Charred Posts Stop Rot

September 28, 2017, 4:21 pm

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Charred Posts Stop Rot

A great objection to the common board or white picket fence for your garden is the certainty of the rotting of the lower parts of the posts in the ground. This is extremely frustrating and upsetting to a gardener like myself. There is one very effectual remedy for preventing this, which should be more frequently noticed and practiced among all organic gardeners. This consists of charring the bottoms of the posts. The preservative qualities of charcoal are well known to all organic gardeners. It is not affected by moisture, and hence the extremities of posts properly charred will not rot at the bottom or decompose! Please share with us all if you have used this method, and what the results were. Thanks and enjoy the fall harvest.

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AmieBotella

You can paint the part of your fence that is touching the ground with liquid asphalt. A friend of mine did this to his main entry door that is constantly exposed to tropical weather. Meaning humid, and mostly rained on. But thourhg the years I've seen this door, It hasn't rotten because of its coating. The door is just like any ordinary door made of wood. So i think this will preserve your fence for a ong period of time as long as you are able to apply it correctly.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

I wasn't aware of the original poster's method but I have heard about this method. I know that quite a lot of products are advertised on the TV for this exact purpose because a lot of people don't know what to do about this. Using this coating is probably the best and easiest way to stop posts rotting.

7 years ago

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DenisP

This is actually a pretty brilliant idea as well! At first I thought that the original post was great if it worked as promised, but I sort of questioned exactly how one would go about achieving the results you're looking for without a degree of trial and error. I think painting it with asphalt is an even easier, more straightforward method of dealing with this, and heck it might even last longer! Thanks for the idea.

7 years ago

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jkeypad

I haven't used this method. I read charring is one way to preserve the wood alright. I believe everything will deteriorate in time. Especially when exposed to dirt and moisture. I would love to have my fence like that because I love everything to be in natural or organic.I found a video on youtube how to preserve the wood by charring and treat it with tung oil. I hope this helps.Japanese technique of preserving/antiquing wood "Shou-sugi-ban Yakisugi ???"

7 years ago

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Steve5

Really? I should try that sometime. I've always had problems with the wood on my doors. The bottom part always gets wrecked by termites and stuff. Might be something worth looking into.

6 years ago

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dzannerz

Yes your right and in fact we all know that some paint coat are preventing the wood to be rotten so maybe if we do this, we can expand the lifetime of the wood.

7 years ago

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iamawriter

Your idea seems good but some use metal posts at intervals and the wooden posts are mounted without touching the ground. This in comparison will last longer.

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7 years ago

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AmieBotella

The problem with that type of installation is it still absorbs moisture from the ground. the wood is naturally absorbent and the tip of your fence barely touching the ground will still rot and make your entire fence weak. Also, it seems to me that that metal post is made of aluminum and metal alloy that may eventually rust and fail.

7 years ago

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iamawriter

The iron posts need not be aluminium and if they are painted they will not turn bad. I suppose the wooden posts will be slightly above ground level and so moisture will not touch it. Also even the wooden posts need to be painted.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

Aluminum by its pure form do not rot. Hence some kitchen utensils are made of these. But the rusting component of these type of metal posts are the metal alloys. No matter how you paint the metal, if it's embedded as shown, it will still rust and will easily weaken the entire fence. If you maybe place it in a pedestal concrete to keep it away from the ground, it will help. Also, even if you will elevate the wood fence a little bit high above the ground, it will still rot when moisture and rainwater runs down to them. Your suggestion of paint is what I was talking about, the right application of a water resistant paint will keep these wooden fence protected.

7 years ago

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iamawriter

It is understood that for outdoor use water resistant paint is used. We have such paint on our compound wall which is also algae resistant. We have not painted our compound wall for years and it looks as good as new.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

Replace the fence with a new one but don't touch the ground. Either use pebbles or bricks to lay a straight layer on the ground so that the board fence touches the pebbles instead. Then it will not rot.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Yep, I can confirm! My mother actually has a big and wide fence set up all around her house and garden. She has the fence a bit elevated from the actual floor so it doesn't touch it and under it, she put many colorful pebbles. She has had the fence for years now and absolutely no problems or any sign of rotting.

7 years ago

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pandooh

That's great! We don't have a fence but a gate and I'd love to try that out when my dream home will be at my sight.

7 years ago

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wallet

I haven't used this method, to be honest, I have an old fence made from wood, but is very small and near it, I have planted ivy and now the wood is seen very little, all is green and looks wonderful. If you must build a fence you must consider your house and the place as well, all must complete each other and look nice!

7 years ago

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augusta

A haven't about this to be quite truthful, I just learned about this.Okay, will be trying it out and see how it goes.I know it will be of good use to me as a little garden owner.Thanks for posting this.

7 years ago

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tophew

In my our fence we use wood but the wood is not touching the ground and at the tip of the fence there is a foam tape to protect the wood from the ground if ever it will hit. We use this method long time ago until now it is still effective. My mom is a good gardener she is very passionate in taken care of our flowers and fruit tree's.

7 years ago

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Blank629

Make your fence always new? In our fence, we made a fence that is leveled up to the ground. And for the lower part, we use stones or cement for preventing the fence to rot. We experience rotting the fence so we made some remedies to fix it. Thanks also for your suggestion maybe I can try this one too.

7 years ago

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anor0428

This is one the best idea to save the post from rotting. This will be effective since the lower part of the wood is covered with cement. And I think that the foundation of the fence would be much stronger if made this way. I will take these tip from you, and thank you for sharing this to us.

7 years ago

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Keibah2

Yes. I think you should replace the fence and keep it a little bit above the ground. That should help.
I have seen other people coat the edge underneath with metal. Depending on what works for you though.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

I have never tried this and can't really say if this is effective. There are also many wood preservatives sold nowadays to prevent the rotting of posts and maybe this is something which you can look into. I hope that you find a solution to this problem of yours soon. As for me my posts are above the ground and so I don't have such problems.

7 years ago

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anor0428

I have never heard of this method before. When I was in high school, my teacher discussed some tips to prevent wooden fence from rotting. He said it is important to keep your fence clean, those dirt, leaves, grasses on fences can cause rotting, so make sure to clean them once in a while. Replacing the affecting fence once you see the appearance of rot should be done to prevent it from spreading.

7 years ago

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DenisP

This is absolutely fascinating and very useful to me! I actually have had an issue with this, and for whatever reason I haven't really looked into a solution until it just hit me in the face with this post. I don't have wooden fences or anything like that, but I do have a small vineyard in my garden for cultivating grapes for winemaking and eating. I've been using mostly wooden posts for the time being, to hang wires for the vines to grow on, and I've been having to replace many posts because they rot at the bottom and eventually break, causing damage to my vines. I'm going to try this trick out until I can invest in concrete posts! If it works I might not even go with concrete and just stick with wood! Thank you!

7 years ago

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Authord

Wow, very informative, at least I learnt something here today, nice thread. This will be very useful to my grand ma, I will show her this and I think this trick will be useful to her. even though I stopped farming activities many years ago, but I won't hesitate to try out this trick on my new garden.

7 years ago

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vinaya

What do you mean by charred posts? Do you mean to say applying charcoal on the posts or burning it to give it a charred look?If the posts are charred, aren't they weakened? I think a better idea would be giving the posts a coat of metallic paint or maybe enamel paint. Metalic paint and enamel paint stop moisture from getting inside the wood.

7 years ago

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felabruno

Here where I live the fences are mostly made of metal. Wood rots very easily and changes the color with sun so it's not the best material. Metal fences last for longer and they are safer, it's more difficult to break through them.

7 years ago

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Authord

Yeah, you're right, where I leave also, you will hardly see fences made of woods, except it is a boundary or a short fence that are mainly used for farming and protecting farm animal and giving them boundaries to restrict their movement. Metal is better.

7 years ago

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fishbate

You can try treating the lower part of the fence by using used oil from cars and drying it before planting them. The used oil is basically slurry with high content of burned minerals. This is a good repellent for termites and other insects. Also treating it by submerging the end part of the posts will allow the oil to go inside the posts protecting it thoroughly. The longer the treatment the better and longer the protection.

6 years ago

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jaymish

I've never heard of using charcoal to prevent rotting great tip, I will try it out and see how this works. In my country we use ash to preserve the wood on this posts if you live in the country this is a cheaper and more sustainable method. If you live in the city you can buy paint that drys out the wood and preserves it no matter how much moisture it gets in contact with. I'll be sure to try charcoal and see how it works. The problem is that it is expensive.

6 years ago

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Bravosi

Yeah, that's quite annoying. I can concur with you. I suppose you need to design the fence/wall in a better way. Personally, we have just bought a house and it came with a small metal fence. With time I was hoping to build a stonewall.

5 years ago

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ListingDock

Charred Posts Stop Rot

Charred Posts Stop Rot

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