Driving 4-5inch posts into the ground questions

[eclipseman]

No one around me rents post driving equipment so I will need to pay someone to do it. Before I start researching who, do you all know what a fair price per post would be? Can they drive flat bottom posts or do they have to have a point at one end? Thanks!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

How deep do you have to drive these posts? What are they for? I usually drill a hole, install the post, then fill in with concrete.

 

[eclipseman]

How deep do you have to drive these posts? What are they for? I usually drill a hole, install the post, then fill in with concrete.

4ft deep. This will be for horse pasture fence. I was told by a few local farms that driving is much more sturdy than digging holes and concrete.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I think I would personally drill and fill. I fenced in 10 acres of fence posts by drilling down 3 feet and putting the posts in and then concrete, the horses couldnt budge them.

But if you are determined to pound them in, check a road construction company, they will have machines for putting posts, and bridge supports in.

 

[eclipseman]

I think I would personally drill and fill. I fenced in 10 acres of fence posts by drilling down 3 feet and putting the posts in and then concrete, the horses couldnt budge them.

But if you are determined to pound them in, check a road construction company, they will have machines for putting posts, and bridge supports in.

I don’t know if it’s the local soil but the couple farmers I know here say concrete posts end up leaning over time where driven posts do not...

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Maybe ask them if they have driven in posts, how did they do it?

 

[eclipseman]

Maybe ask them if they have driven in posts, how did they do it?

They hired someone to do it is what they told me...

 

[Gator]

I've always heard backfilling with pea gravel is better than concrete. Supposedly, as the post dries, the pea gravel will fall in keeping it tight whereas concrete will then be loose. I've personally never done it, but I know using concrete often results in a loose post after the post dries out for a while (unless you let the post dry out well in advance)

 

[Buckly]

You have to be careful when using pea gravel to backfill. Frost will grab the post at ground level and lift it up. The pea gravel will fall under the post and when the ground thaws out your post won’t be in the ground all the way. It’s a good way to do it using pea gravel but , compact in a foot of soil at the bottom. Then the post will just move up and down with the frost and the pea gravel won’t full underneath the post.

 

[Gator]

You have to be careful when using pea gravel to backfill. Frost will grab the post at ground level and lift it up. The pea gravel will fall under the post and when the ground thaws out your post won’t be in the ground all the way. It’s a good way to do it using pea gravel but , compact in a foot of soil at the bottom. Then the post will just move up and down with the frost and the pea gravel won’t full underneath the post.

Thanks Buckly. We don't deal with frost heave like you guys so I was not aware. Good info though...

 

[Buckly]

I’m looking forward to the day I won’t be dealing with frost issues either.

 

[Livesintrees]

Three and half foot hole. 6” gravel at the bottom then fill the hole with cement. Gravel allows moisture that would other sit at bottom of post to drain away.

 

[JFK52]

I installed large diameter hollow metal posts for 3 gates on my land. These posts are the anchors for the 16 foot wide stock gates. The post where the gate is locked to with a chain is a smaller diameter and solid metal. My soil is extremely sandy and rocky. I dug all the holes with post hole diggers 4 feet deep. Put some smaller rocks on the bottom and tamped them down repeatedly, much as livesintrees recommend. Then I mixed the concrete on site and poured it in the hole. I let all the concrete set for quite a while before I installed the gates themselves. Holes for attaching the gates were predrilled before installation making the job much easier.

All 6 gate posts on my land have been standing for 27 years and there have been no problems with them.

I do have a friend who has a PTO post hole digger but I did not know him back when I was doing this construction project. He uses it in his vineyard to install the posts that hold up his vines.