More snow

[altivo]

It did snow last night and we did get about a 2 inch accumulation. The temperature held near 20F all night, which was good as it was much easier to keep the house warm using just the woodstove. Tess still doesn't believe that I'm not holding out on her by not making it warmer.

Went to open the north door of the arena and couldn't budge it. I figured the wheels on the overhead track must be frozen and left it shut. It hasn't been opened for several days because of the wind chills we've been having.

This afternoon I looked more closely and realized that the problem, though temperature related, is quite different from what I thought. The door is stuck at the bottom. Where it normally hangs an inch above the ground, it is resting solidly on the earth beneath it. It's frost heave. The same thing that damaged our water hydrants last year about this time. The frozen ground is bulging upward so much that it is lifting the weight of a steel door 20 by 20 feet in size. I'm afraid we'll just have to wait until the ground thaws and relaxes. If it lifts much higher, there is danger of derailing the top of the door and I have no idea how to fix that. Certainly the door is much too heavy for us to just lift it back into place, not to mention its size and height. I hope it doesn't keep lifting and fall off the track by itself.

This may also explain the problem with the heat pump. If the outside compressor unit has been displaced enough by the earth heaving upward, it could break or crimp the lines to the ground circulation loop. That at least should be a fairly straightforward repair and much preferable to having to redrill the three wells the loop uses. It also might mean that our insurance will pay for part, as they did for repairing the freezeless hydrants.

Comments

[tinbender.livejournal.com]

Is it possible to remove some of the dirt under the doors so that it doesn't get any worse?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We have used that solution before with an older wooden door that couldn't be adjusted otherwise, and you are probably right that it's a good long term prevention for this one. I was just taken aback by it as this particular door has always had a large and adequate gap at the bottom.

Removing the earth right now would be a major job because it is frozen to rock-like solidity and the door is resting right on it. A pick-axe would be the only way, with the risk of damaging the door itself. Tomorrow's temperature is supposed to hit 40F, though, which may make that more practical.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I hope everything will be fine there.

And I also hope Tess will stop being grumpy soon. ^^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not to worry. Tess always stops being grumpy if I give her a carrot. ;D

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to presume the steel door is a pulley shaped wheel on a rail style. But not seeing it myself, I would think that anything to keep it from falling over should it get lifted off the rail would be all you need. Maybe put a wedge on each end on the inside to keep it from falling off the rail towards the wall, and a couple of 2x4s to keep it from falling over away from the wall. Some door designs have an adjustment to change the height of the door too. Maybe if you raise it up with that?

$0.02

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You presume correctly. I'm sure it has adjustment capability, but given the weight and size of the door, I'm reluctant to mess with it. We might find ourselves unable to realign it properly, or actually damage it somehow. With all the other recent expenses, I can't afford to call in someone with equipment to rehang it.

We'll try to remove the earth under the door as soon as we can. Your suggestion of bracing the door to keep it in position is a good one if the situation gets any worse.

[felder.livejournal.com]

Send some over this way would you hon? We've not had anything approaching a winter here in the UK. good job we're off to Sweden on Thursday, hopefully proper winter there ;)

*snugs* keep warm!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If I had any way to wrap and ship it, I'd be glad to share. I always say I like living in a place that has four seasons, but I've had enough of winter now even though it will run another four to five weeks.

[damnbear.livejournal.com]

If it's feasible, you might be able to use some chain and (after installing a few eye-hooks),tether the top of the door to the rail or eye-hooks above the rail. This will at least prevent the door from falling down and keep the pulley's aligned above the rail.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That would be a good approach. Fortunately, closer examination of the tracks, which I've never looked at closely due to their location some 15 feet above eye level, shows that "derailment" is unlikely.

The sliding door on our other barn can in fact derail because the rollers hang on a single rail from the outside. The larger doors on the arena have little trucks with four wheels, rather like railroad cars, that travel on a double track with the door suspended on bars that hang down between the tracks. In order to derail, the rails themselves must be bent or broken, which isn't likely in this case.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

Hmm... are there no measure that can be taken to prevent or at least lessen the frost heave effect since it appears likely to keep causing problems for you guys? Seems like there'd be something one could do, but that's not my field of engineering by far. And whatever could be done might not be that friendly to the nature around there. Still, a thought. And I'm with you on the geothermal unit's problems. it's seems highly likely that that's the source. I just hope it hasn't damaged the underground portion and it's easy for you guys to fix.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Nothing that can be done to existing structures short of knocking them down and rebuilding with better foundations. Notably, we had no problems in the first eight years we lived here, and have only encountered this in the last two. Though we might assume that climate change wouldn't account for a freezing effect, it's not the freeze that's the problem, but rather the saturation of the soil before freezing by excessive amounts of rain. And that, in fact, has been a big issue for two years now.

Fortunately, the sliding doors appear to be built to withstand this better than I thought. Only the one on the older barn is subject to derailment. The structure of tracks and wheels on the arena is designed to prevent that. I hadn't ever looked closely until today, because they are so far over my head that I couldn't see them very well in the sun's glare. The two doors are 18 feet tall and 16 feet wide, plus overlap at the edges. The owners before us parked a semi-trailer in the riding arena at one time, and the doors allowed it easy entrance and exit.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good news then at least. Hopefully no further potential nasty issues develop.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

We have drought heave, where the soil actually shifts due to the lack of moisture...its worse if you're on clay. The footpaths have shifted noticably even around the house.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, some of that happened here about three years ago when we went nearly a whole summer with no rain after a winter with no snow.