How Often Should Wooden Fence Posts Be Replaced?

Have you noticed the fence posts are starting to wear down in your wooden fence? This isn’t a problem that necessarily means you’ll have to replace the entire fence. You can easily repair or replace just the fence posts, and keep the rest of the structure standing for many more years, depending on its condition.

Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about wooden fence post replacement in Utah.

Tips for fence post repair

You should always keep an eye on the general condition of your fence posts. If they’re already extremely damaged or degraded, you might be able to just pull them right out of the ground. This is most likely to be the case if there’s been a lot of rot or termite damage. Usually if this sort of damage covers at least 30 percent of the post, you’ll need to replace the entire post. You only need to worry about replacing the post entirely if it is already badly damaged.

If you have a post that’s only recently been broken but has not yet started to rot, or you have a bit of rot but it’s not yet extensive, you can likely still save the post instead of replacing it.

To do this, you’ll first want to remove the fence boards located immediately around the post. Use a pry bar and framing hammer to remove four to six boards in the immediate area, which will give you enough room around the fence post to work with. Then, separate the fence rails from the post (those being the horizontal boards that connect the fence posts together). Take out the screws or nails so you can move the rails out of the way to get at the fence post.

Once you’ve cleared this space, dig a few inches down until you reach the fence post’s concrete footing. Properly installed wooden fences should have concrete footings below the ground for the fence posts to prevent rot from forming at the bottom.

Here’s where you’ll want to use an E-Z Mender tool, a metal fence repair bracket you can find at your local big box home improvement store. Insert the tip of the tool into the concrete and hammer it with a sledge hammer, positioning the E-Z Mender so the cross section is perpendicular to the fence line. This allows you to get the strongest results out of your repair job. You’ll need to hit the fence mender a lot of times (at least a few dozen) before it’s fully seated in the concrete.

Once it’s fully seated, attach the E-Z Mender to the post with exterior wood screws, then reattach all the rails and fence boards. This should result in a fortified fence post that will continue to serve you well into the future.

For more information about how to replace wooden fence posts in Utah, or to stock up on woode for an upcoming project, we encourage you to contact Huberwoods today. We look forward to assisting you soon.

Categorised in: Wooden Fence Posts

This post was written by Writer