A job in Boulder last month taught me to always check the frost line

We were setting 8-foot cedar posts for a ranch style fence and hit solid rock about 18 inches down. The homeowner was sure the frost line was only 12 inches there, but my old code book said 24. Had to rent a demo hammer to go deeper, which added a day and about $300 to the job. How do you guys handle rocky soil when the specs call for a deeper hole?

4 comments

4 Comments

miasanchez3mo ago

Ugh, rock is the worst.

evan5433mo ago

Yeah, "charge for rock, not soil" is the real deal. I had a client who swore up and down their yard was clear, but we hit a shelf of limestone two feet down on every single post. The quote was for dirt, so we had to stop and have that tough talk about the extra cost for a rock bit and time. It's never a fun conversation to have in the middle of the job.

emma4553mo ago

That's when you charge for rock, not soil.

brooket4319d ago

Not gonna lie, some people act like hitting rock is the end of the world. We've drilled through plenty of it with the same bit, maybe just a little slower. Unless you're talking something like a solid granite slab, most times you just work through it. Yeah it's annoying and takes longer but I've seen guys charge double for what ended up being 20 extra minutes with a hammer drill. Feels like sometimes people overplay how big of a deal it actually is just to bump up the price.