I've got a long wooden fence at the back of the garden which is in fairly good nick apart from some of the posts are pretty rotten at the bottom and it's a bit wobbly. Is it worth trying to repair them with concrete spurs, or is this method doomed to failure?
Ideally replacing it would be best, but looking to find the cheapest way out, access is a bit tricky as well due to trees and bushes.
Put a concrete spur in. If it doesn't help then you're set up for bolting a new post on anyway.
The post above ground is rock solid.
What you are sure to find out, once you start to do a job like that, is that the bits you think are 'in fairly good nick' actually aren't. If the posts are failing it is likely the panels are rotting too (unless they were more recently replaced).
I would budget time/effort for a full replacement IMO.
Thanks, a repair will give me a couple of years to save up for a replacement!😃
We fixed a few posts with this.
https://postbuddysystem.co.uk/
It was recommended to me and we are pretty pleased with the results
When this happened to me (posts going rotten at ground level) I set metpost spikes into postcrete, and bolted the post into the bracket. So I won 't have to dig it out the next time it needs replacing.
I've repaired all but three of our fence posts with spurs.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/321/19891871261_b8f0c2be48_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/321/19891871261_b8f0c2be48_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/wiM3iB ]Concrete Spur[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
I jack the fence up using inverted sash clamps, and just dig our, cut off the old bit the drop the new one in, bolt througth all in situ.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/1632/25371098445_7016443cc5_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/1632/25371098445_7016443cc5_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/EDXvDP ]Repairing Fence Post #3[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Postbuddy looks interesting, but I cant get to the back.
Looks like a spur is the way to go then, just got the pain of busting up the old concrete.
Go old school
Old bits of bed frame (basically any decent strong angle stuff about 2 inches each side) get 2 lengths about 3ft long, put on opposite corners of post bash vertically into ground, leave 1ft showing, drill and screw to post, my parents fence did an extra 10 years after dad applied it using traditional methods (sledge hammer and brute force)
Watches with interest, as we have a couple of rotten posts, thought about the Post Buddy but they're not in concrete, they're straight into the ground.
I've done a relevant repair to a out 10 fence posts so far on my 35 year old fence so will post more later. Send me a PM if I forget!
I've used post repair spikes from B&Q before. You break off the old rotten post at ground level, then hammer the spike into the remains of the post. You then put a new shorter post into the top of the spike. I have posts that must have been repaired more than 10 years ago still standing. It's alot easier than trying to remove the concrete.
OK, so my problem was a bit constrained, which led me towards my solution - which might be more effort than is necessary for you.
My fence was made with old school posts (68mm??) so set in to massive chunks of concrete. The wood inside the square hole was well rotten so the repair buddy etc. wouldn't work.
I tried excavating the hole in the concrete but it was too small to bash a 70mm (B&Q) post in to.
The repair spurs like this, that fit 700 mm posts nearly worked but were too wide at the top an wouldn't be very stable anyway due to the hole being rotted out.
What did work was removing the rotten fence post, excavating he hole and setting one of these in to the hole (with the fence post already hammered in).
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Concrete-Fence-Post-Support-for-Posts---75-x-75mm/p/540561
I did these one by one around the garden and the fence stayed up. Took a while but I didn't ever sacrifice an entire weekend to it at any point either....
I replaced one two rotten fence rails as I worked my way round, which considering that all the original posts had rotten away, was pretty good.
We do this all the time for customers, generally takes less than an hour to remove the old post and concrete and replace with new. Nearly always the best option.