The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Womble on August 13, 2024, 04:48:04 pm
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We have a couple of gates that have failed because the wooden gateposts have rotted and then broken off at ground level.
Does anybody know of a clever way to pull the rest of the post out of the ground without digging a massive hole around it?
Thanks! :thumbsup:
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I'll ask Dan
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Don't know about gate posts Womble, but we have replaced several oak fence posts around the veg plot which had rotted at the base. The post section left in the the ground had rotted away sufficiently to be able to pull what was solid out by hand. We then drove the new posts, which were slightly larger, into the same holes. Of course anything concreted in does need to be dug out or the new post repositioned to miss it.
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Thanks Chris, I should have said, these were originally just driven in by a tractor - no concrete involved.
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I removed a rotten 8x8 gate post that had snapped. It was still relatively solid below ground. I tried exposing 1 side driving a coach screw in and levering it out. I had some success but it eventually snapped. I then resorted to cutting it from above with a chainsaw into quarters and splitting it to pull the bits out
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This sounds archaic but it worked twice with telegraph pole gate posts, you will need a breaker bar, brick or stone block and a long piece of scaffold, dig down about a foot at the side of the post a drill the biggest hole you can in it then force the breaker bar in the hole pivot on a stone block and swing on the scaffold stuck onto the breaker bar, it will work but not in a wet field the stone will just sink.
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There’s videos for using a wheel to get a machine to exert force upwards to pull out posts and stumps.
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Anyone tried using any kind of augur? If the remaining piece isn't rotten, would drilling into it and pulling it up by the augur work? (And if the stump is rotten, presumably digging it out with a narrow spade / trenching tool type is possible?)
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I'm thinking a combination of methods may work. Screwing an auger or some large eyelet into it and using a rope/ cable around a wheel pulled by a mower/ tractor. It will probably not come out because of soil sticking to it, but perhaps using a jack hammer with a long bit from the sides would shake it free?
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Old posts without concrete we've lifted with the three point linkage, but those in concrete are dug out by hand then lifted with the three point linkage. I can't imagine it does it much good (the 3 point that is)
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We don't have a tractor, but can probably achieve similar using the hi-lift jack.
It's getting a secure attachment point on the post that's going to be the most challenging thing, I think.
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If you can dig down tight to the post an area that will take a trolley jack, put a piece of wood in the hole to spread the load and then put a 12mm coach screw in tight you should be able to jack it up and out. It may also be worth drilling a hole in the top and putting something like a wrecking bar in to give it a wobble to break the suction from the soil
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if you are not in a hurry, you could try burning it out with BBQ coals, requires patience to scrape away the char and putting more coals on. Personally I suggest the auger will either destroy the rotten stump or provide an anchor point for lifting out on a chain, however you choose to pull that.