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Rant: A neighbor said 'just sink the posts, the ground will hold them' and I cringed

I was grabbing a coffee yesterday and overheard a guy telling his buddy he was going to build his own privacy fence. He said he didn't need concrete for the posts because the dirt in our area is 'good enough'. We get serious freeze-thaw cycles here in Springfield, and I've seen so many fences lean or fail from that. It takes one bad winter to push those posts right out of the ground. I wanted to say something, but it wasn't my place. How do you guys handle situations where you see a DIY project about to go really wrong? Do you ever step in?
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3 Comments
angelab62
angelab623mo ago
So you just let him walk away?
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henrybaker
henrybaker3mo ago
Had to, he wasn't worth the fight.
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the_jade
the_jade1mo agoTop Commenter
The guy I heard in line at Lowe's last week said something similar about our local clay soil. I live about 30 miles north of Springfield and our freeze line goes down about 30 inches. Sinking a post just 24 inches into dirt that turns into mud every spring is asking for trouble. I didn't say anything either because the friend he was talking to seemed like he was already trying to talk him into concrete, so maybe that's enough.
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