Gone with the Wind...

On Monday, 2/6, a little wind storm finished off a section of our fence that had survived January's snowpocalypse storm. We knew this fence was on borrowed time when we bought the house, but thought that it would last until summer. The fence posts were rotted off in the concrete footing, which was buried under about 6-in. of dirt and only about 12-in. deep. It's also my opinion that wood fence posts should not be buried in the concrete footing as the concrete traps the moisture next to the wood and will not allow it to drain away. This results in the post rotting off just as fast or faster than dirt, except now you have 120-lbs. of concrete to dig out when you replace the post. Here is what the fence looked like in September 2011.

Front Side

Back Side

Well the demolition for this project basically included dragging the fence out of the way and digging out the old concrete post footers. This sounds simple, but getting the old concrete footer out isn't easy. After a few hours of work with an 8-lb. sledgehammer and a shovel and I had the old footers out and a wheel barrow of concrete chunks.

Next a run to the hardware store to buy supplies. We decided to go with pre-fabricated wood panels as we wanted to get the fence repaired quickly. We poured a 10-in. diameter by 2-ft. deep concrete footer, but rather than setting the post in the footer directly we used a steel column base insert that we set into the concrete footer (see below). This keeps the wood above grade where it can remain dry, avoiding future rot damage.

We covered the footers and let them set overnight to cure. The next day we were ready to start setting our posts and panels. For the posts we used 6-ft. pressure treated 4x4s. We held the post off the bottom of the steel column base by about 1-in. to ensure that the base of the post wouldn't sit in any water that pooled on the footer. The post was then bolted into the base using two 1/2-in.x5-in bolts. After we set the first post and tied it into the two existing fences it was time to attach the prefab wood panel so we could set the second post in the exact position we wanted it.

As we started drilling the bolt holes for the second post my trusty cordless drill battery died... So Rachael ran to the hardware store to pick up a corded drill while I proceeded to cut down and reassemble the second prefab panel into a custom gate. To add rigidity to the gate and prevent it from sagging out of alignment I installed four corner brackets.

I finished the gate by the time Rachael got home with the new drill, so it was time to finish setting the second post and attach the gate. A tip for the other DIYers out there, go buy a corded drill before a drill intensive project. Not only will the battery not die on a corded drill, but they have a lot more power.

After we hung the gate we set the third post and attached the gate latch to finish the fence.

After Front

After Back

Now we just have to wait for a few days of dry weather, so that we can apply a waterproof stain to the wood.