My neighbour recently began erecting a 6 foot fence made from concrete posts, concrete gravel boards and timber panels. I have noticed that he has just set the posts into the ground and compacted the soil back around them He hasn't used concrete. Although he has sunk the posts quite deep into the ground he thinks that this will suffice. The ground though gets boggy and I fear that the weight of the posts will cause them to sink in time resulting in unevenness. That's if the whole lot doesn't blow over before this. Has anyone got any thoughts on this as a method of fence erecting? I fear he is creating problems but he wont listen.
Concrete posts are more likely to fall over than timber posts. Fences get massive side pressures on them from the wind. You have an idiot for a neighbour.
I guess it would be because there is more weight above ground! And less 'give'. Mr. HandyAndy - Really
Compacting just the soil back around the posts isn't good, if he was compacting fine hardcore it would be ok, you don't concrete in solid oak posts just compacted hardcore to allow drainage, maybe if all wooden posts were done that way you wouldn't get so many snapping off at ground level due to rotting. Drifted a bit there from the subject sorry, if he is putting them in at the required 600mm depth then apart from some possible lateral movement I doubt it will fall over, but because the panels are slotted in, the smallest movement will cause problems with panels falling out.
We are told that the ground gets boggy. Simple Maths as far as I'm concerned. It is all to do with the height of the centre of gravity and the turning moment when a force is applied. If the post is set in concrete, the concrete becomes part of the post and the weight of the concrete lowers the centre of gravity of the concrete post. The lower the centre of gravity, the more stable the post.
The oldens know best.......or so they tell us. My step father did the same a few years ago.....just would not listen when I said the posts NEED to go deeper and with more concrete. Did he listen.....did he hell. 8 fence panels and post all came down within a couple of weeks. It cost him to replace broken panels......oh how we chuckled.
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