Fence post advice

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Hampshire
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Last year I replaced the front side fence between my neighbour’s house and my house, using 3” wooden posts and 4 foot overlap panels. It looks very neat.

IMG_2025-03-10-123535.jpg

Early this year some panels and posts in the rear fence with the same neighbour came down in high winds. So I need to replace them, and I will replace the whole fence. There are ten panels in total, each 6 foot tall and 6 foot wide. Most of the panels were supported by 3” wooden posts. A few had 4” wooden posts. The fence is at least 18 years old, and almost all of the 3” posts are solid, three 4” posts rotted.

I reckon I will have no chance in hell of doing concrete posts on my own, or putting in the panels on my own. So wood it is. I can lift 8 foot 4” posts, and 6 by 6 foot panels on my own. I will buy a two wheel cart to move them. I did the front posts in concrete, exposed to the air at the top and sloped downwards to ensure water drains. I will do the same at the rear.

The general advice I see everywhere is to use 4” posts. Has anyone here used 3” posts, what was the outcome? I am tempted to use 3”, my reasoning is that the posts outlast panels by a few years at best, and replacing a post is easy, and best done when a panel goes. Also, 4” are heavy and not easy to manage.
 
Absolutely.

You can probably re-use your old wooden posts, which will have rotted just above ground level. Cut off all the rotten material, soak both ends in a bucket of wood preserver (not fence stain) and refit with the wood above ground level so it will not get wet. The spurs are manageable on your own. You can tie nylon webbing to them to carry around.

For economy, you can use 8mm BZP studding, which you can cut to length yourself, with BZP penny washers on each end, and BZP nuts. Paint it.

I am in a coastal area and the salt spray causes severe rust, so I use stainless.

You can paint the concrete spurs with dark brown masonry paint, preferably before installing, to blend in with your woodstain.

Put caps on your wooden posts to prevent rain penetration. The paint will seal the tops of the spurs.
 

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