s219
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,608
- Location
- Virginia USA
- Tractor
- Kubota L3200, Deere X380, Kubota RTV-X
So I noticed last week that my barn slider doors were dragging on the concrete skirt in front of the barn after we got a real cold snap. So I adjusted them up a little. Then it got colder and the doors were pretty much resting on the skirt and wouldn't budge, so I had to adjust them up again. Total adjustment probably 3/16", but I don't have a whole lot more vertical adjustment left if this ever happens in the future (I'd need to pull the doors and rip some wood off the bottom wear strip).
When I lived up north as a kid, we generally took extra precautions for frost (extra walls, barriers, etc). But down here in VA, while footings are down at least 12" to be below the frost line, slabs just sit on top with no extra precautions. Clearly, frost must have lifted my skirt slab a little, given the historical/abnormal cold. For those of you who have dealt with this before, will the slab settle back down when the weather warms up? Are there any steps I can take to prevent this in the future? I'd be inclined to dig down around the edges of the skirt and put in a frost wall or barrier (could be as simple as foam I suppose), but that isn't going to do anything for cold coming down from above the skirt, or for that matter, from the adjacent barn slab (barn is unheated). Might prevent moisture from getting right under the skirt slab though.
As of yesterday (when I made the final adjustment) it got up into the mid 40s and the problem persisted. But I noticed that some parts of the ground under the snow pack are still frozen solid, so I imagine it will take more than a brief warmup to thaw frost under a slab. Odd to see frozen ground here and mud there -- it's like spring skiing in Vermont in the old days....
By the way, I can't say for sure that frost lifted the skirt since I don't have any "before" measurements written down. I suppose it's entirely possible some other part of the barn framing settled and the doors dropped a little, but with the appearance of the problem coming with extreme cold temps, and affecting both doors, I am thinking it's no coincidence. Unless all the poles and wood in the barn somehow suddenly contracted by 3/16" and got shorter because of the cold.....
When I lived up north as a kid, we generally took extra precautions for frost (extra walls, barriers, etc). But down here in VA, while footings are down at least 12" to be below the frost line, slabs just sit on top with no extra precautions. Clearly, frost must have lifted my skirt slab a little, given the historical/abnormal cold. For those of you who have dealt with this before, will the slab settle back down when the weather warms up? Are there any steps I can take to prevent this in the future? I'd be inclined to dig down around the edges of the skirt and put in a frost wall or barrier (could be as simple as foam I suppose), but that isn't going to do anything for cold coming down from above the skirt, or for that matter, from the adjacent barn slab (barn is unheated). Might prevent moisture from getting right under the skirt slab though.
As of yesterday (when I made the final adjustment) it got up into the mid 40s and the problem persisted. But I noticed that some parts of the ground under the snow pack are still frozen solid, so I imagine it will take more than a brief warmup to thaw frost under a slab. Odd to see frozen ground here and mud there -- it's like spring skiing in Vermont in the old days....
By the way, I can't say for sure that frost lifted the skirt since I don't have any "before" measurements written down. I suppose it's entirely possible some other part of the barn framing settled and the doors dropped a little, but with the appearance of the problem coming with extreme cold temps, and affecting both doors, I am thinking it's no coincidence. Unless all the poles and wood in the barn somehow suddenly contracted by 3/16" and got shorter because of the cold.....