Off Topic First World Problems…
- Thread starter stomp
- Start date
All I remember about building a fence and shed for my daughter is it was a lot of hard work and ridiculously hot in July of that year. Dad saved her a ton of money but never had the urge to try it again. 
In the first photo is how I set my posts so they can drain into the aggregate before cementing them in to prevent rotting from the base sitting in cement trapping the water. I also beveled the concrete so the water runs away from the post. Ready to try it yourself? 
Did my fence the same way Bob. The 4" post broke where the concrete ended. Getting it repaired now and wondering how much extra it will cost to dig out the concrete. Fence about 10 years old done with treated lumber.
In the first photo is how I set my posts so they can drain into the aggregate before cementing them in to prevent rotting from the base sitting in cement trapping the water. I also beveled the concrete so the water runs away from the post. Ready to try it yourself? Did my fence the same way Bob. The 4" post broke where the concrete ended. Getting it repaired now and wondering how much extra it will cost to dig out the concrete. Fence about 10 years old done with treated lumber.
Old Cut LongPointer
Well-Known Member
As a Band-Aid solution you could pound Tee-Bars in at the posts and wire your old fence back up ? Not a great idea but short term it should work.
@Duck Soup and @stomp... I don't know if you want to tackle your problem yourself but in case here's a couple of good methods to pull the posts. If they are broken off where you can't get a chain or rope on it you can drill a hole in the post where it is broken off and crank in a large lag bolt to get a hold of it to jack it out. If the post is totally rotten then you will probably have to dig it out, not fun. You guys could always get @Three Bouys to come over and crank them out effortlessly with the Caterpillar.
hvyhaul
Well-Known Member
Every fence I've built is with the panels removable from between the two posts as a unit.
Remove screws, lift out.
Neighbour's kid outgrew the Jungle Gym Climber years back, removed a section, broke the climber down into 4-man moveable parts and relocated in my yard
Surprised a number of the neighbours how easy the move was.
All I remember about building a fence and shed for my daughter is it was a lot of hard work and ridiculously hot in July of that year. Dad saved her a ton of money but never had the urge to try it again.
Did my fence the same way Bob. The 4" post broke where the concrete ended. Getting it repaired now and wondering how much extra it will cost to dig out the concrete. Fence about 10 years old done with treated lumber.
In the early 2000's regulations were changed which essentially made common pressure treated wood unsuitable to be buried in concrete or dirt. For this purpose you must use "ground contact" rated pressure treated lumber or, as you have discovered, the wood will rot out in 10-15 years if you're lucky. Unfortunately I think it only comes in the old style greenish color of treated wood.
As for removing the posts, the tire/rim method is the easiest. Place the tire upright beside the post, wrap chain around base of post and put it over top of the tire and attach to your vehicle. As you drive forwards the upward force pulls the post up and out with little effort. Excellent for stumps too.
Kinda cold, windy and snowy to get too serious about working on this today. I did knock the panels off the posts, moved them aside and then dug around 3 post holes with a trowel; damned if I can see any evidence of concrete or the remaining p/t posts underground. I'll dig deeper, literally, into this mystery when my buddy shows up with a post-hole shovel. If I see my neighbour outside, I'll ask him about his handiwork some 25-30 years ago.
FlyingViking
Well-Known Member
“Next time on Trailer Park Boys”.. “stomp confronts bubbles over his fencing skills”..
I had one post break off a couple years ago and called a fence build/repair guy that I found local on kijiji. $200 and he cut off the two panels, removed the old post and concrete. Set new post with kwikcrete and reattached panels. Guy was done in a couple hours working by himself. I had asked a couple of fence guys working in the area and both said $200-$300 per post for repairs.
This is what hell looks like:
2 of 8 posts replaced. Originals were placed about 3 1/2' deep with a pancake of concrete around the base and situated in heavy, wet clay. Rotted posts ends were sticking up about a 1 1/2' making digging with a post hole digger nearly impossible. 30 years of root growth was another complicating factor. Damn near killed 2 middle-aged guys.
Best move of the day... buying the Garant Post Hole Digging - Tamper Bar from Home Depot.
www.homedepot.ca
2 of 8 posts replaced. Originals were placed about 3 1/2' deep with a pancake of concrete around the base and situated in heavy, wet clay. Rotted posts ends were sticking up about a 1 1/2' making digging with a post hole digger nearly impossible. 30 years of root growth was another complicating factor. Damn near killed 2 middle-aged guys.
Best move of the day... buying the Garant Post Hole Digging - Tamper Bar from Home Depot.
Garant Post Hole Digging-Tamper Bar | The Home Depot Canada
Dig holes and compact the soil around stakes and posts with the Garant Pro Series digging-tamper bar. This bar is made of forged steel for increased hardness and strength. Its head is a 2 3/8-inch (6 cm) cutter for digging as well as a tamper for compacting. This industrial-grade digging-tamper...
www.homedepot.ca
Orange Force
Active Member
We install similar to the pic except do not use concrete to the top. It allows the frost to grab and Jack the post, rather only 1' slug near the bottom. That way the frost effect has minimal contact on the 4x4 near the top and now has the resistance of trying to lift the concrete through the frozen ground. Kind of like a square block through a round hole. Also remember that concrete is your biggest moisture holder so why have it in direct contact more than you have to. Fill the remaining hole with gravel for drainage.
I bought a used farm jack on Kijiji a couple of years back, when another fence line was going south. The jack was junk so that wasn't an option yesterday. @Three Bouys must have taken pity on me, cuz he's on his way up to Londontown with a farm jack and chain today. When I can move again, I'll dig down to another post and see if I can jack it out.
Hey @stomp I'm proud of you. When I did my daughter's there were rocks I kept running into I had to break up with a bar as we were digging the 28 post holes. You should be able to smash up the concrete at the base with a good heavy bar a lot easier than rocks if Jim's jack won't pull them out. One of these tools will be a great help grabbing pieces of rock/concrete etc. or digging dirt out of the hole after smashing up the concrete.
Can you move yet?... now you know why I never had the urge to ever build a fence again.
Can you move yet?... now you know why I never had the urge to ever build a fence again.
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I can sorta move @Wave Runner . @Three Bouys was just here and dropped off the farm jack and chain. He surveyed the scene and is confident that we will be able to jack out the rest of the post remnants and concrete. We did use the clamdigger extensively yesterday. The clay is so thick and wet near the bottom, you have to trowel out each load of what the digger brings up.
I can totally relate to the clay situation @stomp. The other day my blue box blew across the road into my neighbour's field about 50 yards which is solid Dutton/Dunwich township clay. I went across with my boots on trying to pull the box out of it which only sunk me down to were I could not for the life of me pull my boots back out. I pulled so hard I eventually fell flat on my face in the mud. I was totally stuck unable to move at all so had to pull my feet out my boots and walk out in my stocking feet through the field. As I went back across the road with my feet, coat and gloves covered in thick clay with people staring at me as they drove by while I was singing "A Hundred Pounds of Clay." I can laugh now but it wasn't funny at the time. 
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That sounds awful @Wave Runner; that's the same kind of bloodly clay! When my other neighbour repaired their fence last year, their "professional" crew augered out about a dozen 6x6 post holes and left all the dug clay pancaked on my side lawn to about 3-4" deep. They threw some grass seed on it and left. Where it was, the clay would have totally messed up the normal surface drainage for both houses. It took me a day or two to remove the clay and dispose of it with the help of @Mickey Finn.
I would have told them to get back there and remove it all Bob. That's disgraceful workmanship for any business to conduct. It was nice of @Mickey Finn to help you dispose of it but it should been their job not yours.
So did you and Jim get the rest of the post out yet? He should have brought the Cat.
