Frost depth

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phideaux

Old fashioned
Neighbor
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Joined
Nov 24, 2017
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19,538
Location
West Ky
Haven;t heard it mentioned much,
But frost depth is, or should always be, a concern for any construction we may face.
I've been told , the deeper the frost the more the ground tends to heave/move.
Not even mentioning the freeze line for buried lines.

I lived in WI, for 25 years and have seen the frost line in the ground , as deep as 5 feet.

Now , here in KY, I have never seen more than 2 " of frost in the ground.

I'm wondering, what it's like in other parts of the country,
TX, FL, AL AK, GA
MI, TN, OK, NM,

wherever your at.


Jim
 
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Here the frost depth is only two feet. Gas and electric is buried to 18" and the foundations I had poured for my shop and garage are 3 feet. I usually exceed any building code by at least 50%. I've never heard anyone complain about something being built too strong or lasting too long.
 
Speaking of white fluffy stuff, we are getting our first real snow today. We may only get a half inch or so but it wasn't supposed to snow at all for the rest of this week. It's not a problem the cars are ready and the winter tires are in place.
 
Our frost levels are about 4 to 5 thousand foot elevation. Just another dig at all you white fluffy stuff folks. Us wonderful desert folks do not have that problem. :thumbs up:
We just walk outside and scuff up the dirt to get past the frost line.
 
They say it ranges from 4'-6' here.

I wonder if they have frost depth measurements in New Jersey? Wouldn't you just hit bodies after 2 feet? :D
Same here in NH. Im not sure NJ even gets frost, i think all the chemicals dumped on the group there prevent the frost. Sorry for dumping on NJ but of all the states i have been to NJ is the nastiest!
 
Same here in NH. Im not sure NJ even gets frost, i think all the chemicals dumped on the group there prevent the frost. Sorry for dumping on NJ but of all the states i have been to NJ is the nastiest!
Apparently you have not been to DC and the capitol buildings.... :eyeballs:
 
Wait... You have dirt? I though it was all sand, cacti and trash that blew North from Mexico? :p
Dirt, sand... close enough. :rolleyes:The wind blows from the west during the summer and from the east/north east during the winter. It doesn't blow in from the south so the only trash we get from Mexico is what was carried up and abandoned. And yes we have lots of cactus and mesquite.:angie:
 
In Jan 2009 we had 2" of ice..

My County was the epicenter of the storm.
At 2 am that morning, I stepped outside, and it sounded like a shooting range of auto 12ga shotguns, trees and limbs snapping.

Never forget that .


Jim

Unbelievable , the destruction that caused...
still today trees are dying.
 
Years ago a new library was going to be built in town.
The tore down the old building and found they could not dig a trench.
The ground was frozen.
If I remember correctly it was frozen to about 30 feet deep.
The old building was a cold storage plant that had been there for a lot of years.
They had to bring in a water pump system from Alaska to thaw it out.
 
Years ago a new library was going to be built in town.
The tore down the old building and found they could not dig a trench.
The ground was frozen.
If I remember correctly it was frozen to about 30 feet deep.
The old building was a cold storage plant that had been there for a lot of years.
They had to bring in a water pump system from Alaska to thaw it out.
How did that work?
 
Haven;t heard it mentioned much,
But frost depth is, or should always be, a concern for any construction we may face.
I've been told , the deeper the frost the more the ground tends to heave/move.
Not even mentioning the freeze line for buried lines.

I lived in WI, for 25 years and have seen the frost line in the ground , as deep as 5 feet.

Now , here in KY, I have never seen more than 2 " of frost in the ground.

I'm wondering, what it's like in other parts of the country,
TX, FL, AL AK, GA
MI, TN, OK, NM,

wherever your at.


Jim
Florida checking in...NO frost line here. Never stays long enough to make the dirt hard....
 
The current house frost line goes down two to three feet. The last house thawed down two to three feet. The permafrost went down 40' to 400' depending on the area of town.

In the summer people would take a scrap of plywood or rigid foam to their fish camp. They would dig a hole a foot or three down, lay their food on the ice, and lay the board over the hole for a lid. As the permafrost thawed they would recharge their refrigerator by scraping off a few more inches of moss out of the hole.
 
The current house frost line goes down two to three feet. The last house thawed down two to three feet. The permafrost went down 40' to 400' depending on the area of town.

In the summer people would take a scrap of plywood or rigid foam to their fish camp. They would dig a hole a foot or three down, lay their food on the ice, and lay the board over the hole for a lid. As the permafrost thawed they would recharge their refrigerator by scraping off a few more inches of moss out of the hole.
That's just awesome, all of it!
 
Whether it is frozen 40' or 400' it all looks the same. The ground is mostly moss and lichen and grows about a quarter of an inch a year. I had one scrawny evergreen "tree" on my property that about came up to my waist. I had that place for over 25 years. I called it my national forest, there aren't many trees around there.
 

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