Adding concrete to buried fence posts

I installed a vinyl fence last year. I got an great deal of the vinyl fence and posts at the local Home Depot. The vinyl fence posts were too short - hey the were $3.00 with he caps!

The result was that I ripped down 4x4's on the table saw and extended the post by about 16 inches.

I did not install the fence with concrete for most of the posts, I did anchor the corners in 160 lbs of concrete.

On the windward side, the fence moved. Those posts have a lot of gravel below and around the posts. I wanted to add concrete and considered re-plumbing the posts with respect to corner posts and adding concrete.

These posts extend about 28 inches below grade. I really don't want to re-excavate the entire hole. I was thinking of excvating the top

16 inches and adding about 120 lbs of quickset per post.

I'm not thrilled with using concrete but that appears to be the only solution. Looking for suggestions as to how to set concrete for these posts.

Reply to
kbozek
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You only want to do this once. (well, once more)

I think it would be way faster to pull the posts and redo the holes rather than try to excavate around the posts. You really want to go deeper if you're having trouble with them moving.

I just drilled 20 8" dia by 36" deep post holes using once of the tow-behind hydraulic one-man post hole diggers in less than 1 hour. I rented it for a day for $75, but should have only rented it for 4 hours. It drilled through my heavy clay like butter. Way easier to use than the 1 or 2 man type with the engine on top.

Here's a link to a picture:

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If you can pull the posts, that digger will redig the hole right through the gravel. You can go deeper and then set them in concrete. I hate concrete on posts, but if you have soft soil, it's the only way.

HTH,

Paul

Reply to
Paul Franklin

Hi Paul,

I have very hard clay. However, it's jsut as bad as soft soil as it liquifies as it gets wet. My goal is to keep the post in place during these conditions. We live in an area of high winds and that usually accompanies rain so I can see how this problem got started.

I plan to do about 3 posts per weekend over the Summer. I'll take a look at your post. Thanks for the reply. K

Reply to
kbozek

Is the gravel "pea gravel" or crushed gravel? If you used round "pea gravel", replacing it with crushed gravel might do the job.

Bob

Reply to
Bob F

You might be able to "shop vac" the pea gravel out.

Bob

Reply to
Bob F

Pour a couple inches of gravel, set post, then another 6-8 inches of gravel, THEN add concrete. Any concrete trapping post will shorten life, but having drainage around the bottom will buy you some time. A post completely entombed in concrete will be lucky to make 10 years, other than in desert climate.

aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

It's regular bluestone gravel. I did put gravel below the post and around it. So I guess the question really becomes, do I just go ahead and excavate and set the concrete in each hole? I did compact the gravel and thought the holes were deep enough. I can tell you the clay here really liquifies when it gets wet. Really nasty to walk on.

Reply to
kbozek

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