renewing fence post for the third time!

[Peter Bull]

A fence post has snapped again and needs renewing for the 3dr time. I remember last time, I put soooo many bags of ready mix into the hole. This time I recock I'll need a readymix truck. The post HAS to go in the same place. Is there anything I can do other than drilling out the old concrete and putting more in?

[Colin Wilson]

Is it a wooden or concrete post ?

We had "proper" treated wood buried in concrete when we first did our fence about 10 years ago and had problems with rot and posts snapping within about 6 years. Panels seemed more liable to popping out in high winds, and when we found ourselves getting up at 3am as soon as the wind started to blow to try to resecure it to keep our dogs in, we knew we had to do something...

We replaced the entire fence with concrete posts and haven`t had a problem since.

[Clive Summerfield]

Try one of these repair fixings from Metpost

Or alternatively, remove the remains of the old post and replace with a new post fixed using a bolt-down Final alternative is to switch to using concrete posts.

Cheers Clive

[BigWallop]

I bet it's an end post with wire fencing (?), and you're putting that much strain on it that it keeps breaking. Try putting angled buttresses against the side that the strain is pulling from and relieve some of the pressure on the main post.

Best to dig it all out and break it up with a huge big hammer, then use it again as a filler for a drop more cement (only cement) as a binder to hold it all together.

But if you're straining a post that hard, then it's bound to keep breaking, especially without extra support.

[Simon Gardner]

We replaced our with concrete spurs - with the posts bolted well clear of the ground onto those. Nice compromise of durability and appearance.