Fencing/Trellis Demolition

[Alexam]

Not sure if anyone can help on this. I have a nice garden trellis with 3" x 4" PAR posts and rails, a lot of which is rotting badly. The height is 7' 6" above ground.

Some uprights need to be taken out and the post holes will be a problem to dig, possibly concreted in, as most are 'within' small hedge. I may need to rethink the design slightly?

To take out rails and replace, I need a saw that will cut through the large nails used and wonder if a reciprocating saw would be better as there is a lot to do. The inner 'white' trellis sections can be remaid fairly easily with 1.5" x 0.75".

Any suggestions fior suitable saws, hole diggers ( bought or rented - or borrowed) and possibly workman/men rates ?

Malcolm
Please also look at General section if you can help with leather work.

 

[lurker]

Metapost for uprights
Either lidl or aldi have a reciprocating saw in next week. You can get metal blades for these. Damn useful bit of kit for rough jobs.

 

[porker]

Hi Malcolm
I would use a sabre saw with a pallet blade which will cut through the odd nail. Great for this sort of job. I have the Lidl one. Great tool. For digging the post holes I bought a digging bar and post hole digger from screwfix which made steady progress but quite physical. The digging bar will break concrete up too if you take it steady and scoop out with the digger. Assuming you are replacing with similar I would use postcrete and a plastic post saver that pokes above the surface as the rot is always where the posts are constantly getting wet and dry a few inches above ground level. HTH. Matt

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[marcros]

what is the concrete contained by? A mate had some rotted posts, but the concrete was only into the ground. In his case, with the help of a 6ft iron bar, it was easy enough to remove the ball of concrete by loosening it and lifting it out in one. Heavy work, but much quicker than breaking it up to remove it.

Another idea could be to cut the posts off at ground level, and put the new ones in between the others (instead of at 0, 6ft, 12ft etc, go for 3ft, 9ft, 15ft etc)

 

[MusicMan]

Another possibility is "godfathers" - dig out at the base of the rotted posts, set in the godfathers, which are short concrete posts with bolt holes, then bolt your original posts (or replacements if you want) back onto them. I did this with fence posts that rotted very quickly despite being properly tantalised, due to a lot of water draining into it from a path the other side. It's been solid as a rock since and the flowers/shrubs make the concrete hardly noticeable. They stick up about 12 - 18" from the ground and can go either side of the post. The nice thing is that you don't need to dismantle the fence.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If the wood is very rotten and the concrete in reasonable nick, it might be worth trying to get the posts out leaving the concrete in place. You could cut the new ones slightly smaller, soak them in preservative and coat them with PU glue to stop the gaps filling with water. If you use concrete and not metposts make sure the concrete is built up around the posts and fleeted away.

 

[Alexam]

Music Man & Phil.p
Godfathers would not be an option astetically and space wise. As for the posts, I expect the posts have a lump of concete around the rotted base, which is why I am thinking of positioning another post, say a foot away and bringing that into the open rather than trying to place a post in the centre of the hedge. Still thinking what's best but thanks for the input everyone.
Malcolm

 

[mbartlett99]

I've got a similar issue to tackle eventually on a fence thats only 6 yrs old yet our old house still has the fence my dad and I put up 24 yrs ago - the difference? Dad put all the post ends in a bucket of creosote for a week its still available to trade. Failing that a bucket of dirty engine oil.

 

[powertools]

If you can reposision​ the posts that is the best option. As for tools all i will say is that part of our project of building a new house in the garden of our last house i had to build a fence that involved putting in 30 posts into challenging ground and although many members on here will find it amusing i purchased a Silverline digging bar and post hole digger and they did the job well.

 

[Jasper42]

I had a similar problem at the edge of the drive and did not want to start gigging up the drive. Cut the posts off as low as possible, used the biggest drill bit I had and drill out as much as possible, finished off with a chisel. Took a while but saved time for me over all. The concrete square holes were kept in shape so hammered the new posts in after a little bit off trimming.that was 4-5 years ago and no issues.

I have a hammer drill now so would try that.

Austin

 

[ColeyS1]

That is one spectacularly pretty garden !

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[dickm]

That is one spectacularly pretty garden !

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+1!

 

[raywrightfive]

Use plastic posts no rot for 30 yrs
Look for filcris

 

[Neil S]

Just as another option, I once replaced a post in my existing garden fence that needed to be in the same position so the panels still fitted.

Metpost make fence post repair spikes like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/fence-repair-spike-75-x-75mm-2-pack/23093?_requestid=127228

Which you dig out the old rotten wooden post then drive the repair spike into the square hole left in the concrete.
For good measure (and to stop the hole filling up with water and rusting) I then filled the rest of the hole void with a small stone concrete mix that I could pour in through the met post top. It worked really well and we had no trouble afterwards.
I only kept the fence for 5 years before replacing the lot though.

HTH

-Neil

 

[Alexam]

Thanks Neil,
that's a good suggestion and one which will possibly be taken up.particularly if I am doing this myself. The other brackets can be used to join posts togethrr for additional support. Pity the spikes are not 4 x 3 but suppose could fill the extra inch if using that size. Just that that is the size the whole structure is built with and not 4x4"

NOW ........ a suitable reciprocating saw that will take a blade for heavy nails as well as blade/s for wood? Not the top price, but reasonable good. Any suggestions from anyone please?
Malcolm

 

[Alexam]

Use plastic posts no rot for 30 yrs
Look for filcris

Cheers Ray, bit pricy, but could be a possibility for some work.
Malcolm

 

[Neil S]

NOW ........ a suitable reciprocating saw that will take a blade for heavy nails as well as blade/s for wood? Not the top price, but reasonable good. Any suggestions from anyone please?
Malcolm

I've had 3 reciprocating saws.
A really cheap NuTool one that shook and rattled so much it was unusable.

The Ryobi one plus 18v which was ok but only ran for 5 minutes on a full charge and ultimately killed the NiCad batteries in my one plus kit.

This prompted me to get a corded saw which is the Bosch PSA700E. Its from their green range so DIY only not a pro tool.
Whichever saw you get make sure it has variable speed (they might all have this though).

Edit: Forgot to say that I've been very happy with the Bosch. I've had it for 2 years and it's been used for a variety of tasks. Mostly in the garden lopping tree branches cutting large tree roots and chopping up the Christmas tree to get it in the green bin.

Lidl or Aldi often do a pack of blades that includes large green wood blades and they are great for those tasks.
Bosch make some very good blades as well but they are expensive.

Cheers

-Neil

 

[Alexam]

Sorted out the sabresaw and went for the De-Walt model as it has 4 blade positions, which could be useful. Apart from a few shorter bits, I have decided to get someone in to put in 7-8 new posts. I can cut out the old ones and re-position the new posts to fit.

The price of timber has surprised me. Looking at Western Red Cedar as a durable softwood and need it planed to 70mm x 95mm from 4x"3 and will need 10 ft lengths. Price so far for 10 posts (extra for cross sections) £874 delivered, but still looking around

Is there any other timber I could use, possibly Douglas Fir although not as durable.
Added a couple more shots of the trellis

 

[timber]

Sorted out the sabresaw and went for the De-Walt model as it has 4 blade positions, which could be useful. Apart from a few shorter bits, I have decided to get someone in to put in 7-8 new posts. I can cut out the old ones and re-position the new posts to fit.

The price of timber has surprised me. Looking at Western Red Cedar as a durable softwood and need it planed to 70mm x 95mm from 4x"3 and will need 10 ft lengths. Price so far for 10 posts (extra for cross sections) £874 delivered, but still looking around

Is there any other timber I could use, possibly Douglas Fir although not as durable.

European Larch will last a fair while, Local sawmill may have some !!??
Timber

 

[No skills]

What Phil said about post replacement + 1

Sds drill with a chisel works well for getting the last bits of rotten post chopped up in the hole, some times you can wind a very large screw in and lever the lump of post out.

Leave the posts sat in a tin of your favourite wood preserver for a week or two, once they've sucked up as much as they can let them dry for a bit and paint the bottom with a bitumen based product,