Does Maple make good posts?

[dnw64]

Aaaa, I love the smell of creosote in the morning!

It takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. Thanks for doing your part.

 

[Diggin It]

Folks a'fore me on this parcel o'dirt used marine mooring posts for fenceposts. I pulled a couple up and cut them in bits. Seemed mostly dried and rotted but could still smell the Eau Du Creosote a bit. Went ahead and tossed a couple of small ones in the stove. Smoke that ensued was .... fun.

 

[PILOON]

"Telephone poles would also be useful for gate posts. "

Not around here as the utility is forbidden from donating them due to creosote content.
They claim it is due to environment laws.

 

[bunyip]

I remember reading the results of a study on timber fenceposts albeit applicable to AU but I wonder if the same results would apply worldwide.
Fenceposts cut and used locally had a relatively short lifespan and were prone to rotting out below ground whereas the same post if used in a different location several miles away where the timber was not grown enjoyed a long life with minimal rotting or degradation.
This was a long time ago and I cannot recall the species but was most likely a eucalypt of some sort, I cannot recall if the soil composition was mentioned but the same rules could apply in the USA.
Of course treated pine is now the norm but redgum and ironbark are still available if you look around for them..

 

[Looking4new]

"Telephone poles would also be useful for gate posts. "

Not around here as the utility is forbidden from donating them due to creosote content.
They claim it is due to environment laws.

When Ma Bell replaced the poles on the side road I live off, I asked them what they do with the poles they take out. They told me they leave them where they fall and if I wanted them to help myself. I didn't....Yet.

 

[hosspuller]

Looking4new: The worst case for rot is laying on the ground. Even treated telephone poles rot quickly. Fence & gate posts always break in the first few inches under the ground surface. It makes the stub hard to get out. If you want those poles to reuse, get them soon. You can store them in the open if they are raised off the ground. Again, it's soil bacteria and air that rots them. I'm in year 5 of an experiment. I've wrapped 12 inches of several posts in black poly at the ground level. The poly exposed to sunlight has gotten brittle and flaked away. I expected that to happen. The poly in the ground is unchanged. The theory is the poly separates the soil bacteria and air from the wood... As if it were buried deep under ground.

 

[Doofy]

I built a couple of septic cribs in the 70s. One was out of standing dead spruce, the other was green spruce that I'd just cut. The dead crib is still functioning; the green crib, not so much.

I also cemented in 4x4 treated posts for a carport on the back of the garage. Still nice and solid. Untreated spruce poles rot off at ground level after about 50 years. The soils are acidic and very cool/cold/frozen.