I want to put a fence up at the bottom of my garden - where it adjoins the local river, not a very big river but usually has water in it except possibly at the height of a dry summer.
A local supplier has suggest tannalised (?sp) birch would last for perhaps ten years in this wet ground. I wonder if it's worth going for concrete post and bolting the wood to them a bit above ground level.
Any thoughts or experience of this situation in the group?
Many thanks.
We have a load of fencing running along a stream, done in pressure treated (tannalised) softwood. The ground is very, very wet. Many of the posts are in excess of 20 years old and are still fine.
Grunff
Thanks, that's re-assuring, twenty years will see me out!
The big clue is "very, very wet". Wood does not rot in such conditions look at the timber relics found in bogs etc. Rot needs just the right levels of moisture and air to live. Thes conditions are normally found in a band slightly below and just above ground level for a post buried in normal conditions.
Depends on the OPs ground conditions and soil if tannalised timber will last 20+ years.
Fair point, but my assumption was that the constant presence of wet soil means that ideal rot conditions will exist somewhere along the length of each post all the time.
Well the conditions must exist somewhere as the post goes from waterlogged to "dry" at the upper end but I suspect that the "ideal rot conditions band" moves rather more than it would with a post in normal moist soil.
Hot dry weather dries the post out lower down, wet weather and the post becomes wet to above the too dry level from the previous hot spell. This cycling would stop any rot getting a hold before being drowned or dried out. I don't *think* wet rot can go dormant like dry rot can.
Well it's a nice theory... B-) If you look at a buried post that is just starting to rot off at ground level the initial affected area is pretty narrow, less than a couple of inches.
Get H4 treated wood? It's usually (IIRC) used in permanently wet situations. e.e.g Piers standing in water. In fact it'll stand up to sea water quite nicely...
Not sure about what will possibly leach from them though... Lots of Arsenic IIRC...
Standing permanently in sea water would probably be less demanding than being stuck in garden soil with the endless wet/dry cycles. I don't think rot can survive in salt or, for that matter, in water. It needs damp
Salt water definitely inhibits rot - wooden dinghys used in the sea have far less problem with rot than those used in fresh water IMHE
Robert royall at which net
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