Fence post types

[Ken45101]

Another good idea I use on wooden post, at a minimum, I will cut an angle and then paint or oil the top to keep water out. I have also use tin cut to cover the top, but it is a bit more time consuming.

No one has mentioned black locust posts. Your comment about treating the top reminded me of the old lore about black locust posts: How do you tell when one might need replacement? Well you set a rock on top of it and every year check the rock. When the rock has rotted away, then you can start worrying about the post

Note, honey locust (the big thorns) is not nearly as durable as black locust.

 

[oldballs]

Actually I'm hope to use some Osage Orange for this next post project. I only need four right now. That ought to last long enough for me.

 

[texasjohn]

Down here, there are lots of welding places which sell pipe which has been welded together specifically for fence corners.

These are in H shape or maybe three vertical posts with two cross braces welded in.

You drill the post holes, drop in the welded corner, cement it in...and it's there for at least 60 years. The welds on the cross braces make the entire fence end rigid...doesn't pull out of the ground easy at all, easy to connect the wire of your choice also.

You can have variations on the theme...fence corners that are L shaped, or T shaped, etc.... hope this is clear

These people will weld up anything needed in this area.
http://killeen.craigslist.org/grq/4361060059.html

I see lots of people with various levels of experience with wood posts. I've been on my place for 30 plus years..started with the green treated posts...lots rotted out...moved to the more yellow treated posts...rotted out as well...I understand the comments regarding not sitting the post in a depression, piling dirt up around the post, etc....did that, rotted anyway...neighbors told me this would happen before I tried it...should have listened.
I've used creosote posts left by power company...work kinda, but I can show you several I stockpiled and are all rotted out when I went back to them to use them some years later. The best wood post here is the Ashe Juniper which is native...people call it cedar here...the heart wood is extremely hard and bright red...heart wood is very rot resistant, think 50 plus years....very difficult to find posts which are sufficiently large where the red heart wood is 5 inches on the small end and with long, straight posts. When you do, you are quickly into the price range of drill stem pipe which is uniformly straight and rot free.

Why the welded pipe?

 

[Lebneh]

T-posts have a corner bracing kit. tsc has them, that's were I got them from. The only thing I have noticed is that there was a bit of frost heave on them. I will go back out tomorrow and smash them down but with all the accessory's for them I like them a lot. They have stand offs for e'fence etc. I also found its easier to install, we have so much rock, digging a hole to put a fence post is difficult on a good day, let alone when you find a huge rock right where you need to place a post.

I looked through the TSC tpost and most of the fencing section. I couldn't find anything that made sense to me as a corner bracing kit. Can you post a link so I can take a look.

Thanks

 

[oosik]

Where I'm at - its called the Basaltic Lava flow area. Its at the Northern Edge of an area called the Palouse. About 20% of my posts are wood resting on top of the ground with an attached wooden cross piece at the bottom. With the use of my neighbors commercial air driven jack hammer I'm replacing these wooden posts with T-posts. Jack hammer a hole in the rock, knock the plate off the bottom of the T-post, set it in hole and fill hole with sand/cement mix. The next rain will set the post. I have T-posts that were set in the early l900's that are still structurally sound. This is a semi-arid area.

 

[turnkey4099]

Where I'm at - its called the Basaltic Lava flow area. Its at the Northern Edge of an area called the Palouse. About 20% of my posts are wood resting on top of the ground with an attached wooden cross piece at the bottom. With the use of my neighbors commercial air driven jack hammer I'm replacing these wooden posts with T-posts. Jack hammer a hole in the rock, knock the plate off the bottom of the T-post, set it in hole and fill hole with sand/cement mix. The next rain will set the post. I have T-posts that were set in the early l900's that are still structurally sound. This is a semi-arid area.

every treated 4x5 wood post I have set over here on the dry side of Washington (semi arid) has rotted out in 10 years or less and it wasn't due to water collecting around the base. My land slopes so any standing water is in motion down hill

Harry K

 

[oosik]

Harry, Where I have enough soil over bedrock, I too have tried almost every type of wood post. I have two railroad ties set for my inner gate and some springs that portion of the driveway can be 6-8 inches under water, same with these two railroad ties. They are still as solid as the day I set them 32 years ago. If I use a 6" to 8" green ponderosa pine tree, it will last maybe eight years. I've used treated 4x4 posts (treated with the green stuff) and as a fence post they will last 8-10 years. I used them to build a carport (vertical posts with direct ground burial) and they are still good after 30 years. I'm still looking for a stash of railroad ties - they seem to last the longest (the real ones).

 

[texasjohn]

here's your link
Wedge-Loc™ Corner/InLine Brace Set - Tractor Supply Co.

I've tried them...not a one is still in place...under pressure, and not much at that, they twist and get out of alignment. The slip over parts bend and are hard to deal with. My net, a waste of money and time. Their benefit...they go in fast and you might consider them an emergency fence while needing time to rebuild a fence....IMHO, if you were going to leave the fence in place more than 4 months...bad idea.

I looked through the TSC tpost and most of the fencing section. I couldn't find anything that made sense to me as a corner bracing kit. Can you post a link so I can take a look.

Thanks

 

[texasjohn]

I have 1.5 miles of 5 strand barb wire fencing around the property. I'm 99% 133 T-post. For the corners I've made rock gabions out of steel pallets and expanded steel. They are 4'x4'x4' and when filled with rock they will definitely anchor the fence corners. My fence crosses a "moat" which runs between my two lakes and the T-posts in this area are dissolved by the extremely alkaline water in the big lake. These post must be replaced - on an average - of every 8-10 years. I'm trying an alternate to T-posts in the moat area. I'm now using cedar fence posts - about 2x to 3x the cost of steel but they are said to last at least four times longer. We will see - the cedar posts have been in the ground 12 years now and show no signs of rotting.

Your gabions are the final answer for a corner brace. Here, people often get a cattle panel, form it in a circle, place it in position for corner on surface then fill the inner circle with rock.

Me, I was fortunate...a local concrete culvert manufacturer went out of business. New owner of land gave me all the culverts I could carry off.
They are 4 feet in diameter, various heights, can be stacked, tallest one is about 5 feet high and weighs 2700 lbs.

Ugly, but when you sit one of those suckers down on the ground, it doesn't rot, pull out of the ground, tip over or move in any way. You can tighten fence wire as tight as you wish, make it a harp, the corners will NOT give at all.

It's a fast way to make a fence corner. No drilling, no dirt moving, no cross bracing. They make good hunting blinds, too!

 

[turnkey4099]

Harry, Where I have enough soil over bedrock, I too have tried almost every type of wood post. I have two railroad ties set for my inner gate and some springs that portion of the driveway can be 6-8 inches under water, same with these two railroad ties. They are still as solid as the day I set them 32 years ago. If I use a 6" to 8" green ponderosa pine tree, it will last maybe eight years. I've used treated 4x4 posts (treated with the green stuff) and as a fence post they will last 8-10 years. I used them to build a carport (vertical posts with direct ground burial) and they are still good after 30 years. I'm still looking for a stash of railroad ties - they seem to last the longest (the real ones).

RR ties rule!! I have a 2 acre place in the country. 1acre is the "pasture" which I fenced with RR ties set every 9', H braces in the corners. That was back in the late 70s and early 80s. Couple RRs abandoned routes and I hauled ties all one summer wherever I could find them. Back lot line is against a hillside. I built about 200ft of RR tie retainer wall which is over 4' high most of the way. Only had one vertical tie that failed (so far). Most of the teis were #2 with just enough 1s to use for posts.

Harry K