A Post about a Post - Fixing Fence Posts

Princess Five was mowing the lawn last week when I was working on the trailer and the mower got caught on the fence post as she was pushing it through and she shoved it through not realizing that she broke off the fence post. 

Flash forward to a day or so ago, I walked through the side yard and found the fence leaning. I was able to pull the post right off once I unhooked the latches that hold both sides of the fence closed. 

I had a small gate on the walkway but when I hired someone to do my lawn a few years ago, they helped me put in a larger gate to get the riding lawn mower through to the back yard as the walk way gate was smaller than the riding mower. That post holds two gates closed. 

As you can see, it is rotted away. Not a new occurrence in my yard as you will know if you have read my blog for any amount of time. Here is a post about how we got the large cement pieces out of the ground to put in new posts a few years ago. It is a brilliant idea that my friend Jay came up with. It is worth a read even if you don't have a fence because you may need the idea at some point. Click here for that post.

I had the princesses go out and start digging to get down to the cement so we could get it out and put in a new one. They dug and dug and dug and dug. I then dug and dug and then we all dug and dug. We NEVER got to any cement but after the hole was two 1/2 feet deep, we were deciding if we should just leave the lengthy board and cement the new 4 x 4 post in front of it. The problem was that the old post was too far back and you can see by the wood in the picture below that there was a 2 x 4 in between the "face" piece of wood that matches the fence and the post. 

When I put the new 4 x 4 in front of the old, it was too far forward. So, I got out a saw and an axe and started in on the front of the 4 x 4 that was left in the ground thinking I could just leave it but as I hacked at it, it started to become loose. I spent another 10 minutes (now in the dark) wiggling out another foot or more of the 4 x 4 and finally pulling the entire thing out of the hole. I have never seen a post buried so deep. You can see the post in the blue garbage can. It broke off a foot into the soil and the part under that is in the can to the edge and that can is waist high. They used an entire 10 or more foot 4 x 4 instead of cutting it off and cementing it in. I don't know who would ever dig a four foot hole to bury a fence post. Crazy.
 
It took us a few hours to dig out the hole. One of the girls used a screw driver to take off the latches from the face fence piece and then I took a hammer and got the nails out so that I wouldn't have to buy a new face piece of fencing to match the fence we have. One, it would cost about $4 and also it wouldn't be aged to match the fence but would be new wood. So, I took the time to pull out the nails so we could use that same piece. 

There were holes on the front side of the piece so I flipped it over so that we could attach the old hardware but make new holes and that would make them more secure on the post. 

We had to move the new post forward so that we didn't have the problem of needed a 2 x 4 in between the post and the face piece of fence. We had to fill in the hole where the old post was finally pulled out. 

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the deep hole where we finally got the old post out. I had Princess five dancing in the hole tamping down the spot where we finally got the old post out as I wanted a secure spot for the new post. 

I was blessed to have one last piece of old post from our taller fence in the back which was perfect once I cut off the rough bottom. 

I have shared in the past how I put a tarp or a bag down on the grass so that the dirt doesn't get into the grass and make a bump in the grass as it is hard to get fine dirt out of the grass and it usually gets to be permanent so I laid a garbage sack down when I thought there would be some cement down there somewhere near the top. 

When it became evident that it was going to be a deeper fill, I had the girls shovel into garbage cans turned on their sides so that the dirt didn't sit on the grass and we could move the dirt as needed to get nearer the work site.

 
While they were digging the never ending post out, I ran to the hardware store to purchase cement for the job. I noticed they had several broken bags of cement that were sitting on a flat bed cart. When the man came to help me, I asked about the broken bags and if they sell them, he said he knew they did but didn't know the price. 

I looked to the side and they had two already bagged in really thick plastic bags and taped up. I asked about those two and he said that he was sure they could sell me one cheaper. 

He put the bag in the cart and we found a cashier and she said it would be about a dollar. It turned out it was $.77. I was thrilled with the cheaper price but what made me the most happy was the thick plastic bag to put it into my car.

If I had one of the paper bags, I know it would have leaked into my car as I have done that before. I don't have my suburban unhooked from my trailer so I was driving my nicer car. I really didn't want to clean out cement and rocks from it so I was grateful for the thick bag that allowed me to drag it from the cart into the car. It was 80lbs. 

Thank heavens I have a wheel barrel that I could transfer it to when I got home. I filled a bucket with water and then started adding the cement using a shovel. It was dark by then and I was thinking I didn't want to get dirty again the next day and it was COLD. It started snowing a little when I was mixing the cement and I was worried we may have some on the ground in the morning and just wanted it done. 
 
I got the post where I needed it and then put the "Face" piece on so that it matched the fence. I didn't have to put that on and could have just used the post but I like the consistent look of the face piece. I had to make sure that the post was deep enough to be secure and to not show above the face piece so if you are going to put your own fence post in, make sure that you bury it deep enough that it doesn't show over the top of your fence line. 

I then had to make sure it was far enough forward so we didn't need the 2 x 4 and far enough back that once the "face" piece was on, that it didn't end up in front of the fence line. So, to make sure, I had to hammer the "face" piece of fencing on the post before cementing it. Once it was on, then I measured it from side to side and front to back so that the hardware would have enough room to latch and the fence wouldn't have to bend forward or back to latch making the fence crooked. 
 
Once it was in the right spot, I put the front hardware and latches on it. I did this BEFORE pouring the cement so that I could use the latches to hold the post in place while we buried the post. I put in a foot of dirt to hold the post in place and then made sure the post was straight up and down. 

I then mixed the cement and poured it into the hole with the post in it. I actually put some of the dry cement in the hole at the base before adding the wet cement. I had some in the bottom of the bag that I dumped in just because I had a bit much water in the bucket. 
 


Once the cement is poured, there is nothing to do but wait. I could have tied off the post to the fence to hold it straight and was planning on doing that but since the hole was so deep and I had both gates on either side with the hardware holding it in place, the dirt I put in the bottom of the hole was holding it secure enough that I felt it would be ok when the cement was poured. 

I took these side pictures so you can see how the "face" piece of fencing is attached to the post and how the "face" piece is even with the fence pieces giving it an even appearance from the front. The gate latches and posts don't stick out at all.

You can see the set cement that night. I allowed it to cure and harden and didn't get to burying it until today. It is one solid post now and actually, I think it looks even better than before as there aren't any gaps in between. Sometimes the grass would grow up in-between the 2 x 4 space and was hard to get at to cut or pull. I think this will actually be a better way. 
 
You can see where I used a garbage can upside down to cover the small dirt on the garbage bag as it was starting to snow and sprinkle and I didn't want it to become mud overnight. I also covered the garbage cans full of dirt as well just in case. 

Today, I went out and filled in the hole with dirt and put the grass back as best I could. I had some dirt left over and I used it to fill in a few sink spots where I took out our old garden beds and over the summer, they sunk a bit so I was glad to have some dirt to fill in those spots and even the lawn out. 
 
Replacing a fence post was not on my "to do" list.See a post about that here and notice I have done more than half of them, worked on one this week and hope to take another two off by the weekend. 

If new things wouldn't keep coming up and I wouldn't have company and I wouldn't be so tired, I am sure I would have the list finished. ;-) 

I am grateful that I have had enough energy to get several things done this week. Now, to figure out how to have enough to get the rest of my "list" and all the things not on the "list" done. I'm still working on it and will post about it soon.