Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Setting posts in concrete

Excess water will weaken ready mix just a bit. You really don’t need much strength for your application anyway. Pour it and set your posts.

Sounds like a lesson in 'corner fence buildin', is needed, which should include 'H-Frame Braces' for the corner post.

Concrete is wet when it starts right?
Warms up hot enough to burn you while setting right?
Supposed to run water on it periodically to cool it while it cures? Right?

In the wet form it is referred to as ready mix. It isn’t “concrete” until it hydrates/hardens.

The hydration process does certainly create heat. I have never seen it hot enough to burn, though.

Keeping placed concrete cool does help it cure. Particularly in hot weather. A sheet of plastic on top, sprayed occasionally with cool water, is a good trade practice.

Just put a 4 X 4 in for my shed door corner used sauna tube about 30" deep put a 3/4" nipple tape on one end and used a 4 X 4 adjustable bracket in nipple 4 X 4 is above
ground and adjustable. Works well in my area does not move with frost line. Do not like posts set in concrete they tend to rot in my experience.

I will say the foam substitute for concrete sucks ass. I bought a few bags to try on a fence i installed ended up ripping out all of the corner posts and using concrete

Then you do not know much about stretching wire. Hell, I could pull the two foot deep cement base out of the ground stretching a corner with my little "Golden Rod" stretcher. Corner posts on a real fence go in the ground four feet deep, and are at least eight inches in diameter. Three feet deep will suffice if you tie two of them together with diagonals and tensioning strands as in an H-brace.

On the other hand, you do not need piano wire tight to keep a chicken fence upright. Still, I would put some diagonal bracing on the corners.

No, I don't know much about stretching wire. Mea culpa. Mea culpa maxima.

I really have no idea what the tension on a properly tightened barbed wire fence actually is. But I have seen wire consisting of two 12 1/2 ga steel strands pulled in two while tightening. Then consider this tension load is anchored five feet from the ground.

Now, add three or four more tensioned strands pulling in the same direction to complete the fence. If it is a corner, you have another four or five strands pulling at some angle to the first set.

Cement will cure just fine, even under water. I, however, am not a fan of planting wood in concrete. The builder of my home put fence post below grade and did the fill with cement. They're now decomposing. Now I have dig up a big block of cement, as opposed to simply digging a new post hole.

I do have some decking post attached above grade to anchors embedded in cement. They're holding up just fine and will be a snap to replace should the need ever arise.

I never set a wood post in concrete. When the concrete cures it pulls away from the post slightly and moisture gets between the concrete and the wood. The post will rot out in a short period of time. Even creosote treated rail road ties will rot quicker with concrete around them. Wood posts should be set with dirt or gravel tamped down around them. Come up in about 4 to 6 inch lifts and tamp down with a tamping bar.
Pipe can be set in concrete and that works very well. As others have said, the corner posts or stretch posts need additional bracing, either H braces or angle braces.

They sure seem to rot a lot faster.

I see, didn't know they'd rot quicker. Luckily, if my plan works(they rarely do!) I shouldn't need these to last longer than a few years. After that, they'll hopefully have served their purpose and I'll cut them off a little below ground level if they've started to rot.

For a chicken coop me thinks this is being overthought a bit here. Dig holes-place posts- pour dry sackkrete and add a bit more water. Stand back and wait a few hours and try to get that post out of the ground.

+1

I got to thinking maybe an hour is a little fast so I ediited it to a few hours. But still, an hour, two hours, three what the hell! You'll play hell getting that post out of the ground.

Not just better bolts, you need real brackets too.

Those 12ga Home Depot Chinese clips are better left on the shelf, they rust away in record time and can be taken out by a mishap with lawn tractor.

Look for something like these, you'll have to pay for them but they take a lot longer to rust away and there is some strength to them too if structural engineering concerns you.

You'd seldom see these used with fencing due to the expense involved but with the decks you mention it's another thing.

Really great for a POS inbred TN loser to provide such spacious accommodations for free between such low-placed ears. When moving in I did not expect such lavishly appointed digs. I brought all 22 dogs and they each found great places to pee without interfering with siblings. I assume slumdweller found his personal repository... even if he had to dig through a couple generations.

Facts:
Wood does not rot if it is too wet.
Wood does not rot if it is too dry.

Wood posts dropped in concrete are too wet to rot below grade.
Wood posts dropped in concrete are too dry to rot above grade.
Wood posts dropped in concrete rot like crazy if they have a zone between about 20% MC and 40% MC. Different woods and different conditions affect how things work.

Wood kept above grade keeps forever.

Lots more to say and do, but, losers are losers and arguing against Physics is STUPID!

FYI, MC = Moisture Content....

Until the blowing sand abrades the wood.....
Pretty cool to see old posts like that. That is a dry climate tho....


Wilkes,
I had a buddy who had scars all over his legs from a "ready-mix" mishap. I thought he said they were burns, but maybe the aggregate just tore him up some. ..

The worms eat a little more of my brain every year....