How to put Concrete Posts, into a grass ground? (is cement required) ?

gemmaking

What are the options to putting concrete posts into a grass ground? {garden border}

besides digging a hole, and placing it in.

My son + his mate were thinking of having a go.


-How is the Concrete post to be Fastened/secured to the hole ?

Question 1) What ways are there, to keep it firmly in place?

Question 2) How wide does the hole have to be, approximatley? (lets say the concrete post is 7-8 cm wide

Question 3) how much Space around the HOLE is needed?, in the ground ?

Question 4) How deep + Wide does the hole have to be? (Similar to Qu 2)

Question 5) Can this be installed WITHOUT cement? just a hole, and fill it up with soil?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have a look here, give you an idea.

You can get packs of ready mix concrete, google, post fix concrete.

cyclonebri1

For just a few posts beg or borrow a manual auger. It's just like a giant corkscrew and makes lighter work of the job. About £45 from machine mart or such like if you have to buy one.;)

ic

1. Concrete - as above use postcrete which is fast setting.
2. 1 foot diameter. A typical slot in post for wooden fencing will measure roughly 4 inches square (10cm). A corner post is bigger and heavier.
3. Not clear what you mean here, once the post is in and concreted, you can have stuff right up to the fence.
4. 2 foot deep, 1 foot diameter.
5. Absolutely not, it'll never be solid, after the first rain the soil will settle and it'll move. Note that concrete posts and gravel boards are very heavy. Add the force the wind can push against the panel and the post has to stand up to a lot.

Clearly you've never done this before, I'd recommend you get somebody in. Digging the hole will be hard work without the appropriate tools (a post hole digger). I paid a guy roughly £70 per panel + £35. This included removal of old fence, installation, concrete gravel boards, posts and ready treated closeboard panels. He essentially worked out to the equivalent of free delivery and installation when compared to me buying the same parts myself. He also got the fence perfectly level and in line - which with such heavy parts it is an art. He also did it fast. I've seen so many DIY attempts that are totally balls-ed up.

27col

Yes, it can be installed into the soil without using cement if you want it to lean over after a very short time.
However, if you want the fence and the post to do it's job and to stay upright in a gale, then make the hole and use bagged post mix. This sets very quickly and has revolutionised both professional and DIY post setting. Most of the work is in the digging of the new post holes. You need to do this even if you are not using concrete. You don't even need to mix the concrete, just chuck it in the hole and pour some water in. Use a couple of diagonal braces to line up the post until the concrete has set.

gemmaking

I have some Chain link fencing in one of my other properties which I am not at right now, and will be in some weeks.

It is attached to concrete posts.

What is the distance between the concrete posts?

- how far are these concrete posts apart usually, with chain link fencing ?


what is the standard ?

Dippypud

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

For just a few posts beg or borrow a manual auger. It's just like a giant corkscrew and makes lighter work of the job. About £45 from machine mart or such like if you have to buy one.;)

You can hire these it's usally easier.

Fence post spacing depends on the totol run of fence, but they MUST be of the same height.

Please learn to use Google and give us a break.

cyclonebri1

Dippypud wrote: »

You can hire these it's usally easier.

Fence post spacing depends on the totol run of fence, but they MUST be of the same height.

Please learn to use Google and give us a break.

Actually most would disagree. The fence spacing is exact to suit the ready made panels, a final panel being cut or the fence length adjusted to suit standard panel sizes

Again the height does have to be the same and in many cases cannot be, it has to follow the lie of the land ,ie the general slope, stepping down evenly

DVardysShadow

gemmaking wrote: »

Question 5) Can this be installed WITHOUT cement? just a hole, and fill it up with soil?

ic wrote: »

5. Absolutely not, it'll never be solid, after the first rain the soil will settle and it'll move. Note that concrete posts and gravel boards are very heavy. Add the force the wind can push against the panel and the post has to stand up to a lot.

While it may harder to do the job without concreting in, it can be done perfectly satisfactorily. Overhead rural power lines on wooden poles are erected routinely without concrete.

The first 400mm of ground does not give much support, but if at least 1/4 of the length of a post is in the ground [3 parts above ground to 1 below], it can be very satisfactory. It is necessary to compact the soil to the original density, so it needs ramming down using the top of a sledgehammer for each 100mm of soil returned to the hole.

If you use concrete, you don't need to dig quite so deep - you can have 4 or more parts above ground for every 1 below and it is not such hard work compacting the concrete mix.

cyclonebri1

DVardysShadow wrote: »

While it may harder to do the job without concreting in, it can be done perfectly satisfactorily. Overhead rural power lines on wooden poles are erected routinely without concrete.

The first 400mm of ground does not give much support, but if at least 1/4 of the length of a post is in the ground [3 parts above ground to 1 below], it can be very satisfactory. It is necessary to compact the soil to the original density, so it needs ramming down using the top of a sledgehammer for each 100mm of soil returned to the hole.

If you use concrete, you don't need to dig quite so deep - you can have 4 or more parts above ground for every 1 below and it is not such hard work compacting the concrete mix.

So for a typical power line pole of say 80feet? they are buried 20feet deep, not really an option for the OP is it??

vaio

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

So for a typical power line pole of say 80feet? they are buried 20feet deep, not really an option for the OP is it??

Nah the 80 foot ones are pylons which are certainly on concrete bases, he’s talking about the wooden telegraph pole sort which are 15 or 20 feet high and, as he says, are installed without concrete by using a lorry mounted diesel powered auger to drill a 5/6/8 foot deep hole just the right size for the pole.

Still no real help for the OP who needs to dig/drill a hole about a quarter of the height of the post, drop the post in, make sure it’s level, plumb and the right distance from the last/next one (and brace it so is stays that way) and then fill the hole with concrete. As others have said, an auger is the way to go.