Replacing driveway gates

Likely to be rotted at ground level, may be largely good below ground. Try drilling horizontally as low as possible, push a solid metal bar through, and lever post out. You may be lucky if the post has shrunk in the hot weather. Bashing the post may loosen it. If it breaks you may have 18" to drill or chisel out. The concrete may fracture whilst you do any of that.

Larch or oak.

I have a smallholding with lots (hundreds?) of wooden posts supporting electric fence. I also have some gateposts like yours. Wooden posts almost always rot at the point where they enter the ground, the part actually in the ground is often quite sound. I have some 300mm galvanised coach screws that I drive into the underground part of the post and then pull it out with my little tractor's hydraulic lift. This works nearly always, it sometimes takes a couple of tries.

Do you have a friendly local farmer or smallholder with a little tractor? Alternatively maybe my screw technique plus some levers might do the job.

Snap (nearing my 80th year that is) :-)

An alternative to the tractor hoist is to use the replacement post as a lever once you have secured a rope to the old stump.

I store replacement posts for some months to dry and then dip the soil engagement part in Creosote to extend their life. I guess, at our age, this is not particularly useful:-)>

Rubber or plastic gaiters are available in various sizes that are intended to cover circa 9” either side of the air/ground interface of the post, in order to stop the post rotting.

Unfortunately I can’t recall where I’ve seen them…

Winding heavy-duty sticky tape onto the posts in order to do the same job might be a goer.

FYI: There are post savers available for wooden posts. Basically thick shrink tube. -

A variation on that theme I used was to get something fixed to the stump attach that to a bar, and use a pair of trolley jacks to lift the bar.

Galvanised would last best... powder coat looks ok until it fails and then is harder to paint. So I would probably opt for painted if not getting galvanised.

I have built an ornate hand rail a couple of times, and quite enjoyed it. Have a look at a supplier like FH Brundle - they do loads of fence and wrought iron components for making up stuff.

I used to before I moved to the city's suburbs

:)

I've got a couple of scissor jacks, I suppose it's worth a try but the post has rotted throughout from not being properly sealed at the top.

I guess if the subground part is sound then I could try screwing an eye bolt into it. Or may just work away with a hole saw?

I saw a technique, probably YouTube, where a rope around a vehicle wheel served as a post remover. Wonder if I could do that?

If you can get a fixing into it, then that could work. Do you know if the post was set in concrete, or just direct into soil?

Not recommended if anything goes wrong you can guarantee damage to the car and possible lethal consequences for any passer-by. You tube is full of these red neck solutions and most end up as amusing examples of not what to do.

Might have been a tractor wheel

Yes, looked at the Brundle range and certainly all their budget ones that I can find do not have a simple top rail, all hoops or spears.

Not sure I understand the question in view of the fact that my OP said "set in concrete". It's on the edge of a concreted driveway but I'd expect there to be soil below that.

They will sell you the bits to make your own though :-)

When setting a post in the ground, you can dig a hole, stick the post in and back fill with soil. Or you can back fill with concrete.

Both these options can be used even of the surface is then subsequently concreted to make a flat surface.

It tends to be easier to pull a post out if it is just set in soil. If it has bulbous concrete end, it is less easy to pull out unless the post will slip out of the socket that was formed around it.

Thanks. I don't know then. No doubt I'll find out in due course.