Long lasting softwood fence posts

[DrDunc]

So have you bothered claiming against the 15yr guarantee? I suspect not: perhaps if you did, it would help to encourage improved industry standards.

Have you tried claiming?

Any damage to the wood voids the guarantee.... That includes putting in a staple

 

[David.]

For what it's worth, I saw creo posts in Wynnstay recently that looked like Eastern Bloc timber, loads of growth rings nice and straight, looked better timber stock than the stuff I had last from Calders. Didn't ask prices.

 

[Hilly]

Buy scandanavian slow grown pine pressure treated in creosote then.

Imported timber will be much better yes, uk dose not have favourable conditions to grow good timber anything soft wood home grown is crap.

 

[Hilly]

Have you tried claiming?

Any damage to the wood voids the guarantee.... That includes putting in a staple

Like a lot of so called "guarantees" not worth the paper they are written on.

 

[Hilly]

they shouldn't be 'dipped'.
The ones we're using are -as I understand, pressure treated in the same manner as the tanalising...only with a tank of creo instead of green p*ss
Most of it seems to be welsh grown larch/DF I'd guess (has evident heartwood, knot whorls too small to be pine...maybe)
Stakes cut in half should have deep penetration.

Timber quality is another matter, and i'm happy to go there if you've got a day or two to spare.....

If going to the lenght of preserving something it has to be worth preserving home grown softwood is not imo.

 

[Pond digger]

Have you tried claiming?

Any damage to the wood voids the guarantee.... That includes putting in a staple

, so unless you leave em in the shed........

No, I’ve never tried to claim against a guarantee. The last I bought came from Jackson’s Fencing, They have a 25yr guarantee, but you have to register. The posts have full treatment penetration, and are as green in the middle as they are on the outside.

 

[egbert]

If going to the lenght of preserving something it has to be worth preserving home grown softwood is not imo.

It's too big a subject to cover in one response, but consider this.

I'm reusing 50 year old UK grown stakes, grown really fast. The treatment was obviously good, and likely the processes were followed better.
(felled sap down, peeled promptly, dried off the deck, vacuumed to spec, etc etc)
They were out of really fast grown thinnings - too small to have any appreciable heartwood.
It certainly can be done.

Equally, I've seen imported stakes from somewhere with very 'poor' growing conditions - or maybe it was the silviculture- which had circa 70 years of annual rings*.
That growth rate is not going to be profitable to anyone 'managing woodland (unless we're going to be paying £20/stake) which means these almost certainly had to be coming from primal unworked woodland ....to make our fence posts??????
That doesn't sound very sustainable to me.
*It just might have been very careful silviculture, although I think that highly unlikely.

It's a big subject, and I can understand why you hold the views you might, but it's not as black and white as all that.

 

[Hilly]

It's too big a subject to cover in one response, but consider this.

I'm reusing 50 year old UK grown stakes, grown really fast. The treatment was obviously good, and likely the processes were followed better.
(felled sap down, peeled promptly, dried off the deck, vacuumed to spec, etc etc)
They were out of really fast grown thinnings - too small to have any appreciable heartwood.
It certainly can be done.

Equally, I've seen imported stakes from somewhere with very 'poor' growing conditions - or maybe it was the silviculture- which had circa 70 years of annual rings*.
That growth rate is not going to be profitable to anyone 'managing woodland (unless we're going to be paying £20/stake) which means these almost certainly had to be coming from primal unworked woodland ....to make our fence posts??????
That doesn't sound very sustainable to me.
*It just might have been very careful silviculture, although I think that highly unlikely.

It's a big subject, and I can understand why you hold the views you might, but it's not as black and white as all that.

Maybe not but the simple answer not to buy the crap we are offerd, then perhaps suppliers will take a think, if folk keep buying t they will keep selling it , if we need quality we need to demand it not just keep buying it and get bumped with inferior products hence metal concrete plastic will be my choice in future for as many things as possible.

 

[SilliamWhale]

It's too big a subject to cover in one response, but consider this.

I'm reusing 50 year old UK grown stakes, grown really fast. The treatment was obviously good, and likely the processes were followed better.
(felled sap down, peeled promptly, dried off the deck, vacuumed to spec, etc etc)
They were out of really fast grown thinnings - too small to have any appreciable heartwood.
It certainly can be done.

Equally, I've seen imported stakes from somewhere with very 'poor' growing conditions - or maybe it was the silviculture- which had circa 70 years of annual rings*.
That growth rate is not going to be profitable to anyone 'managing woodland (unless we're going to be paying £20/stake) which means these almost certainly had to be coming from primal unworked woodland ....to make our fence posts??????
That doesn't sound very sustainable to me.
*It just might have been very careful silviculture, although I think that highly unlikely.

It's a big subject, and I can understand why you hold the views you might, but it's not as black and white as all that.

Quite frankly it would be more enviromentally friendly to put some arsenic back in

 

[Pond digger]

Maybe not but the simple answer not to buy the crap we are offerd, then perhaps suppliers will take a think, if folk keep buying t they will keep selling it , if we need quality we need to demand it not just keep buying it and get bumped with inferior products hence metal concrete plastic will be my choice in future for as many things as possible.

Of course there's nothing new about metal fencing. I remember back in the 80's, our ploughman cutting open a rear tyre on the new MF2640, he'd gone over an angle iron stake that had rotted off at ground level.

 

[David.]

Gramp used to use secondhand boiler tube to hold up barbed.

 

[Brisel]

Give honey street sawmills a call they do creosoted posts of all sizes and shapes, put some in nearly ten years ago and some are still ozzing the creosote out,bit dearer but worth every penny

Honey Street were very good. Unfortunately they sold the business a few years ago and it has closed down.

 

[Henarar]

Leylandii cut them down cut them to length cut a point on one end and drive them in
simples

 

[rob1]

Honey Street were very good. Unfortunately they sold the business a few years ago and it has closed down.

Bugger didnt know that not bought any since 2017

 

[egbert]

Leylandii cut them down cut them to length cut a point on one end and drive them in
simples

heartwood should be reasonably durable...sapwood won't.
There does seem to be a lot of variation in what is presumed leylandii, but then, it's a hybrid so I suppose it's to be expected.

 

[Henarar]

heartwood should be reasonably durable...sapwood won't.
There does seem to be a lot of variation in what is presumed leylandii, but then, it's a hybrid so I suppose it's to be expected.

well it lasting longer for me than the rubbish treated stuff

 

[egbert]

well it lasting longer for me than the rubbish treated stuff

well yes, but thats not saying much.

try and get the sap off, even if its just where its in the deck, and where you're fastening....

 

[Grassman]

Buy scandanavian slow grown pine pressure treated in creosote then.

I have used some octopost. Not cheap but 25 year warranty and it does look like it will last at least that.

 

[Kidds]

well it lasting longer for me than the rubbish treated stuff

Me too, much to my surprise.
Used them for raspberry support posts and they lasted longer than the raspberry plants did.

 

[nails]

Cleft oak is the way to go, got some cleft oak piles still standing after 40 years. Sweet Chestnut is good, but i think there is some new disease hitting it now so it might become very short.