How To Remove Rotted Fence Post Below Ground

It's a common question in home repair forums and do it yourself message boards – a windstorm blows the fence downward and breaks the contend posts off correct at ground level. Often the posts were already weakened from rot, wet and insect harm and old age and the air current was just the mercy accident that finished them off.

Leaning privacy fence panel from storm damage

The homeowner is left with the challenge of coming up with a cheap and easy fashion to remove the broken-off fence post and they want to pull it directly out so they can sink the replacement mail in the same location without digging too much.

11 Ways to Remove a Broken Fence Mail service

Many of the posts offer helpful suggestions for removing the cleaved posts and they tin piece of work in sure situations, here are eleven of the nearly useful:

Dig a trench next to the footing and tip the post out.
Wrap a concatenation effectually the mail service and employ a high lift jack to pull the mail service out.
Screw lag bolts through a chain into the cleaved off fence postal service and and so use a vehicle winch/come forth/high elevator jack to pull the post out.
Dig down a few inches and screw into the side of the post to pry information technology out with a lever and fulcrum.
Screw a long eye-bolt into the postal service from the pinnacle and yank information technology out.
Remove the wood from the physical (using a drill chip or auger or chisel) and insert a new mail.
Chip away at the soil effectually the post with a steel bar and vacuum out the loose dirt with a shop vac.
Use a postal service repair spur – drive it into the bottom of the onetime post and then fix the new mail service to it.
Soak the footing with water overnight then pound the physical farther into the ground with a sledgehammer.
Elevator the post using a bumper jack or loftier lift subcontract jack.
Just dig the mail out past hand, or bring in heavy equipment like a tractor, bobcat or backhoe.

Simply these methods don't address the common situation facing a homeowner or exercise-it-yourselfer. Storm damage and high winds leave the fence knocked down with a broken post. Wood rot and insect impairment leave nothing sturdy higher up ground. The concrete basis is of unknown size and depth. The damaged debate is close to buildings or utilities that restrict access by heavy equipment. (not even considering the rental expense or the damage they may cause to lawns).

Rotten wood fence post broken at ground level — Rotten wood fence post cleaved at ground level

Why Those Methods Fail

But to quote Mike Tyson "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the oral cavity" each and every one of these ideas seems proficient until you go and exercise it and that fence posts punches yous back. Then the homeowner realizes its not going to be so easy as it seemed:

After digging down a few inches they observe the 4×4 posts are fix in concrete below footing level.
The mail service is rotten and the eye-bolt or lag screws pull loose, leaving the post and concrete plug in the footing.
After long, hard work to chisel/drill the woods out of the concrete, the homeowner then discovers that getting the new wood mail service into the concrete is almost impossible. After cut down the sides of the mail to become information technology to fit in the concrete footing the post is wobbly and not secure.
In that location is nothing secure to take hold of onto and the realization hits that the only style to get the postal service and concrete stump out is by digging a giant hole.

Many ideas are but non helpful:

Just requite upwards; you are not getting the post and physical out.
Use dynamite.
Give your redneck brother a telephone call and claw a cablevision to the postal service and his truck then put a half dozen pack of Schlitz downwardly the street and sentinel the fun.
Put some termites on the mail service and look half-dozen months.
Cascade diesel into the concrete basis and burn the post out.

No chains or jacks could remove a broken post this easily — Broken posts are easily removed with the Wood Post Puller

Merely these methods don't address the common situation facing a homeowner or do-it-yourselfer. Storm damage and high winds leave the fence knocked downwards with a cleaved mail. Wood rot and insect damage leave aught sturdy higher up ground. The concrete footing is of unknown size and depth. The damaged fence is shut to buildings or utilities that restrict access by heavy equipment. (not even considering the rental expense or the damage they may crusade to lawns).

Using fauna force to lift concrete is a bad idea. Concrete is extremely strong when compressed, but extremely weak when pulled. In fact, the tensile strength of concrete is only near 10% of its compressive strength. (backdrop of physical reference). Forcing the concrete can cause dangerous flying chips as the concrete fractures and doesn't become it out of the footing.

Replacing a few posts on a fence requires the replacement posts to go into the same location. Cutting the old posts off beneath ground level and installing the new posts using an offset is simply not an option.

Nosotros encountered the same challenges and thought there had to be an easier, cheap way to remove fence posts and concrete footings from the ground, even if the mail service is broken off. We developed a method that makes it easy for two people to remove the posts by most eliminating the friction forcefulness between the post and the ground. Information technology is just like lifting the weight of the post and concrete from a pigsty.

The Patented Wood Post Puller Method

Our Wood Postal service Puller method takes the work out of replacing fence posts ready in concrete. The fasten tool injects water at the base of operations of the post and loosens the soil effectually the postal service. In a short time, the h2o forms a layer of mud around the concrete ground that helps slide the post out of the ground.

Ours is the simply method that 'cuts' the post out of the ground. Water runs along the edge of the concrete basis and creates a mud layer that reduces the agree the footing has on the mail service.

Once loosened, use two pry bars to lift the post and physical footing out of the ground. Get out the water running to automatically relieve suction force and help push button the post out of the ground.

Inserting the Wood Post Puller spike tool next to a broken post — Connect your garden hose and insert the spike next to the basis

Letting the Wood Post Puller spike tool loosen the post — Connect your garden hose and insert the spike next to the basis

The Forest Post Puller method works when the mail is rotted or broken off. It even works when the concrete breaks upwardly – just go along injecting h2o around and underneath and remove physical pieces by hand. This state of affairs can become messy so utilise a hose-end shutoff to command the water period.

The best spike tool to use is the RootIRRIGATOR from Corona Tools (buy now on Amazon)

Well-nigh homeowners desire to repair their own privacy fence, using Wood Post Puller method makes it Easy. No digging required for many posts and it makes all lifting methods more than effective.

Do Information technology Yourself Fence Repair
For ALL Residential Posts
Posts with Physical Footings
Forest or Metal Posts
Broken or Rotten Posts

SLIDE the Mail service Out with Water PRESSURE

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Click here to larn more details and see total illustrated instructions for our patented Woods Mail Puller method.

An Easy Method to Dig Out a Contend Mail and Concrete Footing Using Hand Tools

When a postal service has to exist fixed there is normally but no other pick than to make clean out the present fence mail and cement footing before y'all to put in the new one. Creating a plan of attack and then implementing the plan could brand the difference between a 1-hr job and a long, difficult 24-hour interval of frustration.

Make Sure That Digging is the Best Mode

To begin, estimate the overall condition of the contend post and the cement footing. Solid posts offer a sizable advantage and will make removal far easier. As well, evaluate the cement base (if applicable) – is it still sturdy or is it damaged/deteriorating?

In the consequence that the post is cracked or the concrete base of operations is deteriorated there might exist no other solution than to dig out the fence mail and concrete basis – merely before deciding on difficult manual labor effort the Wood Post Puller technique – it offers the advantage of working in synergy with all other leveraging and earthworks techniques. It greatly increases their capability and tin smoothly remove contend posts and cement bases that stop culling approaches. If you still yous conclude there is no other way than to dig out the fence postal service, the following instructions will make this difficult undertaking as easy as possible:

How Far Down and How Big to Dig the Hole?

Dig a hole alongside the existing mail and cement of roughly equal dimension as the postal service and concrete base of operations – don't dig all the manner around the fence postal service and don't dig a hole that is bigger than the post – you will only be doing backlog work digging and and so re-filling the hole afterwards y'all are done.

Practise you know how deep the post is buried? The following are normal starting dimensions before posts are put in the ground:

4 x 4 wood fence posts will usually be 8 feet long put 3 feet in the ground
Metal t-posts will commonly be seven feet long put 2 feet in the ground
Galvanized fence posts are generally eight feet long put 3 feet in the basis

If y'all are not sure, you could also measure out the height of the post that is above the ground (or the length of the section if information technology is broken off) and estimate the corporeality that is buried. Dig your pigsty at least 75% as deep as the fence post that is buried – for example, a typical wood post will exist set in the ground 3 anxiety or 36 inches, so make the hole to a depth of at least 27 inches (36 x 0.75 = 27).

How to Dig the Hole

Commencement the hole using a circular point shovel to get through whatever turf, roots, or other surface debris. As the hole becomes deeper, a trench shovel (too referred to as a ditch spade or trenching tool) tin brand the digging much easier until you are down to about 16-24 inches.

Using the shovel yous are making apply of your legs and your whole body weight to loosen the soil to exist removed – keep going until the hole is likewise deep and confined and prevents you from getting leverage at the bottom of the hole. Dig as far as possible, so switch to equipment which is pushed by arm power – the fence post hole digger and excavation spud.

Tip – Selection a post hole digger that is compact and lite – unless of course you are a bodybuilder type. The large, lusty fence mail service hole diggers with the fiberglass handles will tire y'all out – the shorter, lighter fence mail service pigsty diggers with woods handles are more than maneuverable and tend to be easier for well-nigh users, even if they compromise some reach.

Tip – Use a digging bar. The San Angelo bar was designed to brand excavation more efficient – it provides a chisel end to break upwardly the dirt at the lesser of the hole and to trim the sides of the pigsty, the other tip of the bar is a signal for splitting up hard soil. Dissimilar kinds of excavating bars volition include a packing tip for compacting loose dirt. Look for a bar that is loftier quality heat treated steel – don't waste your money to buy a more expensive brand proper noun.

Later you have obtained the target depth, use the chisel end on the digging bar to clean out any dirt still in between the fence postal service and your hole. When you dig a round hole adjacent to a round post foundation there will exist a ridge that should be removed.

Extracting the Fence Post

As you begin the removal process, the essential idea is to push button the post into the pigsty yous only completed. Outset by just pushing the summit of the post towards the pigsty, it should intermission free from the dirt and slide into the hole – later on that, you tin can push the pry bars below the fence post and cement base and have it out.

If the fence post won't budge, attempt pushing the pry bar into the soil side by side to the fence post or concrete ground on the side opposite the opening and push button it towards the hole. To maximize the force from the pry bar, use a leftover slice of two x four or similar wood on the ground to make a pivot and cease the pry bar from sinking in the ground.

If the postal service however is not going to budge, use the earthworks bar to increase the hole around the circumference of the post ground. Go along prying the mail service out and enlarging the hole effectually the fence post until eventually it breaks free and moves over into the pigsty.

How to Set the New Fence Post

Don't utilise concrete footings when setting the replacement postal service. Concrete is but not needed for most privacy debate installations – don't repeat the mistake! Dig a x inch diameter hole and set the postal service 1/3 of its length into the footing [fix an 8ft postal service at least 2 ½ anxiety deep] and then that it is beneath the frost line. Utilise a treated iv×4 argue mail service canonical for directly burying and set the post with crushed gravel.

Not all fence posts are the aforementioned. Learn how to pick the right forest from the lumber yard to become the longest lasting debate.

Put 6 inches of of three/4″ crushed gravel in the lesser of the hole before adding the posts. Put the post in the hole and start adding a mix of gravel and soil. Tamp the gravel firmly every 2-3 inches every bit y'all fill the hole and plumb the post. At the surface be sure to dome the soil so water runs away from the post for skillful drainage. Using this method, your fence should be straight and sturdy for many years.

3/four″ crushed gravel for setting wood posts

There are many discussions (arguments) on the internet about what causes posts to rot and if concrete footings should be used. Our experience shows that physical footing are needed when setting posts in sandy locations. For other installations, concrete footing cause more trouble and so they are worth.

Nosotros recommend crushed gravel to set residential privacy contend posts. When tamped, the crushed gravel will mix with the soil and 'lock' together to hold the post in the footing. The crushed gravel gives the aforementioned size of basis as physical, with the benefit that you can dig thru the gravel if you demand to remove or relocate a postal service.

Crushed gravel may too provide some benefit with improved drainage, merely the primary purpose is to provide the increased surface area to hold the mail service secure in the wind. Note that the sharp edges of crushed gravel are important, round pea gravel is non constructive. Some other advantage is with physical you have to expect for it to cure, with tamped gravel you can build your contend immediately.