Frost heaves. Being from the sun belt, I never knew of them until

[raccoon]

a few years ago I saw something about them on the Internet.

I was asking a friend from Indiana about them and she seemed clueless.
Do they only happen in extremely cold places?

[citood]

1. I grew up in the south and never heard of them

until I visited family in MN as a kid. My uncle was a farmer and was talking about his annual spring task of collecting all the new rocks in his field, to prevent damage to his plow.

Frost heaving can happen about anywhere it gets below freezing, and certainly can happen in Indiana - the building code requirement on footing depths is usually a good indicator of how deep in the ground frost can go in a locality.

Here in Kansas, I staked the bottom of a chicken wire fence to the ground to stop rabbits...and in no time the frost had pushed the stakes up several inches.

[panader0]

6. Southern Arizona builder here---the frost line is about 2 inches.

But I have worked in colder climes where the frost line was over a foot.
I imagine in some places it's more than double that.

[citood]

7. I've designed water lines in North Dakota

And was surprised that their requirement is for the line to be 8 feet deep, to ensure being below frost.

[pipi_k]

10. Rocks from the depths of hell

That's what happens at my house.

Dig up rocks and small boulders...ground is clear of stones.


Next summer it's full of rocks and boulders again. Like they've been breeding all winter.

[MineralMan]

12. Build something with them.

[PearliePoo2]

2. Frost heaving! The forest soil path to my cabin in the woods has frost heave right now!

Ample moisture in the ground followed by freezing temps is the recipe as far as I know.

[2naSalit]

3. Since they require freezing temperatures

yeah, they require at least as much cold as will freeze the ground and the water in it. It is the expansion of the frozen water in the soil that creates the distortion in the pavement on top of it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving

[MineralMan]

4. Pretty common here in Minnesota.

There's a chain link fence near my house that has seen all of its posts and their concrete pushed up over 10" over the years. It's pretty funny looking, with chunks of what was buried concrete up above the ground.

[shraby]

8. That's why we put the posts in our chain link fence in bell shaped concrete.

The shape helps keep the posts from popping up.

[MineralMan]

11. Yup. That's what I did, too.

A little more work, but good for years to come.

[pangaia]

5. Of course it happens in extremely cold places..

Depending of course on what you call extreme.


How can there be frost if there is not cold?

Actually frost is the wrong word,
It should be something like freeze heaves.

Right now where I am it is 14 F.. not so bad..

[Greybnk48]

9. Common in N.E. Wisconsin

when it gets very cold. They were so bad about two years ago, a couple of times the loud bangs startled us.