Concrete cure time for fence post?

[1SilverBadger]

I have put in a new fence post in for my dad. The hole is about 500mm, the gate is 5ft by 3ft, but quite heavy. I filled the hole with cement and sand 1 to 4 wet mix. How long should I leave the post before attatching the gate?
Thanks.

 

[mointainwalker]

The hole is about 500mm

Wide or deep ?

Haven't done this particular exercise myself, but that sounds far too shallow for the gate if 500 mm deep ( by the way please confirm if gate is 5 h x 3 w . A little bit of annotation saves a lot of questions )

 

[1SilverBadger]

Yes the hole is about 500mm deep, and about 1 ft wide. it's a 3" post. Yes the gate is 3 ft wide by 5ft high. I hope the hole is deep enough, really can't be arsed to dig it up again!
Thanks.

 

[^woody^]

1 day

 

[Deluks]

When you say sand, did you mean ballast (sand/stone mixture) or just sand?

In any case it'll fall over, the post really needs bracing against something like a wall. Or another post on the other side with a crossbar between.

 

[1SilverBadger]

Thanks for the replies. The post is not free standing. It is conected to a wall by 3 lengths of arris rail (the wall is about 500mm away. I just used a mortar mix, rather than concrete, should be ok?
So about 1 day should do it? Seems rather short.
Cheers.

 

[Deluks]

Mortar mix is for building walls, should've used a bag or 2 of postcrete (rapid setting concrete for fixing posts)

Fingers crossed, see how it goes, but if it becomes loose you could end up digging it out and throwing some crete in there. Either the postcrete or 5:1 ballast/cement.

(sounds harsh but the fact that you used mortar means it will dig out a lot easier than real concrete)

 

[1SilverBadger]

Yes. Using mortar was a fairly massive oversight! Don't for the life of me know why I did that. Oh well, fingers crossed as you say. I am hoping about 4 days is a suitable time to leave the mix to cure well. Does that sound appropriate?
Cheers.