Spent all morning fixing a gate I hung last month because I skipped the gravel

I put up a new cedar gate at a house near the river in early September. Looked great day one but the ground shifted after a heavy rain and now the latch is off by over an inch. Had to dig out the post, add two bags of gravel and reset the whole thing in concrete. Took me four hours and I could have saved that time if I did it right the first time in August. Any of you ever skip proper drainage at the base and regret it later?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray36316d ago

@mila_flores8, what's your soil type out there, sandy or heavy clay?

grace50813d ago

36 years running fence crews in Texas and I'll back @ray363 on the gravel over concrete any day for wooden posts. Concrete traps moisture against the wood and rots posts out way faster than gravel that lets water drain away.

mila_flores816d ago

Why would you waste money on gravel when concrete does the job just fine by itself? I've set probably fifty fence posts directly into concrete with zero drainage and never had a single one shift on me. The trick is to dig your hole deep enough below the frost line and make sure your concrete mix is thick not watery. A buddy of mine always does gravel bases and his gates sag worse than mine do so I'll take my shortcut any day.