How do I keep my fence from settling so much?

I’m in Austin Texas. We installed a fence three years ago and the posts between the gate door have shifted about four inches. This makes closing the door a pain in the ass, as the latch quickly becomes misaligned. A few times a year I move the latch bracket down to align it with the other part of the latch. My fence post is full of holes, and along with the constant slamming necessary when it gets out of line, it has started splitting.

How do I end this cycle? How do I keep it from moving so much?

Scientician,

Adding photos

https://waveform.social/pictrs/image/fe2025cb-57bd-4f59-8651-bb67416795a7.jpeg

https://waveform.social/pictrs/image/417e887c-408e-47c8-b380-d657cc978a19.jpeg

https://waveform.social/pictrs/image/bba819f1-a7d5-4528-8e60-879ba4029efe.jpeg

https://waveform.social/pictrs/image/45af61aa-fb04-4578-be7d-605fefec73c1.jpeg

https://waveform.social/pictrs/image/99beb694-fa40-491d-b886-7c0fc4e91e8d.jpeg

Scientician,

Now that I posted these I realize that latch side post is leaning. There’s a whole fence on that side, so I wonder if it’s getting pulled by the others settling.

nukeworker10,

What type of post and what is it set in? Are they wood in dirt with no concrete? Are you saying that it is moving down vertically? Something hast make it move, or displace what’s under it. Maybe remove them one at a time and set them in concrete. Hard to help more without more info or pics.

Scientician,

Theyre all wooden posts, set in cement. I don’t know how deep though… We hired someone to do it. They are definitely moving vertically, but I don’t think there’s any wobble from side to side… The latch is locking, and it’s about two inches tall, but it is always in line in the y axis, it just goes off up and down. Not sure if it’s both sides moving, but I know the gate is now also hitting the cement holding the opposite post.

Pics would help for sure, I’ll get some tomorrow.

nukeworker10,

If they are moving vertically it sounds like the ground under them is subsiding. Either that or it’s being removed. Is the whole fence doing this or just one or two spots.

Scientician,

Now that I take pics I see the latch side is leaning, which makes sense, since the whole fence is probably settling and pulling it.

nukeworker10,

Looking at your pics, it looks there are underground valves right there. Check if one of those is leaking and the water is causing the soil to migrate away.

stealthnerd,

Are the posts set in cement? Is the house new construction where the ground may still be settling because it wasn’t fully compacted?

People often skip cement footers for fence posts which might be okay if the soil is well compacted and the type of fence isn’t sensitive to movement but the one place you should always use cement footers is around gates.

If you already have footers then my suggestion would be to set them deeper. It could be poorly compacted soil or the type of soil that’s the problem in which case the only way to combat it is to dig down deeper so the footer reaches more stable soil.

Scientician,

Yes, wooden posts set in cement. Not sure how deep, because it was new construction, so I didn’t do it. It seems weird that it’s still settling, but we have definitely been having insane weather swings since it was built, that we don’t normally get.

Austin IS prone to foundation issues because something about our soul isn’t great… I’m in an area that isn’t too bad, but definitely has some issues.

It does sound like we’re going to have to reset those posts deeper.

Tempus,

New construction increases the likely-hood of loose/disturbed soil. You need deeper footings.

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