Fence posts

[hosspuller]

After 20+ years on the farm, I've noticed a few thing about posts in the ground.

Most of the rot is within 6 inches of the ground surface. Even posts that predated my land purchase, failed in the same way. Yet, the rest of the post in the ground was hard and strong. (Made for getting stub out difficult.) Separating the ground from the post seems to be valid approach. I'm trying wrapping 12 inches of the post with black polyethylene. I'll post again in 10 years :laughing:

 

[freedomlives]

Yea, I'm not going to even try getting the stubs of the posts out. All of them I back filled with gravel, idea being that would drain the water to the bottom of the hole, and keep that biologically active top 6" dry. We have heavy clay soil, so I think the draining didn't happen fast, and mud ingressed into the holes. The only thing I see rocks being useful for now is to make the post stand firmer and be harder to pull out. Some jerks took some of my posts from a pasture further from my house last year, where they were supposed to be the corners for temporary electric fence when I have our sheep and goats out there. Those posts had just been in the dirt. Next ones will be thicker side down packed with rocks, which makes removal much more of a PITA...

 

[hosspuller]

. Some jerks took some of my posts from a pasture further from my house last year, where they were supposed to be the corners for temporary electric fence when I have our sheep and goats out there. Those posts had just been in the dirt. Next ones will be thicker side down packed with rocks, which makes removal much more of a PITA...

You don't have jerks .. You have thieves and trespassers. You don't need thicker posts, you need enforcement.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Posts last forever if you char the buried part of the posts that are in the ground. Whether or not it is easier to just buy rubber stuff or tar, I am not sure, but charring is free???

 

[freedomlives]

Yea, it is a problem here in Slovakia, that the culture around property rights isn't up to the level as in the US, and was harmed especially by 40 years of communism. It is theft, not trespass though, as the field wasn't fenced in. Pretty much all I can do is make removal of the posts difficult.

 

[oosik]

Around these parts you will find these type of posts. T-133 steel, untreated cedar, untreated black locust, pine & the green treated wooden what-evers. My 80 acres has one and a half miles of fence around the borders. They posts are all T-133 steel. Except four posts. Two are untreated cedar - two are untreated black locust. The cedar & black locust were part of the original fence installed by the homesteader in 1892- 1894. All four are on a high, dry part of the fence line and are still rock solid. Just as solid as the day they were installed.

The remaining 670 T-133 steel have been in almost 40 years now and are still showing no signs of deterioration or rust.

I am very sure that this longevity is primarily due to our semi-arid weather here in NE WA state.

All of the original fence line was gone - except for the four wooden posts - when we moved here in 1982. The original homesteader used our abundant Ponderosa pine trees for posts. In the ground an untreated pine fence post might last eight to ten years.

Fortunately - the four corners were well marked and I installed the new barbed wire fences from those corners.

 

[freedomlives]

Steel posts of course would be best, except I'm doing electric fence, and the insulators jump in price for steel posts, even though, the posts themselves I could find at the scrapyards, etc. I am thinking of using those out on the pasture that just temporarily gets a fence. Planted in the ground with a wide hole filled with concrete, and they will probably stay there.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Where I live, any wood post encased in concrete rots faster, it's because the wood shrinks away from the concrete and then water enters there. No one does that here any more...

Some have tared the part in the ground, it just slowed the rot by a couple years, and many other "fixes" have ben tried.

NOTHING seems to work long term on wood post...

SR

 

[DJ54]

**Coming back to Slovakia, some of the smaller black locust posts I used on our pasture fence have rotted in five years. Apparently, young wood on black locusts isn't resistant.**

Here, if Locust isn't cut in the winter time when the sap is down, they won't last 5-10 years. When cut in the winter time, when sap IS down, they will last for years. I have a couple that Dad pulled from an old fence row here, from when they bought the place in 1953, and it's still solid..!! Probably have to drill it to get a fence staple in it now though.

 

[CADplans]

Planted in the ground with a wide hole filled with concrete, and they will probably stay there.

Drill a hole in the post where it will be below grade, and stick a length of rebar, or other steel in the hole,

The steel bar protruding from the side of the post will make it even more difficult to remove.

You could even screw a one foot length of angle steel to the post near the bottom,,
that would make removal most difficult,,

I hate concrete around posts, the concrete does seem to promote rot,,

I put a pole in the ground 4 feet deep for a pole shed.
later, I decided to remove the pole, as it was not needed,,

That pole, being 4 feet deep, was almost impossible to remove,,
I dug with a backhoe, almost half the depth, before the pole became loose,,

So, extra depth might be the answer,, also,,