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How To Remove Fence Posts In Concrete Settings

How do you remove broken contend posts ready in concrete anyway?

Pulling a broken fence mail service out of concrete is kind of like pulling a tooth – information technology's hard, painful, and requires some serious effort to get it right. If your argue mail is cleaved near basis level, then you lot won't be able to mount another piece of forest to the post to utilise as leverage.

That leaves you with a cleaved, often water-damaged, piece of contend postal service, and an old physical footing that needs to come out of the footing. Not an ideal situation.

You tin can approach the problem from a few dissimilar angles.

You can dig around the mail hole, then use several long pry bars to lever the concrete footing out of the ground. If the wood left inside the ground is not completely rotten, so you lot can sometimes screw a big eyebolt into the forest and and then pull it out with a rope or chain.

You tin too utilise a large pry bar with a chisel end to intermission upwards the physical ground into smaller pieces, and so pull it out by hand.

Let'southward take a look at these dissimilar means to remove broken fence posts set up in concrete.

How to Remove Broken Fence Posts Set in Concrete – Guide

Method 1) Suspension Up Concrete Footing

This method may await similar a lot of work, only it's actually less strenuous than trying to remove the unabridged concrete footing in a single piece. It will besides keep the hole fairly modest, then you'll salvage concrete when y'all prepare the new fence mail in concrete.

Tools Required:

  • five-pes+ heavy-duty digging bar
  • Shovel
  • Gloves and safety spectacles

Step 1: Remove Old Wooden Post

The first step is to remove or interruption upwardly the remaining fence post left within the concrete. If the wood is old and rotten, then this should exist fairly easy.

old wood fence post removed from posthole
Former wooden fence post removed from the base.

Lift your digger bar chisel up high and use its weight to strike the one-time contend post. It should splinter and break apart. Then reach down and remove as much of the former forest mail as possible.

If the post is onetime and loose, yous may be able to pull information technology out in a single piece.

Step 2: Dig around the perimeter of the posthole

Utilise your shovel to dig a trivial gap between the concrete basis and the footing. This doesn't need to be large, just dig plenty to become your digger bar in the gap.

Keep in mind the more you dig up, the more difficult information technology will be after on when y'all need to supplant the old mail service with a new one.

Step 3: Suspension upwardly the Physical Footing

Now for the hard part!

Yous're going to demand to break up the concrete footing in society to get it out of the posthole. Luckily, if y'all have the right tools, breaking concrete into smaller chips is totally doable.

You can use a multifariousness of tools for this task, but the of import thing is they're large and heavy! A sledgehammer or digger bar chisel both piece of work well. Don't be agape to really hammer the footing – it'll break upward eventually.

using digger bar chisel to break up concrete plug
A digger bar used as a lever can crack a concrete plug with minimal trouble.

If you're using a digger bar like I am, try inserting into the posthole and so levering information technology with force until the concrete footing cracks in one-half.

If you happen to take a powered demolition hammer or access to heavy mechanism like an excavator or loader, then breaking up the post should be effortless.

Step iv: Remove Remaining Concrete

Reach down into the posthole and remove the chipped pieces of the concrete footing. You lot can attempt removing it when it's cleaved in two or iii pieces, but you may need to break it up further in lodge to get it out of the posthole cleanly.

Method two) Dig and Lever the Basis

This method requires more digging than the first one, plus yous'll at least two extended length prybars.

Pace 1: Dig around Posthole perimeter

You'll need to dig around the posthole to make room to become your pry confined underneath the footing and posthole. If the soil is tough, soaking information technology thoroughly with water can brand earthworks information technology up easier.

Yous'll need to dig a wider hole than you would with the previous method.

Step 2: Insert Prybars

Jam the prybars every bit deep as possible on opposite sides of the footing. The goal is to get the flat surface of the prybar underneath the footing and pry it up at an bending.

Y'all may need some aid to go both of the prybars in position. Attempt working the prybars ane at a time – with ane person applying force per unit area and stabilizing as the opposite one pries.

You can increment the leverage practical by the prybars using one of more brusk 4×four posts on the ground every bit fulcrums.

Step 3: Lever the Basis out of the Posthole

When you've got the two pry bars in position, it'due south time to start levering the physical footing out of the ground.

Work 1 pry bar at a time. Remove one bar completely from the hole, while the other one maintains the position of the footing. Then re-insert the one you removed lower than before and lever the physical base upwardly. Then switch sides.

You'll need an extra hand to do this effectively.

As the physical base starts to come out of the ground, y'all may be able to go your arms effectually it and pull it clean out.

Method three) Heart-Bolt Removal

This method can be hit-or-miss, depending on the structural integrity of the remaining woods post. The bones idea is you fasten a large centre-bolt into the wood mail and employ a rope, chain, or some type of jack to lift the entire base out in one slice.

Tools Required:

  • Heavy-duty eye-bolt
  • Drill/Driver
  • Drill bit (slightly narrower than heart-bolt)
  • Length of rope or chain
  • Piece of work Gloves
  • Loftier-lift jack (Optional)
concrete plug pulled out of posthole
Half of concrete footer removed from the posthole.

Step 1: Drill Pilot Hole into Mail

The success of this method really depends on the remaining forest quality – likewise equally how well the post is stuck in the remaining concrete. Before you brainstorm, pull any loose pieces of wood, and exam to see how well the remaining wood is fixed to the footer.

Then, utilise your drill to create a airplane pilot pigsty in the remaining forest post. Use a drill bit that slightly narrower than the eye bolt. If part of the post is damaged or waterlogged then drill into the most solid section.

Step ii: Insert Eye-Bolt

Next, insert the eye-bolt into the pilot hole and screw information technology in. Yous tin do this by hand, or past using a screwdriver threaded through the eye-bolt for boosted leverage.

When the eye-bolt is threaded all the way into the pre-drilled hole, test it to make sure information technology'southward secure.

Step three: Thread Rope through Eye-Bolt

Thread a length of heavy-duty rope (or chain) through the eye and secure it with a truckers hitch knot. And so pull on the rope until the concrete ground comes loose from the posthole.

If the concrete base is stuck in the soil, or if you have tough, clay-rich soil, then you may need to dig around the hole commencement. Yous can soften up the soil by soaking it for several hours with a garden hose.

If you lot have a loftier-lift jack or a post-popper, then y'all'll be able to use leverage to pull the concrete plug with ease.


Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to remove broken fence posts set in concrete. It's non the easiest job out there, merely once information technology'due south done you lot'll be able to set your new fence in the basis.

If you've got a leaning fence post you lot need to repair, check out my detailed post on how to fix it.


Source: https://homeimprovementscout.com/how-to-remove-broken-fence-posts-concrete/

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