Remove very old concrete posts

bretts

Hi

I am putting new fence and posts but there are the original posts still there which must have been put up by council about 80 to 100 years ago may be when the houses were built. They are about a meter high bollards u shaped. I dug in from my side and it would not move. I dont want to go in the neighbours garden as it is an overgrown mess and has some weeds which when they touch you, they leave a thron in you and it makes it feel so itchy, so I really would like to avoid those messy weeds at all cost. Just to work on that side I would need to do a lot of her garden. Is there any other way except digging all the way around and then taking it out?

wrightk

I've seen several people remove old posts with a piece of wood,bolts and a trolley jack,i doubt this will work in your case. highly unlikely your going to remove the post by just digging your side either.I use an 8ft chisel ended iron bar for removing posts, its great for prying one side while you work at the other

If you want to be really lazy just cut off the posts beneath ground level and set your new ones inbetween the old ones (this obviously wont work if your using pre fab panels)

Mojisola

wrightk wrote: »

If you want to be really lazy just cut off the posts beneath ground level and set your new ones inbetween the old ones (this obviously wont work if your using pre fab panels)

On one boundary of a previous house we couldn't remove the boundary posts because of the damage it would have caused to next door's drive so we did as wrightk says.

The old boundary posts (and two wires) were left in place to mark the boundary and we put the new posts between them. It only meant the loss of a few centimetres from our garden and there was never any argument about who owned the fence because it was completely on our land.

bretts

Hi

Thanks for the reply, the posts have metal net wiring attached to it, If i just cut the posts, considering that they are concrete posts, it wouldnt be easy and when I am putting the next batch of concrete posts, 2.4m tall I would need to go 600mm deep and there is all the chance that I could come to one of the old concrete lump underneath. So if I have to do it properly I would have to take all the old one's out. I have seen some videos on youtube to remove concrete posts with jack but I dont know if it will work with the concrete posts I have, It seems there is no end to the amount of depth the concrete has gone to, I have dug about 500mm and I can still feel concrete underneath, I will try the long crowbar and chisel method once and see if that works, I have 12 of these so it is quite a bit and ideally wouldnt mind spending a few quid to get something decent that will really work. I was just thinking and please correct me if I am wrong, what if i hire one of those concrete breakers to atleast break the concrete and loosen it up a bit and then see if it is any easier to remove the remaining bit by chisel.

dominoman

I've used an SDS drill with a chisel attachment to break up a concrete post footing, which then came out by grabbing the remaining chunks by hand. But it wasn't easy because the drill doesn't reach down far so you have to dig a hole to get access.

If you have that many it is going to be a massive pain to remove them all unless you can get a digger in.

Much better to move the new posts a foot or two to the right of the existing ones. Then just finish the line of fence with a half board if you need to, or plant a bush to fill the gap

If you can't get the old posts out either then you can easily disguise them with a nice climbing plant like a ground cover rose.

bretts

Oh one more thing I did try was put some water on the soil near the fence post to loosen the soil up, i read this somewhere and that did not seem to work either, I do think I might have to do up my neighbour's garden a bit in order to do remove these posts properly.

bretts

I cant get a digger in thats not possible, if I could I would have just used the car and tried to pull them out that way, may be the reason old owner had hedges all the way and never did the fencing on that side. I have already got rid of all the hedges and dug in slightly deeper than the original garde to put the bark chips in so I cant really back off now, I just have to find a solution, hiring someone to do it will cost me a fortune without a doubt hence ready to buy something or hire it if it is way too expensive.

Kiran

Can you get something to attach one of these to? I've had to do this in the past for old posts and tree roots.


http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p98107?mkwid=sx8oyeUB8_dc&pcrid=46335406463&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CI_g5v_XvcwCFUg8Gwode3sD6g

bretts

Kiran wrote: »

Can you get something to attach one of these to? I've had to do this in the past for old posts and tree roots.


http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p98107?mkwid=sx8oyeUB8_dc&pcrid=46335406463&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CI_g5v_XvcwCFUg8Gwode3sD6g

Unfortunately I can not get anything like a car or trailer to the back of the house. I have a semi but it has a lean to and the doors are just standard size doors.

keith969

I had half a dozen concrete posts that used to be part of a chain link fence between me and my neighbour. To remove them took digging out 3 sides to a depth of around 2 feet and levering them back and forward until they would come out at an angle - they were far too heavy just to lift out.

bretts

I think only way in that case is dig and dig till you get to the bottom of concrete. I have gone in about 500mm so a little bit more to go but the shovel gives up as I wanted to the hole to be small, I just would have to dig a bigger hole and see where we go from there.