Smart tips for fenceposts....

[Man at B&Q]

You can also get slot-in concrete barge boards to keep the panels off the ground. They don't rot!

MBQ

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 28 February 2013 13:26 Man at B&Q wrote in uk.d-i-y:

And strong enough to build an earth bank up against I reckon without railway sleepers (cf earlier comment about raising ground level 1-2' against part of this fence). Might need taller posts at this point (about 1/3 fence length).

[John Williamson]

They do, just not as quickly. Otherwise B&Q would be fifty quid worse off after last Autumn's windy weather.

[Andy Champ]

They've just been installed at the bottom of our garden for the neighbour who owns that boundary. Looks like a good job to me, better than the others I've seen done.

Andy

[stuart noble]

I think they look pretty good, and you don't really notice the posts

[harry]

You can buy stuff to do this without paying out a fortune to have it made. Google "fencing repair spike". They hammer into the broken off stub of fence post in the concrete.

[polygonum]

Having done four lots of fencing over the past years, albeit all very small scale, I would almost certainly choose 4" posts over 3", unless there were a particular reason to stick to 3". They simply were straighter, easier to handle, and look better. IMHO - and in our particular place.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 28 February 2013 18:40 harry wrote in uk.d-i-y:

No thanks - that's the sort of half arse weak crap I'm not going to use...

I've pulled a few out ove the years, Setting out, digging and concreting posts is time consuming, but of done properly, I expect to do that job once for the rest of my life (in this house anyway).

Panels break and rot - so as long as those are nearly trivial to replace I do not mind...

[Another John]

In what way easier to handle Rod? They're lot heavier than 3" aren't they?

I know, because I once mistakenly asked for 4 8-foot 4x4s instead of 3x3

-- bloody hell they were heavy! (Damn' good timbers though.)

John

[polygonum]

Yes - heavier. Yes - more expensive. But they stand on their ends easily!

For various reasons things took a long time to get done and I had to do it all alone. I found that I could put some quite wet concrete into a hole (whatever sort of mix), let it set and it would be nice and flat and horizontal at the bottom. Plonk post into hole, stands happily and lets fine positioning adjustment to be done - then fill up with rest of concrete.

And any height adjustment can be done before concreting it, but knowing exactly where it will be vertically.

[stuart noble]

If the base of the panels are clear of vegetation and soil they last forever IME

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 01 March 2013 08:05 stuart noble wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Yes - I did get a lightbulb moment when concrete dirtboards were mentioned.

Seems quality of concrete slotted posts varies (one of the sheds had reviews comparing them to swiss cheese), but there are some decent looking ones for

20 quid apiece on the internet. The dirtboards are cheap enough (one, or two per section, depending on if it's going to retain a little earth).

I'm tnking of either feather edged panels (maybe with domed tops) or possibly a 4' panel with a 2' trellis on top to soften the impact. I know trellis is weak, but once it's got some plantlife on it it's not so bad...

[David.WE.Roberts]

Another vote for concrete posts.

When we moved into our last house in 1984 the previous owner had put up two runs of concrete slotted posts with slip in panels.

When we moved out in 2007 they were still fine, apart from one or two showing a little bit of crumble. We had a couple of panels lift out in the hurricane, a couple rot, but no problem to replace.

So when we replaced the fence here we used the same method - concrete posts in post fix and concrete gravel boards.

It takes a while but the end result looks pretty good.

We have wedges in to stabilise a couple of the skinny panels.

Cheers

Dave R

[Man at B&Q]

Stronger in a way, as it provides less resistance to the wind.

MBQ

[polygonum]

And really rather nice if combined.

For various reasons, I used some full trellis panels, and three different fence panels including:

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 01 March 2013 10:34 polygonum wrote in uk.d-i-y:

That one is rather tasty :) Thanks for the link - bookmarked... Bugger - I'm out of their area - but I could probably find that somewhere else now I know. Never seen that style before.

[polygonum]

There are several similar makes around. Some less well made, some better. The price/quality combo as at link was quite acceptable to us.

I warn, however, that cutting them down to size is immensely tedious. I had to do so on about six panels - some like the link and some plain full-panel trellis.

And 4" posts set them off nicely - makes it look quite good. See here for our front garden:

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 01 March 2013 11:52 polygonum wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Nice!

[The Medway Handyman]

Not those, but a large selection here

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 01 March 2013 12:46 The Medway Handyman wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Also very interesting - thanks :)