Fence posts

[Toyboy]

I don't know if any of you would bother to do this with all the treated lumber now days. When I'm putting a post or whatever into the ground, I'll first spray the below ground portion with rubberized undercoating you get at WalMart etc. I've had some in the ground over 20 years (bird house posts) and when I pulled them, they were solid. It also works good on fresh cuts on trees if you like to seal them. Some do, some don't. Just thought I'd pass that along.

 

[magicheater]

Very interesting, your poles had no bark on I take it. I use the stuff after pruning large limbs on trees, apple trees too.

 

[beenthere]

What is it called? just rubberized undercoating?

What species is the wood of your bird house post?

 

[zzvyb6]

I've been using 8' untreated landscape timbers for horse fencing for 25 years. When I have pulled them up to move a fence line they are still good (although I turn them upside down for good luck). BTW: they are $1.97 apiece at Lowes every day around here. I screw my bluebird houses to these post. They are made from cedar fence boards . Racoons, sparrows amd birdshot (to kill the sparrows) are the only things making them go bad...

 

[Toyboy]

Rubberized Undercoating comes in various brands. I just mentioned WalMart because most everyone has one close by. It's pretty cheap too, under $3 a can if I recall right. I've been using it on cedar posts for bird houses, but I've gone to using it on anything buried in the ground, treated or untreated (which can go bad also). Works really well in wet areas. Keeps the post from drawing water. I put a couple of 4x4 treated posts w/dead men on them in my sand volleyball court last year. Sprayed them before setting them, and don't have to worry about ever replacing them. Not in my lifetime anyway.

Years ago I sprayed several coats on the bottom of a stainless steel kitchen sink to kill the tinny sound. It's best to do that on a new sink, so you can let it cure and give it time for the odor to dissipate for a couple weeks before installing.

 

[magicheater]

Years ago I sprayed several coats on the bottom of a stainless steel kitchen sink to kill the tinny sound. It's best to do that on a new sink, so you can let it cure and give it time for the odor to dissipate for a couple weeks before installing.

Did this also years ago, couldn't see paying the xtra $20 they wanted for a "sound deadened" sink.

 

[Bird]

I've been using 8' untreated landscape timbers for horse fencing for 25 years.

I'm wondering whether what you call "landscape timbers" is the same thing we call by that name; 8' poles, round on two sides and flat on two sides. And I suppose the time it takes them to rot out depends on your soil, but they don't last any time at all in this part of the country. I've never known of one to last 2 years and usually less than one year.

 

[mustangsallysdad]

I don't know if any of you would bother to do this with all the treated lumber now days. When I'm putting a post or whatever into the ground, I'll first spray the below ground portion with rubberized undercoating you get at WalMart etc. I've had some in the ground over 20 years (bird house posts) and when I pulled them, they were solid. It also works good on fresh cuts on trees if you like to seal them. Some do, some don't. Just thought I'd pass that along.

I do something similar with any wood product that I place in the ground...I use "brush grade" asphalt foundation coating...pretty cheap by the 5 gallon bucket at Lowe's or Home Depot. Works really well.

 

[freedomlives]

I know its a sin to resurrect dead threads, but just wondering, 10 years later, how the asphalt or rubber coatings are working? I know the ACQ pressure treating isn't as good as the CCA-- had to do some repairs on the 12 year old deck at my mom's while we were in the US this winter-- posts I had put in the ground in concrete. Likewise, some 4x4 fence posts broke off at the base when a limb I was cutting off a tree hit the fence, they weren't older than 15 years. 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.

There is a product from England called a "Post Saver" which heat shrinks around the bottom part of the posts, but, well, its in England, everything shipping wise is screwed up by COVID-19, and I can get asphalt water proofing compound or rubber-asphalt underbody paint easily. Wondering if its worth the added cost and time to coat the bottoms of the new posts I'll put in (which will be either black locust, or some small oaks I've had to cut down).

 

[EddieWalker]

I've always thought that painting tar or something similar on the bottom portion of a post would help. Especially in the area where it's just under the surface, and just above the ground. But when I install a post, I've never done it. I make sure to mound up the soil or concrete so water drains away from the post and there isn't a low area next to the post. That low area holds water, and that water causes the rot. If you can get the water away from the post, there is no standing water, and the posts seem to last forever. 100% of every rotten post that I've seen has been from there being a low area around the base of the post. When I remove the post, the buried part usually looks brand new.

 

[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,,