Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What is the best way to set a wood post?

My son is doing his Boy Scout Eagle project which requires him setting 14 4"x4" posts. He is using 8 foot pressure treated posts. They will be in ground about 2 to 2.5 feet. They will be cut down to 5 feet high. These are free standing posts that will not have any load on them. On each post will be affixed a wooden sign roughly 14" tall by 8" wide of 1" cedar, so negligible weight.

What is the easiest way to set the posts? It needs to be sturdy, last many years, and not rot. Our soil is heavy red clay. I was hoping some of you ranchers and contractors could offer advice. Also the cheaper the better. He is doing this for a pretty poor Parish so I felt like fund raising there with so many struggling right now was not the right thing to do. I'm picking up most of the costs but he is chipping in with what little he has so I'm trying to watch the budget.

I was hoping sand, gravel or anything but mixing concrete. He wants to do it right regardless of the work or expense so if he has to do concrete he will.

Thanks in advance for all the help. -tnscouter

Concrete tends to rot the wood. Consider using stone dust. Packs tight, holds well, allows drainage and allows for easy replacement.

I just had to dismantle a deck I built in '97 because a tree fell on it. When I built it I dug the post holes, set post plumb/square in hole and backfilled hole with dry concrete mix and poured water in the hole. (no pre mixing) It would be almost impossible to tell by looking that the concrete wasn't pre-mixed. For sign posts I would think you could get by with less concrete, maybe one bag split between four posts. go back in a day or so and backfill the rest of the hole with dirt.

Don't pour concrete around them or they will rot off. Soak the end going in the ground in old used oil for a few days, build a tamping bar out of 1' pipe with a flat end welded on one end or just buy a tamping bar. Tamp the holes with the dug out dirt up to ground level then pour about 2' of sacked asphalt on top of the tamped dirt to keep water from setting in the hole. If you did this to a bois de arc, bo dark, horseapple post it would last 100 years.

Skip the concrete for your needs. It will only rot the posts even faster.
I would go 3’ on my holes and tamp as I backfill. Mound the dirt slightly around the post as you tamp. This will help shed some water away from the post.

This

I've done it both ways, set in concrete, and not used concrete. Have never been able to tell a difference. I have used crossties, treated posts, and cedar. As has already been said, I just dump the concrete mix around the post, pour some water in the hole, and that's it. If the ground is already wet, you don't need much water at all.

For sign posts all you need to do is bury the posts 3' and pack the natural soil every 8-10" as you back fill.

JamesJr: When you didn't use concrete with what did you backfill? Thanks -tnscouter

12344mag: Thanks for your response. We have very hard red clay which is not too good for the backfill because it is darn near impossible to break up and compact well. Is your soul the same and if so how did it work out? Thanks -tnscouter

I have experimented with all of it from the high country to here in the midwest on the farm. I like treating the bottom regardless if it is PT or not. Keep good positive drainage away from bottom of post and the results will be favorable.

troublesome82: What do you use for backfill? Thanks -tnscouter

Same as Hanco and Uncle Joe.Dry concrete and add water stir.I have had post in 40 years this way. Big difference in treated post for landscaping and treated post for direct bury though.I always paint on wood preservative with either one.

There are three grades of pressure-treated lumber. Above ground, contact with ground, and in ground, you can do further research on this on the internet. It is very difficult to get good lumber from Home Depot.

Dock pilings are even more saturated with pressure treating CCA... chromium copper and arsenic. Pressure treating changed to a different compound 10 years ago and drop the arsenic I forget all the particulars anymore.

The best four by fours are Cedar... Eastern red cedar to be more specific. I took down a 60 year old fence made of this. I saved the wood from the fence post and used it to make furniture. It was perfect.

All of this has to do with my soil type conditions. Your soil type may be more or far less harmful to Lumber than mine.

Setting a post. Tamp the bottom as best you can. Set a large flat bottom at the bottom of the hole. Begin back filling the hole with the spoils of the digging. Each 25% of the hole you backfill... verify Plumb and square each 25%. You can adjust plum bye camping the back fill dirt on the opposite side of lean.

IMHO... never dig a hole and fill it with wet concrete then shove a post into the concrete. This method hold water in the concrete recess and rots out the bottom of the post much much faster.

Structurally, concrete is not needed because you have a large-diameter Flat Rock for bearing. The time you save having to drive to the store to buy concrete and either dry bag... or mix would be better spent digging a good deep hole and tampng the bottom of your hole and tamping the dirt as you backfill.

Use the new 2 part foam won't rot post will not move but somewhat costly. If you do not want to spend the $ then just backfill and tamp go 3' deep either way. My son owns a fence company this is what he does.

These days, you can buy 2 kinds of treated post...... one kind is made for ground contact and the other is not. The treated landscaping timbers sold at the discount home building stores are not made for ground contact, they will rot in a few years, if placed on the ground or in cement. I learned this by building flower beds for the wife and a dog pen. 4-5 years and the bottom post was rotted in the flower beds and I broke all the dog pen post off at the top of the cement, with 1 hand, they were rotted.

You used the word "parish", so you might be in La. Because of the abundance of rain, I'd go with a post that is made for ground contact and to stay on the cheap, I'd just backfill and tamp good with soil. Back when we had cattle and had to build fences, we'd use creosote (I dont think you can get them anymore) post and just backfill and tamp good. Good post would last 15-20 yrs. 2' deep on a post the will only be 5' out of the ground is plenty to hold up the signs you mentioned.

Put up several 6'x8' stockade panels about six years ago, as a "safety barrier" between one of our club traps and the archery sand pit about 100' off to one side of the trap. 4x4 treated posts 30" in the ground, back filled them from the pile of asphalt road millings we had on hand. People bitched about not using concrete, told me the wind would knock those panels over, or least have them leaning in short order.

They're still there,still perfectly intact and plumb. I generally fill post holes with crushed stone or gravel, whichever is handy.

There are treated, round posts made for fencing. Miles and miles of them in farm country, with high tensile fencing on them. Where I hunt, some of those fences have been holding beef cattle for over 25 years.

I never knew this was sooooooo hard. The last post setting thread 6 months ago went 30 pages

When I was 14,15 yrs old- we sawed down honey locust, dug a hole 18” deep with post-hole-diggers and dropped the raw post in there. Jammed a bunch of rocks in the with a tamper rod and piled the dirt back in there. Next hole...lather rinse repeat




Now today, with treated, same thing but I use concrete in there. 15 years here in Rain Every 3 Days Tennessee, they are not rotten yet.

Maybe I need some master Sgt stripes for all the posts I’ve set. Every time we moved every three years in the army, we had to fence 20-30 acres for my mother’s dumb ass horses.

This will work fine for this application. Suggest have a level to get the posts perfectly vertical.

6 pages easy by 10 pm cst!!!!