Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Setting Posts For a Shed??

What’s the consensus for post setting?

We used to dig a 3 - 4ft deep hole, stick the post in, and fill it to the top with bags of dry concrete and keep on working.

Now it’s my understanding to put 6” of gravel on the bottom and do as described above.

But

Someone else is telling me to put a bag of concrete in the bottom, put the post in, and fill it to the surface with gravel.

Others are saying, don’t put a wood post in the ground, pour a concrete footer and set your post on it at grade.

This will be 6 - 6x6’s for a 10x20 shed foundation.

So, what is the preferred method for setting posts these days?

90% of people here dig 4’ deep and put in 2 -80# bags of dry quikrete for agriculture or “shop” use.

my experience with posts has always been that they rot/break at the concrete line.

any of those will work. really all you need is a 3 foot hole with a little gravel in the bottom, plunk the 6x in there and then pack gravel real tight all around it. i built a 12x16 shed 21 years ago and just dug down a foot, layed a patio stone in the bottom and then dry stacked concrete block pillars and framed on top of that. still as level as the day i put it in. a lot depends on your soil composition too. my place is a good solid base of shale and clay about a foot down.

Sonotube.

We get a little more frost here than you but this is how the good guys do it.
7' hole with 12" of crete in the bottom. Let it set then place the post on top and fill with sand or gravel. There are other methods but that is one of the only ways the frost won't jack the polls out of the ground.
I do a bunch of groundwork for a local carpenter and he has had zero issues with that method. Some skimp on the depth and get paid but the frost giant rears it's ugly head eventually.

gravel or screened rock in bottom of hole........drains moisture away from post

treated or cedar posts ? no concrete....tightly tamp soil/rocks around post with the man bar...

that's my method.....I've planted plenty of fence posts

Fill the hole to the top.

My posts have a small crown of concrete at the top of the hole.

Not had any issues.

oh yea........go below frost depth......

I'll bury the auger to the nuts......rocks on bottom

Make sure if your using treated post that they are made for ground contact there is a big difference or use locust post either way don’t use concrete put some bricks in the bottom and tamper the posts

i doubt any of us will live long enough to see a PT 6x6 rot. i've had them in constant muck, salt, concrete, dirt, whatever and never had one go bad. one thing i would steer clear of is any of that PT wood that is labeled "yellow wood". that stuff does rot. it is garbage.

This, no need for concrete. The concrete inhibits drainage, water causes rot. We are talking treated posts appropriate for ground contact.

if you feel you need to use concrete, coat the bottom of posts in roofing tar. i did this on my pole building at camp a long time ago.

How long are your posts?

8 ft post in a four foot hole means Spot has a good solid shed.

12 ft post and you can hang it w/o spot when you "need some space"

Personally, i dig 4’. Place concrete about 10” thick in the bottom.

This. Only way I do it if I'm serious about it.

They’ll be 6x6 treated, and be 14” to 3’ out of the ground

Never thought it required so much in-depth technical thought.

I take the Mike Bloomberg approach, dig a phooking hole in the ground, put the post in and add some quickCrete, level and brace, Bada Bing.

Depth is up to your application and soil type.

Serious builders around here use pea gravel tamped. If you put your time in by hand or with hydraulic tamper they are as solid as quick crete. Set several hundred railroad ties when I was growing up, either fence corners or corrals. Most still in the same place since mid 60's. 8' ties, and Dad always said, "what extra is sticking out of the ground don' do you any good" so for corner posts it was always 4' deep if we had to bust rock for 18". Corral ties usually 31/2' deep. He was a meticulous fencer, unlike some of the neighbors. They never had to chase any of our cows out or bring them home. Kenny Rogers coulda played his 4 wire like a bass.lol

I like to pour 6 to 8” of concrete under the posts, then pour concrete around the poles a little higher than ground level