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Frost heave wrecked my shed slab, pier option fixed it for $140
Last spring my 10x8 shed floor tilted almost 4 inches after the ground thawed. I was set on pouring a new 4 inch slab because that's what everyone says to do, but my buddy who does fence work talked me into trying helical piers instead. Dug down 6 feet, screwed in 4 piers, and framed a treated wood base on top. Total cost was around $140 in materials plus a weekend, and it's still dead level after this winter. Anyone else deal with heaving and wish they'd skipped the concrete the first time?
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abbyc332mo ago
Wait a minute, a 4 inch slab isnt supposed to move like that unless you had water pooling under it or the ground wasnt compacted right. Helical piers sound great until you hit a rock 18 inches down or the ground shifts sideways instead of up and down. Plus that treated wood base is gonna rot out in 8 years no matter what they claim about the chemicals now. You basically traded a solid concrete problem for a wood problem thatll cost way more later. And $140 only works if you already own the tools and the piers, try pricing that out at rental rates and labor for a weekend. Concrete is heavy and permanent, wood and screws are a bandaid.
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cole_robinson2mo ago
Tbh the wood base point is the one thing I gotta push back on. Modern ACQ treated lumber is rated for ground contact for like 40 years now, not 8, so that part of the math is off. But your bigger point about the slab moving is spot on, that's a drainage or compaction issue, not a pier issue. If water is pooling under there, helical piers just hold it up while the moisture keeps working on the soil underneath. I agree that $140 is unrealistic for most people once you factor in the drive to the rental place and the fuel for the auger. I'd rather spend that weekend digging out the low spots and adding a French drain than fighting with a pier system that might not even fix the root problem.
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