Hi I have done a lot of fencing in the last few years and are now having post rot off at the ground in 3-4 years  in heavy clay ground . The post are 3-4 in pine  tanalised from McVeigh Parker and I  wondered if this is now the norm as I hear the tanalising is now downgraded to cut out the heavy metals

Thanks James 

Hi, I'm afraid that this has become the norm. We have had 2/3 year old posts snapping off. A neighbour has bought posts that have been boiled in creosote, they cost at least double the normal ones but I reckon they're a sound investment. I will let you know in 25 yrs time !

 

Even legal creosote isn't what it used to be!

if your lease is for 5 yrs, then you want to put in posts to last 5 yrs and a day.

glasshouse:

if your lease is for 5 yrs, then you want to put in posts to last 5 yrs and a day.

Hhs. You made me chuckle, it made me think of the reply my old shepherd mentor used to tell people who asked what was gestation period of a ewe. He used to say , "Twenty one weeks, a day and an hour."

I am looking for a length of fence to tumble down flat, all the staples drop out and the wire to roll itself up again for further use. Do I ask too much?

Incidentally, I have not bought a staple in twenty years.

 

Well, it finally happened, two strainer posts fell down at once and took the gate with them. £4000 of testicles on legs went walkabout (£3500 for the master stag, and £500 for the little squirt) into the woods just as the local hunt came up the road. The result was another 25 yards of fencing was flattened by the frightened deer, including another 9inch post. Luckily neither of the deer had a scratch on them when I finally coaxed them from the woods, but I nearly missed the shoot dinner! I now check all posts around the fields which have stock in them everyday, very time consuming.

Does anyone think there is something Trading Standards or another consumer organisation can do? This is obviously a national problem and one which I can well do without.

Hi there Katndog,

Sorry to hear about your fence post problems. Sounds like you had a really bad batch. Bad enough on a normal stock fence but 4 times worse on a deer fence. I know there have been problems all over the place; I suspect the replacement for CCA tanalising is not good enough but there is another problem with deer fencing in that there is relatively little demand so very few people keep timber in stock of the requisite length. Add to that the fact that timber will need at least a year to dry out sufficiently to accept the treatment and you can begin to see how us deer farmers need to be oh so careful.

 The first deer fence I put up 30 years ago is still standing and still has deer enclosed so it is definitely possible to get the job right. On a slightly more cynical note I find that many people are only concerned with achieving a sale rather than having any concern that what they are selling is fit for the purpose. Sign of the times and the greedy world in which we live I suppose.

Unfortunately I suspect your only option is to start again if you can bear to do that. Presumably even if you can get your supplier to accept responsibility for the crap timber it would be difficult to get any recompense for the labour involved in re-fencing and the disruption to your business. A really bad situation; I feel your pain.  John 

my fencing is 20 plus years and its showing its age, after reading this i might just buy telegraph poles and use them as posts and strainers.

fatso:

my fencing is 20 plus years and its showing its age, after reading this i might just buy telegraph poles and use them as posts and strainers.

 

quite a few round here, us included ,are using sleepers or telephone pole as gate posts and strainers now.

Perhaps Farmers Weekly would like to do a piece on this problem, loads of rotten posts can't be much good for the environment. 

just moving this up, seems someone else is having problems

Although, I am now in Nottingham, I still return to Kent, we used to always use Jackson Fencing, now I am not saying they were\are the cheapest but for value for money, they are seriously hard to beat, and back in the day (and I have not used them for a while, mainly, because once fiited, you do not need to order again because it lasts), the staff were always polite and helpful, and I am sure that is the same today. Their site is at http://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk, this is not advertising, I don't work for them, it is just a recommendation.

Lurking around these pages somewhere is a similar thread where people were moaning about the rubbish posts available now, myself included (20% of everything put in since 2005 has now rotted below ground). Solutions proposed were soaking the ends of the posts in a barrel of creosote/tar/other oily stuff, or looking for a supplier who boils posts in creosote for a few weeks.

I have been back to my supplier today to complain about the uselessness of his posts and was told 'he would look into it.' Apparently everything is rotting because the arsenic and chromium have been removed from the tannalising mix in 2004.

I have also just had a conversation with a neighbour about this and we are looking to get a few more people interested and buy an artic load of ex-electric posts which we will chop to size, which will help with the 74 corner and strainer posts that have rotted off, now to find a solution for the 574 stakes that will need replacing!

katndog2:

Solutions proposed were soaking the ends of the posts in a barrel of creosote/tar/other oily stuff, or looking for a supplier who boils posts in creosote for a few weeks.

 

What about the tar coated plastic sleaves I mentioned in the "rotting fence post" thread. Anyone tried those or had any thoughts?

katndog2:

 now to find a solution for the 574 stakes that will need replacing!

A neighbour with far too much time on his hands bought a load of 2nd hand railway sleepers and cut them up with a saw-bench to square posts. They still stand as good as the day they went in 15+ years ago. I think he got 8 out of a sleeper, which worked out fairly good, given the life-span.

bovril:

I think he got 8 out of a sleeper,

 

I need them 10 foot long minimum, so I doubt I'll get that many from one sleeper!