Early in spring we had large gusts of northerly winds that turned our 6-foot-high privacy fence into a giant sail. The winds were so strong that a post on a panel was broken. It also resulted in the panel breaking away from the post and it was just flapping in the wind like a flag.
I had reset the panel into its brackets and braced the post until I could replace it. And I finally had the chance to replace the post.
First, I braced the fence at another post. Next, I needed to disconnect the panels. One of the panels was already detached from the post. I then unscrewed the panel on the other side. The post just fell to the ground.
I needed to remove the broken post that was below the surface. After 30 years these cedar posts were rotting just below the surface. I already replaced other posts where the post broke right at the point where most of the rotting occurred. This post was not anything different. The top of the remaining post was about 12 inches below the surface. Using a spade, I jammed the tip of the blade into the post. With the ground, I used the spade as a lever and lifted the post out of the hole. That would be the easy part of the job.
I put my arm into the hole and felt some loose soil at the bottom. This would be the opportunity to remove more dirt to get the post deeper in the ground. Our soil consists about one foot of topsoil and the rest is clay. When I first installed the fence, I could not get any hole deeper than 2 feet. The powered post hole digger just could not cut into the thick, slippery clay.
Using a hand trowel, slowly I was able to remove more dirt from the hole. The hole was now about 3 feet deep. I was not sure why I could not get the hole that deep before? Anyway, the hole was prepped and ready for the post. I already purchased the 4” x 4” 10-foot post. I slid the post into the hole. I needed to reinstall the brackets that held the rails to the posts. I leveled the panels and marked the location for the brackets. I screwed down the brackets, lifted the rails into the brackets on both sides and screwed them in place.
I plumbed the post and used gravel to fill the hole. I tamped down the gravel around the post and surprisingly, the post was snug. I was left cutting off the top of the post, making a post top, and installing it. I cut pieces from a 2” x 8” piece of pressure treated wood, I replicated what was on the top of the post before.
Except for cleaning up, I was done. I was concerned that another post was also broken. I went to each post and tried to lift it off the ground. The one I had braced, moved freely. I guess I will be replacing it next …
The following weekend I tackled replacing the other broken post. This post apparently was only 18 inches into the ground. Again, we might have struggled to break through that clay soil when we first dug this hole. Nonetheless, I was determined to dig the hole a little deeper.
Efiwym, my wife, offered a suggestion to use our Rigid® shop vac to remove the dirt from the hole. I removed the bag inside so the soil would collect in the vacuum tub. I chipped away the soil and put the vac hose into the hole. The vacuum easily disposed of the dirt. It gave me the additional incentive to dig as far down as I possibly could. Occasionally the hose got plugged, but it was easy to remove the clog. Eventually, between the hardness of the soil and the length of my arm prevented me from digging any deeper.
I slid the post in the hole, screwed the rail brackets on the post, attached the panels and plumbed up the post. I trim the top of the post to length, installed the post topper and I was done (except for the cleanup).
The fence posts now stood tall like soldiers at attention. I was happy with the results and hoped that these posts would last 30 years its predecessors did. I might be replacing some other posts soon, but for this year, I was done.
