Preserving wood in concrete

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Hiya All,

I'm about to embark on building an adobe wall outside my house (clay bricks basically). I intend to put in a gate and in order to hang this thing, I will be putting prolly 3"x8" rough cut cedar or pine into the ground against the wall ends to create the frame. I plan to set these in concrete around

24" deep. I'll then fasten the wood to the wall but can't rely on the adobe to provide a whole lot of support (hence, sinking the frame into the ground). I'm worried about the wood rotting out.

I will be using an asphaltum in the morter and was wondering if just dipping the ends of the boards into this stuff (essentially 24") would provide me the protection I need. Would this work or is there a better way?

Thanks much, cc

[roger61611]

Not sure I quite have the picture, but if I follow, my answer would be that I would not expect the wood to rot if encased in concrete. I would expect the wood, if pine, that is above ground to wear faster, but still the whole thing as described if maintained properly seems like it would last for a loooong time.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Wood in concrete will in fact rot due to Concrete's porosity. It allows moisture in. I'm trying to avoid having to replace these things in 5 years or so. Of course, I'm in NM which is pretty dry so maybe I'm worrying about nothing. Thanks for the reply! Cheers, cc

[Ron]

[Duane Bozarth]

In that climate it'll last a long time. (I'm in far SW KS, not far from NE NM)

If you add some gravel to bottom of hole to provide a weep area for faster absorption to keep the water from standing, it'll help. If you're in one of the real sandy areas, that's probably overkill. Here, we've got some caliche about bottom of hole depth, so usually put some sand in for permanent posts....

[Duane Bozarth]

....

I didn't catch the pine in my other note...I'm not in favor for permanent building, either...

[Mark]

I set some kind of powder coated metal fixture in concrete and bolt the post to it. I've seen them a home centers. That way when the post eventually rots, you just remove some bolts and replace it in the fixture. You don't have to dig out the concrete and reset a post.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Yeah, Pine would go pretty quickly and is a haven for termites around here. Interestingly, just about every house that has an adobe courtyard and uses wood, has pine. I'm bent on trying to find cedar but I doubt I'll find it in 3"x8" sizes. I may have to join/glue some boards together to get what I want. Cheers, cc