soil here in St. Albert is absolutely brutal for fence work, it moves way more than people think after a wet spring. That 3/4 gap sounds fine on paper but frost heave does not care about your level, it just pushes whatever it wants. Next time try setting posts a bit proud of the rail so the gate has room to swing even when the ground gets funky, way less headache down the road.

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lucashart2mo ago

Frost heave does not care about your level" is the truest thing I've read all week. I've watched perfectly level gates turn into crooked messes after one bad winter here. That proud post trick is the move, I've started doing it on every job now. Takes ten extra minutes but saves you from going back in April to rehang the whole thing. People always overthink the gap measurements when the ground is just gonna do whatever it wants anyway.

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