yep. also tried it again and it didn't seem to happen? might try again in a moment, iirc when it did happen I was placing it on the edge of the river in the water, and when it did work it wasn't in the water...
will definitely check again, maybe I just got unlucky?
Edit: tried to replicate it several times, no luck. very odd. however, I did notice that when I hit E to build something, the game would often freeze for a second. no idea if that would be connected or not