Wood post in concrete - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

THEHANDYMAN · 01-19-2009, 10:12 PM

HELP need some help removeing fence post! I have some 6ft high 3inch slats wood privacy fence that the wind blew over. Needless to say the post are broken off and they are set in concrete. Tried to remove one today that suker is in there for the duration of what ever. I dug down to the crete, then used a 20 ton jack to try and remove the crete and post. I would say the crete is about 10-12 inches across with a 4x4 wood post. Ground is wet clay,this section is the drainage area for the whole neighborhood so stays wet all the time. How do I get the plug out?

tahoeanj · 01-19-2009, 10:33 PM

What sub division in Johnstown? most likely the clay around will come with and create even a large hole that will create more issues later when resetting the new posts. I have had the same issue recently in fort collins. If the old footers are at grade or below, leave them (after you cut down the post) and off set one post and start your stagger.

Do you have a access to a BH or mini EX? if so dig around the footer(by hand) and attach a chain and pull up. The footer is most likely larger at the top and narrows as you go down. Is this an option? If it is rocksbury ridge they will be 30- 36" deep so be perpared.

stp57 · 01-20-2009, 08:43 AM

Hopefully, you haven't been victimized by an over-zealous worker. I have encountered several posts in the past that had screws or nails attached to the bottom part of the post so that the post got a better footing in the concrete. Flawed thinking, I'm sure, but it makes for one hell of a hard removal.
Steve

THEHANDYMAN · 01-20-2009, 10:47 PM

Wasn't in "J" town was in BROOMFIELD.Guy said that his fence line is the water drainage for the neighborhood. I belive him the ground was wet, the post were soaked to the core. But it was that cussed clay that made it a bear to get out. I couldn't off set the post as I was just putting back up 3 sections and two posts that had blown over. I had dug a ways down to the crete and beyond till I got tired of digging, so that I had a good place to wrap chain. In fact the post had broken off above the crete so had good place to hook on to it, that wasn't a problem. I hooked chain and had the 20 ton jack straight above so was a straight pull. The one core we got out was pretty uniform in size all the way down, maybe 2ft of crete with a foot of dirt over top. It looked as if a post hole auger had been used, so hole was straight on sides, I would say 10-12 inch across, was a good 2 ft of crete.

What I finially did was after breaking off the wood post, chiseled what I could of it out, then rotary hamered as much of the crete as I could and got the wood flush with that, I then sat new post on top of old wood and crete, poured new crete packed the clay in and called it good. I had at least two ft of post in the hole and fence was only 5ft tall so that helped. Other hole was probley 3 ft deep and we went to bottom with that one.

I have done some work in ROCKSBURY was in floorcovering and had a builder that built about a half dozen houses in there. We used to do the vinyl lamiinate and tile work on all his houses. He then moved over to Milliken and built quite a few out east of town. I live in ROLLINS HILLS sub division Johnston.

simplejack · 01-21-2009, 06:07 AM

Happened to me in my own back yard!

We demo'd an old deck when we bought the house in favor of pavers. the genius who built the sucker used 12" tubes to set the posts in concrete. one I took a sawz-all to nearly flush then beat down the nub with a sledge hammer. The rest I took an auger bit and drilled a hole through the 4x4 post and "threaded" a crow bar through the set (2) 2.5 ton floor jacks on either side and on top of the Crete we got them out and left the Crete under our pavers (after filling the holes with more crete).

Lucky ours were dry though.

Mebbe you can just throw some termites at it next time!

THEHANDYMAN · 01-23-2009, 12:00 PM

TURDMITES might just be the way to go!

Had another toughie yesterday we dug down farther with a narrow spade. I think we still had at least 8-9 inches in the ground below where we dug out. But it came out with the 20 ton jack and chain, although at first I began to wonder about it.

What are you guys chargeing for some thing like that? I charged him $200 plus supplies (concrete and post) as it took me almost 4 hours by the time I got the post reset and fence reattached back on post. Seems like alot of time and money for one post but it was work. The post had rotted and broken off just above crete but fence hadn't fell down so reattaching was a simple job.

Winchester · 01-23-2009, 08:30 PM

Didn't you watch Holmes on Homes?!

He had to take out the posts the previous contractor put in. They used a bobcat and chain to lift them out. Sounds like in your situation the posts would just pull the bobcat over though.

THEHANDYMAN · 01-23-2009, 10:02 PM

Sounds like the commercials I seen for post pullers. They had a 3 ton jack and the post just came out slicker than snot on a marble. The idea looked good but it didn't take long to see the weak spot in that deal. We couldn't have gotten any thing on wheels back into where we were, it just wasn't a situation that you could have used a machine. I was just hopeing someone had a better idea than any thing I came up with. I can't find a better way I will be scratching FENCE REPAIR off my list of jobs I'll tackle.