Neighbor's comment made me redo my whole shed foundation

So my retired contractor neighbor Bob walks by while I'm building a 10x12 shed in my backyard near Nashville. He looks at my gravel base and says "you're gonna regret that in 12 months when it shifts on you." I thought I had it level but he showed me I only had 2 inches of compacted gravel instead of the 6 inches I needed. Spent a whole Saturday renting a plate compactor and hauling 3 more yards of gravel from Lowe's. Has anyone else had a neighbor call them out on something that actually saved them later?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

evan_harris143mo ago

Bob sounds like a lifesaver honestly. I had a similar thing happen with my deck foundation a few years back in Knoxville where a retired framer told me my footers were too shallow for the frost line. I thought I was being smart saving money and time but he walked me through why everything would heave come winter. Ended up digging 12 extra holes on a Sunday in the rain because he was right and I would have been replacing the whole thing in two springs. Sucks to redo work but way better than watching your shed tilt slowly over time. Glad you caught it early.

3

hugo6453mo ago

Reminds me of the time I built a birdhouse and put the perch right below the entrance so raccoons could just reach in and grab eggs. Old timer at the hardware store just looked at me and said "you planning on feeding them or housing them?" Ended up redrilling the whole thing, felt like a real genius that day. Sometimes you just gotta swallow your pride and admit the expert knows better even if it means more work.

1