Fence removal

[Matthew Storrs]

2 minutes ago, Vespasian said:

haha, hows about one of these...  might even do for the odd tree stump..

 

 

 

I'd still get a breaker. One, it'll do the job you want doing ie break off the concrete surrounding the post, and easier to get to the job..  as opposed to a mini digger that you might be able to use once every blue moon..   

Breaking concrete out the ground  isn’t always straightforwards either though if they’re 2ft deep as he says. Personally I’d sooner use a digger, minimal manual effort, and can bury the concrete/prep the fence line too.

 

Can’t you just cut the posts of at just below ground level, leave the concrete insitu and put the new posts in at staggered spacing. No concrete to get rid off!

[Vespasian]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

Breaking concrete out the ground  isn’t always straightforwards either though if they’re 2ft deep as he says. Personally I’d sooner use a digger, minimal manual effort, and can bury the concrete/prep the fence line too.

 

Can’t you just cut the posts of at just below ground level, leave the concrete insitu and put the new posts in at staggered spacing. No concrete to get rid off!

I'd sooner use a JCB and really pull the fkrs out. but we can't get a JCB through a typical garden gate can we..  then theres the convenience of loading a breaker into the back of a van as opposed to loading a mini digger up in a morning..  

 

as to cutting off the posts just below ground level, you'd be better off pulling the posts out and be done with it..  

[eggsarascal]

I wouldn't want to be getting a pneumatic breaker out of a 2ft hole all day long, that's before it gets stuck and you've got to try to wrestle it free.

[drinksloe]

To be honest it would often vary from job to job depending if u need to put the post in at same centre's or not, soil conditions and ammount of concrete posts were put in with (seen posts put in with silly ammounts when done by the house builders labourers, usually in a bob crater shaped hole so doing no good either).

 

With a digger ur best bet would be to leave ur post full hieght/high (same as with tree stumps) so u can get digger bucket over them and give them a good waggle 1st before lifting,

As u don't really want to be digging round them if ur hoping to use the same hole.

 

I'd hire a few diggers to see wot size copes best, ur always/usually better with as large a machine as u get get acces for.

 

A breaker is a bloody handy tool as well, even a heavier electric breaker would do the job of breaking posts out, and used 1 many times for that job, still a bawache getting the concrete out at times even after u've got thhe post out.

But a breaker is handy for many thing doing domestic work, we'd quite often use it for putting a fence up ontop/alongside a small garden wall so ur posts were on top of the founds, handy for breaking them away to get ur posts in tight to the wall.

Not that dear now either, well for the cheaper makes, and if ur not using it very often a cheapo screwfix brand breaker might be all u need

[Vespasian]

15 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

I wouldn't want to be getting a pneumatic breaker out of a 2ft hole all day long, that's before it gets stuck and you've got to try to wrestle it free.

The ones I've used are electric..  thought they might break up with the concrete but no, they turned out to be very handy..

[DanBous]

Thanks for all the feedback guys so far...
To clarify yes I have a breaker it's a decent DeWalt electric one sds max ie not a sds plus drill...I have all the digging bars and spades etc. This is the method I normally use, but I just thought instead of digging and breaking, digging and breaking, digging and breaking etc it might be quicker to pull them out.
I would not like to have a pnumatic breaker down a hole it's heavy!
Posts have to go in same location. I do normally stagger and snap old posts off at the ground but this job has a 45 degree bend halfway and it would be too many half panels!!

[DanBous]

Gonna have a look at the posts today and see if solid or rotten...if they are rotten digger no use for pulling them out! And will measure access of course.

[aspenarb]

This gadget we knocked up pops out any post, just a chain wrap around the post or if there is nothing left the concrete ball and push the lever down. Makes easy work of it.

 

Bob

 

[Shane]

Vorsprung durch Bob!

 

I don't suppose that spelling is right though.

[sime42]

Vorsprung durch Bob!
 
I don't suppose that spelling is right though.

Very nice. How long is the handle on that? The simplest solutions are often the best.