So my fence blew down last night

Well a big bit of it anyway.

On examination of the prostrate fence it was pretty obvious why it had blown over.

Fence is 2 metres high but the fence post are only 2.4m long so there was only around 400mm actually concreted into the ground.

My understanding is that fence posts should have a third of their overall length in the ground.

Do I have any come back on the builders? House is 4 years old.

Pretty sure mine don’t have 1/3 in the ground – something like 50cm tops. 4″ posts.

I’d just get a few of these, concrete them in with postcrete and sort it out myself;

😀 @ Macavity

Wwaawas: Concrete repair Spur?

General rule of thumb would be 1/3 of fence height undergound, so 6ft fence, have 2ft undergound, use 8ft posts. Soil conditions and wind exposure matter more than rules of thumb though, as you have just found out. Do you think an extra 250mm underground would have helped this time?

General rule of thumb would be 1/3 of fence height undergound, so 6ft fence, have 2ft undergound, use 8ft posts. Soil conditions and wind exposure matter more than rules of thumb though, as you have just found out. Do you think an extra 250mm underground would have helped this time?

I’ll never know if the fence would have stayed up last night if the the posts had been dug deeper, it was a tad breezy up here last night, but it certainly would have stood a better chance if the “General rule of thumb” had been followed by the builders

Doesn’t seem anything like enough post in the ground to keep them in for any length of time at all.

We have 3m posts for a 2m fence spaced at 6ft I think, all concreted in – its a long run of fence (about 60ft alongside a ginnel). None of the winds we’ve had have even made it budge an inch – it seems rock-solid so far (been in for a year).

Do you expect your new house to be built properly? Ha ha ha!! Even less so the fence which will have been erected in minutes using the cheapest possible materials.

If you have a lower fence it won’t blow down as easily.

richmtb – that’s the fellow.

Our posts have all rotted through level with the soil so I’ve been working my way round fitting these. Biggest pain is that the posts were conrceted in so I have to get rid of that on one side of the post to fit the spur. Thankfully I have a 2.5kg sds hammer drill thingy to break it up. Once the spur’s in I bung a couple of bags of postcrete in to hold it in place.

If any of the posts go in future I’ll just keep the spur and bolt a new post to it.

So I don’t have an SDS drill.

Would a bolster and sledgehammer shift the concrete?

Or should i hire a breaker?

are they def concreted in – have the posts snapped off or the whole concrete ball at the end come out the ground too?

[edit] read op now – 2nd part of question still stands!

the whole concrete ball at the end come out the ground too?

That’s exactly what happened

Four posts out of the ground complete with lumps of concrete round them.

So I think there are three ways of fixing it.

1. Remove fence post from the fence panels. Buy longer ones, dig a deeper hole. Concrete the new posts in.

2. Remove concrete from the base of existing posts (no idea ho much of a ball ache this will be) Attach to repair spur and re-concrete the existing holes.

3. Cut the fence posts off and dig new holes for new fence posts (but if I’m doing this I might as well just go with option 1 (digging holes is hard work!)

I’d probably go for 1) but add the repair spurs from day one ‘cos you’ll need them sooner or later as the posts always rot through at ground level. Or get concrete posts?

(I am not a fencer)

as a (depressingly more than I’d like) experienced DIY fencer I was intrigued by the newish,rather well made fence in our new(to us) house, the posts have a tight ?plastic? sleeve around them that goes 6″ above earth to a least flowerbed difgging depth below, as ime every post fails here I am thinking this is an evolutional improvment – but then it’s only a couple of years old – pudding/eating etc. Anybody know anything about these as I’ve never seen these before.

re repair spurs. Scottish alternative – metal bed frames essential, get the metal and cut into appropriate lengths of angle, get a bleeding big hammer and batter two bits down opposing sides of the post of the bit left in ground, drill/bolt together – hey presto and it is less intrusive than the spurs.

rich – I dropped you a text yesterday, can you pop me your new postal addy, cheers

I was told many years ago (when labouring for a gardener/handiman) that manually driving a post into the ground (rather than concreting it in) extends it’s life as the wood has more opportunity to ‘breathe’ with the surrounding area rather than be encased in concrete with inevitable moisture being trapped there.

Is this correct?

IME, wooden posts will rot at ground level ^^

If you’ve put posts in deep enough to begin with then it’s a pain because removal means disturbing even more soil surrounding the original hole and more rubble/concrete to backfill to stable ground

Concrete posts don’t look as nice (IMHO), depends how long you plan on staying, but will be easier in the future

Don’t dig, hire/buy a post hole borer, neater job and less concrete used

Use a pick axe to break the old concrete and whilst I think concrete are better and csn look good if you do a good job fitting them, wooden (100mm ) will last 10yrs plus.

Industry standard is 600mm in the ground for any fence up to 1800mm high.
400mm is not deep enough although the fence still may have gone over if the ground is soft. Best thing os to remove the rails from the posts, replace posts with 2400 long ones and use postmix. Then refix the fence ro the new posts. Only use a hole borer if the ground is soft, if it is hard/stony the auger will jam and throw you across the garden.

So I don’t have an SDS drill.

Would a bolster and sledgehammer shift the concrete?

Sure, but an hour in you’ll have wished you’d just spent £50 on a basic SDS…

Id be putting in new 8ft x 4inch wooden posts down over 2ft. Hire a post hole scoop hand tool. Make sure the bottom of the post is deeper than the bottom of the postcrete (2 bags per post). The fence should last much longer than ten years! Ram the earth/rubble down hard a few times around the bottom of the post before adding postcrete, using the handle end of a pick.

Those plastic sleeves on wooden posts are to prevent rot at ground level I think.

Wasn’t it one of the dragon den winners?

“I was told many years ago (when labouring for a gardener/handiman) that manually driving a post into the ground (rather than concreting it in) extends it’s life as the wood has more opportunity to ‘breathe’ with the surrounding area rather than be encased in concrete with inevitable moisture being trapped there.”

Them crazy hill farmers all over scotland dontt know shit when it comes to fences 😉 they jst never seem to last when they bash em in ……. Oh wait they do , for many many 10s if not hundreds of years…..

These help

17lb post hole digger / drop chisel thing

After years of replacing wooden posts I replaced all of mine with concrete last year. 6 inch concrete gravel boards sit on the ground and slide the panels in. Should have done it years ago.

http://www.ttf.co.uk/article/use-class-4-fence-posts-142.aspx

Since the ban on chromate, copper and arsenate (CCA) wood preservatives in the UK in 2004 timber fences may only have a life span of 5 to 10 years.

Mine blew down in the last windy spell, Its our new house and I don’t really own any tools, I had to smash up the concrete with a screwdriver and a small hammer. Oh how much fun that was.

In the end I put a bolt on meta post to the new post and used postcrete to cement it back into the hole.
As soon as I can afford it the lots coming out and concrete posts and gravel boards are going in.

We have a particularly exposed run of fencing that probably got flattened 4 or 5 times in the past before I built a ‘hit and miss’ fence to replace it, it’s been great ever since – 10 years or so