Folow-up2 on replacing broken wooden fence post.

Well, AFTER I removed the stub of the old round wood fence post, I
manage to make about 5 mistakes, even though I hadn't made a single
mistake up until then.

The Good: I waited 4 days from last Friday to today, Tuesday, for the
water to drain out of the hole, and today I used a sledge hammer to
pound the post into the now empty bottom of the hole.

The Bad: I don't know how far to expect to pound it. I eyeballed the
post after I took it out, and eyeballed the hole, and said to myself
there are one or two inches of water in it, but who really knows.
Especially when looking at at the hole from the top of it. To eyeball a
tube, you want to see it from the side, not the end.

Mistake 1, I should have taken a steel tape measure and measured from
the top of the hole to the water line, then measured the part of the
post which was underground when I started pulling it out, then
subtracted and figured out how deep the water was.

Mistake 2, Better yet, I should have stuck a dry stick or dry yardstick
into the hole and measured how much of it got wet. Simpler and better.

Mistake 3. I should have checked if there were gravel in the bottom of
the hole, because even if the water level goes down, I'm not going to be
able to pound the post into the gravel. Better yet, I should have put
gravel in the hole because I've heard that's a good idea (see replies to
other post to find out if it really is.)

Mistake 4. I should have done the pounding on the post BEFORE I filled
the rest of the hole with dirt. At least in theory. In reality, I
don't think the extra dirt is really making it harder for the post to go
down. OTOH, something is, because surely I'm not forcing water out of
the hole now, surely it's drained out already, despite the clay and that
it didn't drain at all in 2 hours. I've given it 4 days!! And yet the
post only moves a little bit with every hit of thI had to pound about 30
times with the sledge to get it to move this far.

Mistake 5. I did note before I started pounding where the post was. I
used a couple nails still sticking through the fence section that was
leaning against the post, and noted where it was in relatiion to some
white flecks on the post. But I should have done a better job,
written down the relationship I noted, or something. Because I pounded
the post in several short sessions, and I kept being uncertain that I
was using the right marks. But I'm pretty certain and I'm up to 1.25
or 1.5 inches already. I'll wait a couple more days and pound some
more.

Because the post is still 7' long, and about 2 feet are underground it
came up to my nose, so using the sledge was different from normal.

Micky,

I'm having difficulty visualizing your hole. Is the fence in a swamp? The
"water-line" is 2'. What's a water-line? The water table had better be much
deeper than 2'. If the water table is only 2' you should not have a house
there. The foundation is not on solid ground.
What's a water-line?

Dave M.

On 9/17/2014 7:16 AM, David L. Martel wrote:
Micky,

I'm having difficulty visualizing your hole.


I've not even tried. He's not my type, but continue if you must.

micky wrote:
Folow-up2 on replacing broken wooden fence post.

Well, AFTER I removed the stub of the old round wood fence post, I
manage to make about 5 mistakes, even though I hadn't made a single
mistake up until then.

The Good: I waited 4 days from last Friday to today, Tuesday, for the
water to drain out of the hole, and today I used a sledge hammer to
pound the post into the now empty bottom of the hole.

The Bad: I don't know how far to expect to pound it. I eyeballed the
post after I took it out, and eyeballed the hole, and said to myself
there are one or two inches of water in it, but who really knows.
Especially when looking at at the hole from the top of it. To eyeball a
tube, you want to see it from the side, not the end.

Mistake 1, I should have taken a steel tape measure and measured from
the top of the hole to the water line, then measured the part of the
post which was underground when I started pulling it out, then
subtracted and figured out how deep the water was.

Mistake 2, Better yet, I should have stuck a dry stick or dry yardstick
into the hole and measured how much of it got wet. Simpler and better.

Mistake 3. I should have checked if there were gravel in the bottom of
the hole, because even if the water level goes down, I'm not going to be
able to pound the post into the gravel. Better yet, I should have put
gravel in the hole because I've heard that's a good idea (see replies to
other post to find out if it really is.)

Mistake 4. I should have done the pounding on the post BEFORE I filled
the rest of the hole with dirt. At least in theory. In reality, I
don't think the extra dirt is really making it harder for the post to go
down. OTOH, something is, because surely I'm not forcing water out of
the hole now, surely it's drained out already, despite the clay and that
it didn't drain at all in 2 hours. I've given it 4 days!! And yet the
post only moves a little bit with every hit of thI had to pound about 30
times with the sledge to get it to move this far.

Mistake 5. I did note before I started pounding where the post was. I
used a couple nails still sticking through the fence section that was
leaning against the post, and noted where it was in relatiion to some
white flecks on the post. But I should have done a better job,
written down the relationship I noted, or something. Because I pounded
the post in several short sessions, and I kept being uncertain that I
was using the right marks. But I'm pretty certain and I'm up to 1.25
or 1.5 inches already. I'll wait a couple more days and pound some
more.

Because the post is still 7' long, and about 2 feet are underground it
came up to my nose, so using the sledge was different from normal.

Hi,
Reading your posts, I always wonder how old you are.....

On Wed, 17 Sep 2014 07:16:10 -0400, "David L. Martel"
wrote:

Micky,

I'm having difficulty visualizing your hole. Is the fence in a swamp? The
"water-line" is 2'. What's a water-line? The water table had better be much
deeper than 2'. If the water table is only 2' you should not have a house
there. The foundation is not on solid ground.
What's a water-line?

Dave M.

I'm glad you asked.

It's not the water table, but it was the waterline there on that day.

I used water a lot that day. I tried to loosen the dirt with water when
I was shoveling,, and I had that home-made water wand** I used to
imitate the one they were selling, that they said could be pushed under
the post and lift the post out with water, and all in all the hole was
full of water for a while. I bailed much of it out with a small sauce
pan, but by the time I pulled out the post, the bottom of the big hole
had some water and the bottom of the post hole, about 14" deeper, was
covered with water. Must have been at least 1.3 inches deep because
that's how much farther I pounded the post in after 4 days.

Will try again soon to pound it in more, although maybe it doesn't
matter if there is empty space, sometimes full of water, in the bottom
of the hole.

**both their wand and mine might have worked if the soil weren't all
clay. There's is 5/8" in diameter.

On Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:15:42 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

micky wrote:
Folow-up2 on replacing broken wooden fence post.

Well, AFTER I removed the stub of the old round wood fence post, I
manage to make about 5 mistakes, even though I hadn't made a single
mistake up until then.

The Good: I waited 4 days from last Friday to today, Tuesday, for the
water to drain out of the hole, and today I used a sledge hammer to
pound the post into the now empty bottom of the hole.

The Bad: I don't know how far to expect to pound it. I eyeballed the
post after I took it out, and eyeballed the hole, and said to myself
there are one or two inches of water in it, but who really knows.
Especially when looking at at the hole from the top of it. To eyeball a
tube, you want to see it from the side, not the end.

Mistake 1, I should have taken a steel tape measure and measured from
the top of the hole to the water line, then measured the part of the
post which was underground when I started pulling it out, then
subtracted and figured out how deep the water was.

Mistake 2, Better yet, I should have stuck a dry stick or dry yardstick
into the hole and measured how much of it got wet. Simpler and better.

Mistake 3. I should have checked if there were gravel in the bottom of
the hole, because even if the water level goes down, I'm not going to be
able to pound the post into the gravel. Better yet, I should have put
gravel in the hole because I've heard that's a good idea (see replies to
other post to find out if it really is.)

Mistake 4. I should have done the pounding on the post BEFORE I filled
the rest of the hole with dirt. At least in theory. In reality, I
don't think the extra dirt is really making it harder for the post to go
down. OTOH, something is, because surely I'm not forcing water out of
the hole now, surely it's drained out already, despite the clay and that
it didn't drain at all in 2 hours. I've given it 4 days!! And yet the
post only moves a little bit with every hit of thI had to pound about 30
times with the sledge to get it to move this far.

Mistake 5. I did note before I started pounding where the post was. I
used a couple nails still sticking through the fence section that was
leaning against the post, and noted where it was in relatiion to some
white flecks on the post. But I should have done a better job,
written down the relationship I noted, or something. Because I pounded
the post in several short sessions, and I kept being uncertain that I
was using the right marks. But I'm pretty certain and I'm up to 1.25
or 1.5 inches already. I'll wait a couple more days and pound some
more.

Because the post is still 7' long, and about 2 feet are underground it
came up to my nose, so using the sledge was different from normal.

Hi,
Reading your posts, I always wonder how old you are.....

I know that feeling.