Fence repair

We had a fence post rot away and collapse in the autumn winds and are now just getting around to thinking about replacing it. The post was concreted in to the ground so there is a lump of concrete with the post stub in it which I need to remove in order to get the replacement post in. It's got to be in the same place in order to enable me to align with the existing fence panels. It's on a boundary and has an espalier apple tree in front of it on our side and a knee high old stone wall on the other side so it's not feasible to get any power tools in there (apart maybe from a hand held power drill).

Any suggestions apart from sheer back breaking hard work for getting the old concrete base and remaining post stub out?

 

Yep, if the drill has a hammer setting, drill 4 holes in it with a masonry bit, bang some dowels the same width as the holes in and wet them. Masons use wooden wedges & water to split girt blocks of stone. Might work.

 

I've resorted to using one of these in a similar situations when the post foundation was also wrapped around a drain pipe.






P.S. I first googled 'fencing shoes' (rather than fence post shoes) and got loads of hits for sporting footwear.

 

Scrungee, yes I've used those when building an arch where one post had to stand on a paved area but in this case there's just the concrete in the post hole and around it is loose soil so there isn't a flat surface wide enough to bolt a fence shoe to. I suppose I could dig out around the hole and then fill it with concrete to create a base but space is a bit limited and I don't think I could create a big enough base to give stability.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

If you can extract the rotten wood from the concrete and the concrete is in good condition you could use a spiked fence post support, a bit like Scrungee's but with a long spike at the base instead of a flat bracket. All you'd need to do is fit the 'bracket' and spike to the base of your new post, pour some concrete, I use 'postcrete', down the hole and then hammer down the new post and leave things to set.
The advantage of using metal brackets of any type is that the base of the posts are kept out of contact with the wet ground.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/metal-post-spike-24in/invt/542500/

 

I've come across similar problems, reason I would now only ever use concrete posts.

If the lump of concrete is not too big I'd go for digging it out, but you do end up with a fairly large hole then which needs to be filled with concrete again for the new post.

I think, but not sure, that you can actually get a metal spike type fixing that is supposed to hammer straight into the remaining fence post stump in the concrete, but I've never tried them, and feel sure you would find it very difficult keeping the thing plumb.

 

Can you try and snap the old post as close to the concrete and get a big drill bit and drill loads of holes in the old post. Smash the old post out with a big breaker bar, then drop the new post into the hole made from the old post in the concrete and drop some fresh concrete on top. I did this at a mates a few years ago and it is still standing.

Rusty

 

One like this should be capable of being sledge hammered between the remaining piece of old post (assuming it's still sound) and the concrete surrounding it:

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. The old post snapped at ground level and the top part of the remaining stub is pretty soft. I've not yet explored how deep I need to go before I start to meet sound wood because I keep on putting it off to the next mild, dry and still day and they have been rather lacking this March.

I've used the post spikes before and like them for the reason suggested ie keeping the base of the post out of damp soil. I've used a 3ft piece of fence post to hammer them in and found them relatively easy to keep plumb by taking measurements against that. However the location of this post between a stone wall and an espalier apple would make it difficult to swing a sledge hammer with any degree of force.

I think drilling out the wood will be the first step then I'll get a better idea of whether I could a) drop the new post in and add more concrete or b) use a fence spike in the existing hole or c) have to break up the old concrete and remove it. At the moment I'm hoping I'll be able to go with the first solution.

 

Option (d)



+ use a thick timber packer between the existing post and repair post to extend beyond existing post foundation.

 

Well after a long delay due to a) the cold weather and b) a severe dose of man flu , and c) the windy weather, we finally got it done.

We eventually went for the digging out the old post (hard work but got there eventually), dropping the new post in, and filling with postcrete, method.

Hopefully that'll last another ten years and who knows where we'll be then