Just a thought as I have just had a new fence.....
Concrete posts sometimes seem to fail due to the steel reinforcing rods corroding. Is there any point in trying to reduce moisture getting into the concrete by using some sort of paint or sealant? Or isn't this corrosion much of an issue on new posts?
Don't be so bloody daft. They are only a tenner or so to replace. They should easily last a couple of decades.
Start saving up now. Thats 50 pence a post per annum. Can you afford a penny a week?
As funny as that response was, the question perhaps in these greener times is. Does the enviromental impact of the method of longevity outweigh that of the well known high enviromental impact of producing yet more concrete.
-- Mike W
Thanks to both of you - I thought I might be wasting my time - but the environmental one is an interesting one and I feel we (generally) don't do enough maintenance as replacement is always more fun - eg. Councils allow buildings to suffer lack of basic maintenance (gutters cleared, woodwork painted, etc) then lo and behold the place has to be demolished as it will cost too much to repair. Similar examples - Must buy some new outside Xmas decorations from China - I can't be bothered to use the old ones - anyway - I fancy a 6 foot Santa Snowstorm. My 4 year old widescreen 32 inch TV will have to be replaced before its time so that I can play with a new Plasma or LCD screen - Damn - the programmes are the same!
I will leave my new posts alone and hope that in my old age I won't need to get someone to dig out the lumps of concrete that they have been set into - half a pitch away from the previous concrete lumps that held the wooden posts.
Who cares!
Councils usually do that to get around Laws protecting listed buildings. They turn a blind eye to people getting inside them and make sure they fall in to such a state that they have to be demolished - which was previously refused. Then you get a load of tiny flats built on the land handed out to smackheads and people that travel through many different countries to take advantage of our benefit system and drain the country.
I would say yes, give them a coat of something, preferably in summer...the moisture can only get to the steel through the concrete, so painting them will effectively slow this down considerably
And the 18 inch by 14 inch lump of concrete at the base of each one? - will that just melt away leaving a new hole for the £10 posts to go in?
They don't last 'decades' neither, at least, most of them don't, I've seen posts disintegrate within 5 years in exposed conditions.
The ones on my fence took more than 60 years to fail. I haven't bothered to provide additional protection for their successors.
Colin Bignell
Don't be the complete pillock I take you for IMM or are/was you Drivvel?
In an exposed situation, how long do you think the paint will last? 6 months? And how many tins will he get through before he realises it would have been cheaper and less unsightly to let them rust?
Don't be so bloody daft yourself - it isn't the cost of the posts themselves, it's all the bloody labour to get the old ones out and the new ones in the ground that's the problem!!
JellyBelly
That's pretty much down to poor concrete.. If the cement ratio is high enough to make them relatively inpervious to water then the steel will last indefinitely.
However if its 'screed grade' with plenty of voids, water will get in freeze and split them and expose the rods after a couple of hard winters..
The answer is to buy good grade ones in the first place then.
Paint on render lasts a lot longer than that. You've got a good key on a surface that doesn't move. But somehow I don't think painting concrete fence posts will make them last any longer.
Liquid Plastics K501 waterproofer - like Thomsons Waterseal on steroids - has a 10 year guarantee and *does* work.
JellyBelly
This isn't known by the purchaser.
Even solid,good grade concrete will blow apart if the steel is too near the surface, again not usually possible for the purchaser to know.
I don't know what any of that s**te is supposed to mean, so I wil just put it down to your meds wearing off.
I didn't say paint, monkey brain, I said a coat of something, you probably have visions of someone painting concrete posts with emulsion, although this isn't surprising given your 'knowledge' displayed so far...
hmmmm...do you imagine that concrete fence manufacterers make several grades of each product?
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