Replacements for wooden posts
Re: Replacements for wooden posts
If it is your own time you spend I would go for making them in concrete myself. Using gravel in the concrete mix will save You some money. Make a few wodden mouldings to pour the concrete into that are easy to disasemble and You can use them over and over again. Do not let the mouldings sit on for more than a day or to and remember to oil the inside of the mouldings good before You put the concrete inside. It makes it easier to get the mouldings of without destroying them each time.
Do not forget to use rebar.
Do not forget to vibrate the concrete when it is in the moulding before it sets.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
daeum_tnaot wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:13 pm
We are still trying to do this job remotely. We have been quoted some very high prices for cement posts in Cambodia. The cheapest price we have been told is 15,000 riel each.
Does that sound like the right cost? Supposedly we can get wooden poles for about 3,000 riel each.
How much would it cost if we bought cement and did it ourselves? (cement is about 20,000 per bag but I can't remember the ratio of sand to cement. Plus someone mentioned about using steel bars).
You say you’re doing this remotely? How remotely, if you are able to buy the cement and DIY?
If you’re arranging all this totally remotely, then you’ll be relying on someone to do the job well on your behalf. Is there someone with the ability to do it that you can rely on?
We’ve just been though this with some of our land, getting a fence and gates put up. We had wooden posts. It’s not exactly how I’d have liked, as the posts won’t have been treated (oil dipping.). But it was done, and the photos show its satisfactory, if only a couple of years temporarily. The costs were about what you mentioned, above. It was organised and done in a couple of days.
I can’t imagine organising people and materials, and getting the posts done in concrete or steel, with locals that I don’t know. I’ve seen some of the handiwork done at the house in the province, and it really needs adjusting with a sledge hammer and starting again.
Old oil, though. Maybe that could probably be had (although we didn’t get this done) Find a bus or truck repair shop locally, take a big plastic tub/bin. Have the posts dipped. It’s the portion directly in the ground that needs doing immediately, so you don’t really need to submerge the whole post.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
Tommie wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 12:30 amIf it is your own time you spend I would go for making them in concrete myself. Using gravel in the concrete mix will save You some money. Make a few wodden mouldings to pour the concrete into that are easy to disasemble and You can use them over and over again. Do not let the mouldings sit on for more than a day or to and remember to oil the inside of the mouldings good before You put the concrete inside. It makes it easier to get the mouldings of without destroying them each time.
Do not forget to use rebar.
Do not forget to vibrate the concrete when it is in the moulding before it sets.
Tommie seems to know the subject he is talking about. More advice is to make your moulds with a slight taper , not only the sides but also in the length. eg; The bottom of the posts should be heavier and stronger at ground level as that is where all the pressure is when leverage it put against the top of the post. Also make some 8 mm or 10 mm wooden or steel tapered dowels to insert into the posts when making them, at the space where the fence wire is going . These are removed before the concrete is fully set. Those holes make it easy to attach the fence wire, but the fence wire does not go through them.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
Would a "living fence" be suitable?
Used extensively all thru this region.
A good mature one will do the full job - you can start with the foundation post/plants - and use wire, wire netting or screening to fill the gaps until the growing plants can do the job by themselves.
A mix of quick growing things like Papaya trees and thorny shrubs works well.
Used extensively all thru this region.
A good mature one will do the full job - you can start with the foundation post/plants - and use wire, wire netting or screening to fill the gaps until the growing plants can do the job by themselves.
A mix of quick growing things like Papaya trees and thorny shrubs works well.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
I simply cannot understand the people who are suggesting to "make your own". I suspect they have zero experience in construction here, and come with a western mindset of DYI=cheaper. It's not worth it for fencing... Maybe for house columns, but not for fucking posts...
Let's see:
-To make forms for the posts you'll need either cheap wood (plywood, often not available in the provinces, so you'll end up using mango tree or something similar). Or steel...
-Take the time to cut up all the forms to perfect specs
-Forms don't last long, even with oil on their sides to facilitate taking them off, the wood starts to fail after 2-4 forms. So you'll be buying more and more wood or making tons of forms.
-Workers will need to set the thin gauge steel wire/rebar for each one individually...
-Now assuming you need dozens if not hundreds of these, the time needed to let the cement set for each one would require you to spend countless on labour manhours.
Other option: there are literally companies that ONLY make these and other cement forms (drains, culverts) all over the countryside. They have the staff, they have the forms. They mass produce them... That's all they do, so it'll come out cheaper and faster than making your own, and for posts you don't need the perfect ration of cement/sand/gravel or super thick rebar. They even have steel loops sticking out of them for easy installation of barbed wire or anything else you want.
I suspect if you even suggest to your family member that he makes them all for you, he'll tell you in semi-polite terms to fuck off and go do it yourself. I'm actually quite curious: go ahead and ask him today and report back on what his answer is. I'm curious as to what he'll think of the suggestion. It blows my mind that people are telling you to make your own, but whatever. I'd say stop being a cheapo and just fucking buy the posts already. Where's the land? If it isn't near a cement producing province, or way out in the middle of nowhere, it's quite possible the posts are a bit pricier, or perhaps the guy wants to make a bit of money on the side so he's quoting you a slightly higher price. Either way, I'd just do it. It's not like you have much bargaining power anyways from where you are. It's been three months and you still don't have a fence up.
Let's see:
-To make forms for the posts you'll need either cheap wood (plywood, often not available in the provinces, so you'll end up using mango tree or something similar). Or steel...
-Take the time to cut up all the forms to perfect specs
-Forms don't last long, even with oil on their sides to facilitate taking them off, the wood starts to fail after 2-4 forms. So you'll be buying more and more wood or making tons of forms.
-Workers will need to set the thin gauge steel wire/rebar for each one individually...
-Now assuming you need dozens if not hundreds of these, the time needed to let the cement set for each one would require you to spend countless on labour manhours.
Other option: there are literally companies that ONLY make these and other cement forms (drains, culverts) all over the countryside. They have the staff, they have the forms. They mass produce them... That's all they do, so it'll come out cheaper and faster than making your own, and for posts you don't need the perfect ration of cement/sand/gravel or super thick rebar. They even have steel loops sticking out of them for easy installation of barbed wire or anything else you want.
I suspect if you even suggest to your family member that he makes them all for you, he'll tell you in semi-polite terms to fuck off and go do it yourself. I'm actually quite curious: go ahead and ask him today and report back on what his answer is. I'm curious as to what he'll think of the suggestion. It blows my mind that people are telling you to make your own, but whatever. I'd say stop being a cheapo and just fucking buy the posts already. Where's the land? If it isn't near a cement producing province, or way out in the middle of nowhere, it's quite possible the posts are a bit pricier, or perhaps the guy wants to make a bit of money on the side so he's quoting you a slightly higher price. Either way, I'd just do it. It's not like you have much bargaining power anyways from where you are. It's been three months and you still don't have a fence up.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
Wooden fence posts are basically insect food, if they’re not hardwood they’ll rot very quickly (even if oiled) hardwood posts last a little longer (oil is not readily absorbed into them so is fairly ineffective)Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 2:39 pm I simply cannot understand the people who are suggesting to "make your own". I suspect they have zero experience in construction here, and come with a western mindset of DYI=cheaper. It's not worth it for fencing... Maybe for house columns, but not for fucking posts...
Let's see:
-To make forms for the posts you'll need either cheap wood (plywood, often not available in the provinces, so you'll end up using mango tree or something similar). Or steel...
-Take the time to cut up all the forms to perfect specs
-Forms don't last long, even with oil on their sides to facilitate taking them off, the wood starts to fail after 2-4 forms. So you'll be buying more and more wood or making tons of forms.
-Workers will need to set the thin gauge steel wire/rebar for each one individually...
-Now assuming you need dozens if not hundreds of these, the time needed to let the cement set for each one would require you to spend countless on labour manhours.
Other option: there are literally companies that ONLY make these and other cement forms (drains, culverts) all over the countryside. They have the staff, they have the forms. They mass produce them... That's all they do, so it'll come out cheaper and faster than making your own, and for posts you don't need the perfect ration of cement/sand/gravel or super thick rebar. They even have steel loops sticking out of them for easy installation of barbed wire or anything else you want.
I suspect if you even suggest to your family member that he makes them all for you, he'll tell you in semi-polite terms to fuck off and go do it yourself. I'm actually quite curious: go ahead and ask him today and report back on what his answer is. I'm curious as to what he'll think of the suggestion. It blows my mind that people are telling you to make your own, but whatever. I'd say stop being a cheapo and just fucking buy the posts already. Where's the land? If it isn't near a cement producing province, or way out in the middle of nowhere, it's quite possible the posts are a bit pricier, or perhaps the guy wants to make a bit of money on the side so he's quoting you a slightly higher price. Either way, I'd just do it. It's not like you have much bargaining power anyways from where you are. It's been three months and you still don't have a fence up.
The generic concrete fence posts they sell everywhere are absolute shite, they invariably contain a single strand of 6mm steel wire (not rebar) and if not handled with great care they snap like fucking carrots. (every other house in our village has numerous broken concrete posts in their fences or lying discarded about the place) quite often are only made with sand and cement (no stone/gravel)
A family in our village were “commissioned” to make 6,000 posts for fencing off a new plantation. They made a set of moulds from timber, mixed “real” concrete to produce 50 posts at a time, each 12cm square x 2m long, each containing 1 length of 10mm rebar and 4 heavy wire pins to attach the fencing wire.
They made the 6,000 posts and many more from these moulds and were selling the extra posts for $3- each delivered ( I bought a couple of hundred to replace my 5 year old hardwood posts that are starting to rot off at ground level) and I’m very satisfied with them (no breakages) they should last way after my lifetime and I will be ordering another 400 in the high season.
If you want good concrete posts, make them yourself, or have them made to your own specifications and monitor the production carefully.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
I agree with you, but you're missing the post where he says $3 feels too expensive, and that he's doing it remotely so can't monitor. He also doesn't mention how many he needs, but I'm guessing way less than 6k so his costs will rise. Not to mention that good fences will have the posts set with a brick "base" and concrete poured within the cavity vs just put in a hole in the ground where they're likely to fall over with time. Either way, I think the OP wants to limit costs so either wood or premade posts.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
Thanks Freight Dog, appreciate you sharing your experience. We do have my wife's father to do the work, and he regularly works as a construction worker. Of course, that doesn't mean he'd do a good job and we've never seen his work.Freightdog wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 4:44 amdaeum_tnaot wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:13 pm
We are still trying to do this job remotely. We have been quoted some very high prices for cement posts in Cambodia. The cheapest price we have been told is 15,000 riel each.
Does that sound like the right cost? Supposedly we can get wooden poles for about 3,000 riel each.
How much would it cost if we bought cement and did it ourselves? (cement is about 20,000 per bag but I can't remember the ratio of sand to cement. Plus someone mentioned about using steel bars).
You say you’re doing this remotely? How remotely, if you are able to buy the cement and DIY?
If you’re arranging all this totally remotely, then you’ll be relying on someone to do the job well on your behalf. Is there someone with the ability to do it that you can rely on?
We’ve just been though this with some of our land, getting a fence and gates put up. We had wooden posts. It’s not exactly how I’d have liked, as the posts won’t have been treated (oil dipping.). But it was done, and the photos show its satisfactory, if only a couple of years temporarily. The costs were about what you mentioned, above. It was organised and done in a couple of days.
I can’t imagine organising people and materials, and getting the posts done in concrete or steel, with locals that I don’t know. I’ve seen some of the handiwork done at the house in the province, and it really needs adjusting with a sledge hammer and starting again.
Old oil, though. Maybe that could probably be had (although we didn’t get this done) Find a bus or truck repair shop locally, take a big plastic tub/bin. Have the posts dipped. It’s the portion directly in the ground that needs doing immediately, so you don’t really need to submerge the whole post.
As mentioned we were told that we could get wooden poles for 3,000 riel each, this doesn't include the cost of installing them, but then that's compared to 15,000 for the cement ones (which also doesn't include installation).
It would be hard to do even with my wife's father as we are out of the country. Normally we could call them using whatsapp or similar. His wife has a smart phone but isn't smart enough to use the apps or install new ones.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
That's actually a good idea and I didn't think about that. There are still a fair number of trees on the land so it could be possible to string some wire along using the existing trees. However, of course, it couldn't follow the boundary line. We'd have to keep it within the boundary line in order to avoid offending the neighbors and make them think we are trying to take up their land. And somehow we'd have to communicate to others that no, this is not the real boundary, but just a temporary one, so don't imagine you will get the land that is not demarcated.SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:31 am Would a "living fence" be suitable?
Used extensively all thru this region.
A good mature one will do the full job - you can start with the foundation post/plants - and use wire, wire netting or screening to fill the gaps until the growing plants can do the job by themselves.
A mix of quick growing things like Papaya trees and thorny shrubs works well.
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Re: Replacements for wooden posts
It's very common in some situations.
Ask some local farmers or the village/commune head, they will tell you how to do it right away - and if it suits.
The right plants grow up very quickly. One season and you could have a solid foundation fence going at least.
some imo notes;
Concrete fence post look CRAP. You can't hide that.
No timber will last long without strong toxic treatments of some kind.
Khmers fence large acreage with brick walls, but i think that was a King Moonface thing. Must be expenno.
Ps, if you make any brick wall - render it, and then paint it any tone of blue - the ONLY way to make a brick wall look good. imo
A living fence can be cheap effective productive and delightful.
nb. I have never done it myself - but i first lived within one 47 years ago in Bali, and last stayed behind one on my 2nd last visit up to suburban Phnom Penh. (it was the boundary fence between my friends place and the Ag college at Prek Leap. Impenetrable except for the gate. now replaced by a brick wall, sadly)
good luck!
Ask some local farmers or the village/commune head, they will tell you how to do it right away - and if it suits.
The right plants grow up very quickly. One season and you could have a solid foundation fence going at least.
some imo notes;
Concrete fence post look CRAP. You can't hide that.
No timber will last long without strong toxic treatments of some kind.
Khmers fence large acreage with brick walls, but i think that was a King Moonface thing. Must be expenno.
Ps, if you make any brick wall - render it, and then paint it any tone of blue - the ONLY way to make a brick wall look good. imo
A living fence can be cheap effective productive and delightful.
nb. I have never done it myself - but i first lived within one 47 years ago in Bali, and last stayed behind one on my 2nd last visit up to suburban Phnom Penh. (it was the boundary fence between my friends place and the Ag college at Prek Leap. Impenetrable except for the gate. now replaced by a brick wall, sadly)
good luck!
Last edited by SternAAlbifrons on Thu Aug 26, 2021 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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