Fence Post Repair

I've got an old Cedar fence which not treated with any weather repellant.  Its probably about 15 years old.  The Cedar is in pretty good shape for its age.  There are some rotted out boards here and there.  The biggest problem with this fence is where it meets the ground,  When the Cedar is perpetually moist it rots, and attracts parasites like fungus.  Termites don't seem to like it though.

This is the hinge post for the gate, so there is extra stress on this one as well.  When I noticed it was getting weak I added a brace to it, which is a 2x4 at an angle in to the ground and secured to the post with deck screws.  One way to do this repair is to take apart the fence, pull the post and the concrete slug out of the ground, plant the new post, and reassemble the fence.  I was looking for a more efficient way.

Eventually I am going to replace this fence, and really only need something to prop it up for now.  So instead of replacing the hinge post I am adding a support post about a foot away.  When I go back to replace the fence I can pull the old hinge post and replace it, and still use the support post for extra strength.

This also gives me a chance to use up those partial bags of concrete hanging out in the garage.  Rather than using stake to hold the post in place I have attached it to the fence where I want it to be.  Then made sure the fence was positioned where I wanted it.

I mix the concrete in the Orange Bucket using a Sharpshooter shovel.  Its not easy, but it is cost effective.  These support post repairs are cost effective too.  The pressure treated Pine post is around $7, two sacks of concrete $5.50, and some deck screws.  If I was to replace the hinge post I might have spent 4 hours doing this.  With the support post I only disassembled the fence as necessary to attach the support post.  So I saved some time there.  I only had to pull two boards.  The time I spent installing the support post was about 2 hours.

 A couple days later the concrete is fully cured.  The post and the fence are solid again.  Now I'll remove the brace and replace the ground cover.  There were another two support posts I added in this time, so the east side of the fence is solid again.

The next project for this part of the fence is to add dog boards, and add some planks to close the gaps so a certain very loud dog, Harley, can't see out.