How to replace gatepost?

[lopezian]

Earlier this year I caught a gatepost on my deer fence with my FEL. The 4 inch treated post cracked about 4 inches above the ground.

Can anyone tell me a good way to remove this post so I can replace it?

The post is set in about 80 pounds of concrete. Because it snapped close to the ground, and the concrete comes up to ground level, there is not much good wood to get a chain around.

If I just dig out the post and base with the backhoe I will have a very big hole to fill, and I'm afraid the disturbed soil won't hold a new post well. Should I be concerned about that?

If I do end up with a large hole I could put some large rocks at the bottom on either side of the new post to help keep it upright.

Any experience with this sort of thing would be welcome.

 

[bx23barry]

Dig around the top of the cement and put a strap/chain around the cement and pull it out with the fel/backhoe/3ph.

 

[RonR]

Boy do I have a LOT of experience here! Our wood fence originally had cedar posts. MISTAKE! They are 20 yrs old now and are rotting off.

First, there isn't an easy way to do it (I don't have a backhoe, so can't speak to that approach). I have two approaches:

One, dig around the top of the concrete about 6" deep to wrap a short 1/4" chain around it and secure it. Secure the other end over a handyman jack, sitting on a metal plate to disperse the load. Jack like crazy. Re-attach the chain as it comes off. Cuss. Repeat as necessary until the post/concrete is out.

Two, dig around the concrete down about 12". Angle your hole back so it's about 12" back from the concrete. Get a BIG prybar and a 4x4 chunk. My prybar is 1 1/2" steel shaft about 6 feet long. I'm talkin' BIG!

Once you have the hole completed, jab the bar down the hole, place the 4x4 next to the base, and pry like crazy. Cuss. Pry. Re-bite the bar. Cuss. Eventually, you should be able to get the concrete out. I've found it just as easy to break the concrete into chunks with the bar and get them out piecemeal as it is to try to get it all at once.

Either approach, go to your home supply place, like lowes, and buy a thing in the concrete area called a SONA TUBE. They come in like 8 or 10 inch diameters--I use the 8". They are fiberboard tubes that you can insert down your cleaned out post hole, which is now way too wide, and allows you to fill with concrete. Pack dirt around the outside of the tube and you're set. They are not very expensive. I usually cut them in half and can do 2 holes with one tube. The bottom of your post hole is not damaged, so the tube can come off the bottom part way.

A final method I've seen the local fence boys do, which I admire, but don't due since I don't want a bunch of extra concrete buried on my place, but it does work: Start a pilot post hole NEXT TO the broken post--I mean right next to it on any side. Drill your post hole to proper depth. Take said big pry bar to the side opposite your new hole. Pry, cuss, pry, cuss, pry, and shove the old concrete into the new post hole. Clean out the old post hole, and replace your fence post. The old concrete will forever reside next to the new post.

CAUTION with above method: I had the fence boys replace one of my first damaged posts this way, and it was a GIANT PAIN when I had to take out BOTH concrete messes when that new post broke off. Swore I'd never do that again.

Probably the best method I've ever used was when my then teenage son would p*** me off doing something stoopid and I had a post to be replaced. I'd lead him to the site, hand him the pry bar/shovel and tell him I'd be back in 45 minutes and I wanted him to think about his recent transgression while he was removing the old post............................... Of course I'd forgive him, hug him, and help him with the new post!

Hope this helps.
Ron

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Your local rental yard will have a post puller. It's a jack assembly, some of them have bottle jacks and some have tractor jacks. They come with a chain for pulling posts and they have a scissor assembly similar to an ice grip if you're old enough to remember those. The jaws go down along side the concrete and when you lift they grip. The harder you pull the harder they grip.

But if I was doing it and it was just replacing the post I'd use a good digging bar. I carry three on the truck. For this project I'd recommend the one with the cutting edge at one end and the tamper at the other.

Since you said it was eighty pounds I can safely assume it's sacrete mix. That makes it a lot easier. (be glad it isn't one of my posts, a line post will have about four eighty pounds of sacrete, gate post six to ten minimum, that's why I don't use sacrete)

Look at the post carefully. Chances are most likely there will be one corner that's less concretey. Posts are rarely set dead in the middle. Take the cutting edge of the digging bar and score diagonally from that corner to the dirt. Deepen the score mark until the concrete cracks. Then go to the other corner on the same side and do the same thing. I like doing all four corners this way.

You might be able to remove the post now. Some people will now replace the post without removing the old concrete. If you have access to a good hydraulic cement like Quick Rok you can mix up a large coffee can full and then pour it around the post and down the cracks where you cut the concrete. In an hour you will have a footer that will take the gate with no problem. A day later and your footer will be better than it ever was.

If you want to remove the concrete put all your effort into removing one of the sections. Look at them and one will appear to be more likely to fall into the center hole than the others. Using the digging bar break this section up and remove it. The others will come out easy once this is done.

I've had to remove gate posts that have been damaged. Here's one that will make you appreciate what you're facing.

 

[masscity]

When I was a kid we used our Case Vac 14 3ph to pull cedar fence posts out, but no concrete.

When I got out of the USAF I worked for a chain link fence guy here in the Detroit area. To take out the old gate posts we choker chained (couple of wraps) to the post or the concrete, we had the bottom of a 6 ft length of water pipe set on something solid and hooked a 2 ton come along to the top of pipe and winched it out. It would take out huge chunks of concrete.

 

[RonR]

Good Grief Harv!

Do you ever do anything in a small way? Just kidding....................

Ron

 

[Defective]

I've had good luck replacing the post in the concrete.

I bore down into the remains of the post with a big auger bit on a drill & chew the wood out of the hole as much as I can, then break whats left out with a prybar. Then I drive a new post into the concrete. This avoids disturbing the soil around the concrete as well as negating the need to pour new concrete.

Added benefit: This leaves your new post EXACTLY where the old one was so your gate still fits the same as before.

 

[Trahere]

Thats what I'm typing about !