Why No-Dig Fence Works Well in Frost
Many moons ago, Clever Joe was a frustrated fence installer in Western Canada. The frost conditions are so bad up there that no matter how deep he dug his cement footings, they would still occasionally heave out of the ground. When a cement fence footing heaves out of the ground, it is virtually impossible to fix and can make the entire fence look bad.
A traditionally installed vinyl fence where the cement footing has heaved out of the ground due to frost
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Joe needed to find another way to install vinyl fence to avoid the chronic problem of heaving cement footings. This is what ultimately birthed no-dig vinyl fence. Once he perfected the installation method of driving pipe deep into the ground, his frost problems virtually went away for 2 reasons:
- Cement footings create a “lip” that makes it much easier for frost to heave. A pipe anchor doesn’t have as much surface area so the frost has a much more difficult time heaving it.
- If for some reason an occasional no-dig fence post did heave out of the ground, it was relatively easy to fix. One could easily dismantle the post and reset the leveling donut or even the pipe if necessary. It’s virtually impossible to fix a heaved cement footing but it’s very feasible to fix a heaved pipe anchor.
In short, no-dig fence works extremely well in areas with bad frost. WamBam’s no-dig fencing has been installed in some very cold climates with very few issues- from North Dakota to Winnipeg, Canada. While we can’t promise that a pipe will never heave, we can assure you that it will be fixable, which is not the case with a cement footing.
If you would like to discuss this in greater length with one of our fence specialists, feel free to call us at 877-778-5733.