Cracked post

[Kram]

Sorry another fencing question. One of the posts put in today turns out it had a crack half way up. Hard to notice if you rock it, the top moves half milimeter, but I imagine it will get worse. The post is immovable, atleast until diamond drills arrive, but even so prefer an easier option than replacing. It will have the gate attached.

Any way to do a repair? Could grind out the crack easily, I doubt fresh concrete would stick it. Epoxy might work, with concrete dust to hide it?

Thanks

 

[roofman]

Sorry another fencing question. One of the posts put in today turns out it had a crack half way up. Hard to notice if you rock it, the top moves half milimeter, but I imagine it will get worse. The post is immovable, atleast until diamond drills arrive, but even so prefer an easier option than replacing. It will have the gate attached.

Any way to do a repair? Could grind out the crack easily, I doubt fresh concrete would stick it. Epoxy might work, with concrete dust to hide it?

Thanks

i would say pin and plate it but as its the gate post i would tend to be ripping it out and replacing it other wise it will bite you down the line and at a time your not motivated to fix it like middle of winter or personal injury etc

 

[Dcal]

Can you post a photo?
Epoxy can fix cracks in concrete but it depends what load is on it.
A gate hanging off it will give it a hard time.
Do you want the repair to be invisible?
If not there are lots of options but would need to see what you have.
Best long term option might be to replace it.

 

[brightspark]

bite the bullet

 

[Kram]

The crack is almost invisible, I'll get a photo tomorrow.

Other than epoxy, is there anything really good at sticking concrete? Mortar?
Could put a steel plate up the side but ot wont look as good.

 

[brightspark]

it will have a couple of reinforcing bars through it so it aint going anywhere but can you live with it cutting and filling it with something is a fanny on and wont be a good fix as its still only held by the 2 thin rods . DIG IT OUT

 

[roofman]

 

[SierraV6]

There are specialist epoxy repair mortars that would do it (check out the Nuffins website I’m sure they’ll have something) but they aren’t cheap so it would be more economical to replace the post.

 

[Migmac]

The best option, as it’s a gate post, is to replace it.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Aren't these slotted to accept panels

In which case your gonna want to fit a timber to the gate side anyway for hinges or latches? Between that and the rebar it's gonna be pretty solid coach bolts from the panel side and countersink the nuts into the wall plate stick a timber to suit the rebate behind the wall plate and gripfill the lot.

 

[Agroshield]

In which case your gonna want to fit a timber to the gate side anyway for hinges or latches?

You could put a piece of steel (RHS) behind a slightly thinner timber, or omit the timber altogether. A Tee-section could be completely hidden by the timber.

Drilling the post for coach bolts might be difficult as the rebar is likely to be central. The hammer action of drilling it will exacerbate the problem. Small holes, staggered about centre and drilled on non-hammer (use a new bit).

As he says, this is one of the few occasions where gripfill would be a useful thing.

A repair product will not make it strong again. Concrete is not good in tension so the crack will reappear at the junction of the repair. The repair should be more aimed at protecting the rebar inside the post from the elements (so the repair material needs to be flexible). Once the rebar starts to corrode, it will expand and spall the post.

The strength of the concrete you used for the post increases over time so it will be harder to dig it out next year.

 

[Kram]

Yes its slotted and we are using the old 3" wooden posts to bolt the gate to, Ive routed them to match the 50x23mm post slot.
There are 4x 6mm rebars only in the corners, I can diamond drill the bolt holes

I used some large lumps as filler in the hole, there will be no digging it out, but I could cut it off and use my new core drills for a new hole

 

[Dcal]

Must be a decent core drill.

I'd do as you suggest, cut it off and core it out.
Buy a bag of non shrink cementitious grout and install a new post with that.

Some of the repair products are fantastic but repairing something that was either dropped and broken at some stage or so close to it's design limits is always going to be problematic.

 

[Gareth J]

A friend of mine had a concrete post like that fall on and crush his leg as a kid. Resulted in lots of surgery, inequal length legs and an odd gait. Would want to make sure that wasn't a risk if repairing.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Once Winter arrives and water + frost gets to it, it'll be curtains for that post - best replace it when the job's not all done imo.