Outdoor Build
Concrete Around a Wooden Fence Post Can Shorten Its Life
Posts fail at the soil line, and a concrete collar that holds water there accelerates exactly that failure.
Wooden posts almost never rot at the tip. They rot in the narrow band at the soil line where oxygen and moisture are both plentiful. A concrete collar poured flush or dished inward forms a bowl that keeps that band permanently wet.
Two fixes work. Either crown the concrete so it sheds water away from the post and stop it a little below grade, or skip concrete and set the post in compacted angular gravel, which drains freely and can be re-compacted if the post shifts. Gravel setting is standard practice in much of Northern Europe for exactly this reason.
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More facts like this
- Concrete Cures by Staying Wet, Not by Drying OutConcrete gains strength through hydration, so drying it fast is the fastest way to weaken it — up to 50% strength lost in extreme cases.
- The Gap Between Deck Boards Is Doing More Than Draining WaterInstalling deck boards edge to edge in dry weather routinely leads to buckling once the wood absorbs moisture and expands.
- Raised Bed Corners Rot Before the Rest of the Frame DoesA raised bed frame almost always fails at the corner joints first, well before the flat board faces show any rot at all.