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Mortimer wrote:
I common with many others I expect, my garden fence posts have rotted
at ground level and snapped.Over the years I have tried various things
such as hammering angle iron as close as possible into ground next to
posts and screwing good section to those. Also tried meta-posts in a
couple of places - work for some months then next high winds and
everything is moving around again. The posts were originally set into
quite large concrete blocks/balls so my next idea is to remove the
posts and panels,clear the tops of the concrete and using a kango
hammer open up the square hole in the concrete where the post has
rotted away to about twice its' size now.When holes opened up will
drop in new posts - will modern pressure treated ones be resistant to
rot? Fill in the gap with new concrete ensuring posts are vertical and
job done! Will a kango hammer be OK for this kind of job? I presume I
can hire one for a weekend. This plan is an alternative to having the
whole job done professionally as that could be expensive.

I think one of the fundamental problems is that wooden posts set in
concrete are not a good idea. It's much better to simply drive a
treated wooden post direct into the ground. Our round wooden posts
driven into the ground this way have lasted six years so far and seem
good for several years more. If you need more strength against the
wind then use longer posts, don't try and improve things with lumps of
concrete.

The thing is that the concrete is well established at each place there
is a fence post, I don't fancy having to excavate it all out hence my
idea of enlarging the exsisting hole and re-using the solid ballast of
the concrete to support a new post.If I use well treated posts and
keep then free of loose soil they should last OK shouldn't they?