Wooden fence posts - how long should they last?

snowcat75

Davesnave wrote: »

Yes, I said that was my sort of experience with '15 year guaranteed' stock fencing.


However, my Jacksons posts here are 10 years old and all still fine. Their guarantee remains at 25 years too, so whatever process they're using seems on this limited amount of evidence to still be working better than others' processes.

Of course there better and worse treatments, and of course timber quality's, the problem is though treatments going in the ground need Defra approval, older better products generally are revoked year on year with use up dates so even something bought last year from the same supplier may not be much bottle this year.

SKSH

Thanks for all the replies, I suspect the posts my guy used weren’t of very high quality/treated with any particular coating. Lessons learned for next time!

PurAsc

Have you thought about composite fencing? It's got the wood finish minus all the problems wood come with! Mega easy to install too!

DIYDave1

Never tried these and nor do I know anyone that has, but these do look interesting and its something I looked at recently (My fence has currently fallen on my driveway due to rotted posts)



http://www.permafence.co.uk/product-info

molerat

PurAsc wrote: »

Have you thought about composite fencing? It's got the wood finish minus all the problems wood come with! Mega easy to install too!

But it is about 4 - 5 times the cost of timber.

aryash1110

You can repair small holes and dents using wood putty. Unfortunately, the putty does show, unless the fence is painted (as opposed to being left in its natural color or being stained). If it is more damaged or warped, the entire board may be worth replacing. Again, the downside is that the panel will initially be a different color from the rest of the fence, but will grow weathered with time to match the rest of your fence.
Also, if the repairs will only last for the short term, then it may be best to look at replacing your fence to save you the trouble of undertaking repairs. Typically, wooden fences last about a minimum of 20 years, depending on how it is maintained.

Mickey666

Modern fast-grown wood is rubbish, regardless of pressure treatments.  I have some post-and-rail fencing that I know was installed over 40 years ago and it is still rock hard and solid in the ground.  Not sure what wood it is (Larch maybe?) but it's a world apart from modern stuff.

Too many variables to give a definitve answer but anything over 10 years for modern fence posts would be a bonus.  Concreteing wooden fence posts is also useless - traps moisture around the post and leads to early rotting.

As mentioned above, concrete posts are not much more expensive than wooden ones and well worth the money in the long run.  Install them properly and they'll last all of us out.  Also makes it dead easy to replace the wooden panels when they fail after 10 years.

Davesnave

Thread's ancient Mickey. Resurrected by a spammer. Reported.

TELLIT01

Nothing 'spammy' in the content of Mickey666's post, although I accept it seems odd to comment into a post which has been inactive for 9 months.

Paula_Smith

Soak new posts in old engine oil for a couple of days before putting them in.
Use metposts rather than cementing in - they keep the wood slightly above ground level.
This method has given us 10 years of service and they still look good for another 10.