Anyone use landscape timbers for fence posts?

[slingshot]

Recently?? Is what I'm really looking for. I see many conflicting reports about using them for fence posts. I can save 50% of the cost of using 4in round posts.

Only real difference I can find is the round posts from TS are CCA treated and the posts from home-depot are MCA treated.

I only want to use them if they hold up, otherwise the savings is not worth it. Hopefully some of you have tried this recently. Thanks

[MDKatie]

Do you mean the flat on 2 sides rounded on 2 sides posts? For bordering flowerbeds and such? If so, don't do it. I used those for my fence, because like you said, they're cheaper. I even coated them with that tar/sealant stuff. They rot incredibly fast. Now I'll be buying several fence posts at a time and replacing them...after only about 5 years.

[slingshot]

Originally Posted by MDKatie

Do you mean the flat on 2 sides rounded on 2 sides posts? For bordering flowerbeds and such? If so, don't do it. I used those for my fence, because like you said, they're cheaper. I even coated them with that tar/sealant stuff. They rot incredibly fast. Now I'll be buying several fence posts at a time and replacing them...after only about 5 years.

Yeah those are the ones....

That's what I was worrying about, it seems even though they are labeled treated they really aren't

Another thing I noticed, it looked like lowes and HD have different posts. The one at lowes say not for ground contact??? How the hell can they they sell a landscape timer not rated for ground contact, isn't that what they are used for?

[Dixie Bee Acres]

I have used landscape timbers for posts many times. Currently have about 45-50 of them in the ground now as fence posts.
There are different methods of treatment for wood to be used outdoors. Some is treated only to resist bugs, some treated to resist water damage above ground, some treated for in ground use.
I built a wood 4 board fence at a property I use to own, using landscape timbers for posts. That was in 2001. Fence is still standing today.

[TerriLynn]

We pasture cows onto our neighbors land as well as our own, our neighbor also happens to be my uncle Anyway a corner post broke off one year and my husband was out there surveying the situation and my uncle saw him, and told him he had a fencepost his grandfather had made, he had removed it from a fenceline many years ago, this thing had been outside for years before my uncle salvaged it.

Well my husband humored him as he was trying to be helpful, and took the fencepost and set it. And darned if it isn't still out there many many years later. It was made from black locust. After that he showed us a couple of other fenceposts still in place, 75+ years later, even though the rest of the fence is long gone.

If you could locate a black locust tree, all that needs to be done to it, is to cut it to length and remove the bark.

[slingshot]

Originally Posted by Dixie Bee Acres

I have used landscape timbers for posts many times. Currently have about 45-50 of them in the ground now as fence posts.
There are different methods of treatment for wood to be used outdoors. Some is treated only to resist bugs, some treated to resist water damage above ground, some treated for in ground use.
I built a wood 4 board fence at a property I use to own, using landscape timbers for posts. That was in 2001. Fence is still standing today.

Thanks this is what I'm looking for...

I want to use it for 5 strand high tension for cattle. Gonna need a bunch of posts the pasture is about 5 acres. The field is irrigated and very well drained. If that helps

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by TerriLynn

We pasture cows onto our neighbors land as well as our own, our neighbor also happens to be my uncle Anyway a corner post broke off one year and my husband was out there surveying the situation and my uncle saw him, and told him he had a fencepost his grandfather had made, he had removed it from a fenceline many years ago, this thing had been outside for years before my uncle salvaged it.

Well my husband humored him as he was trying to be helpful, and took the fencepost and set it. And darned if it isn't still out there many many years later. It was made from black locust. After that he showed us a couple of other fenceposts still in place, 75+ years later, even though the rest of the fence is long gone.

If you could locate a black locust tree, all that needs to be done to it, is to cut it to length and remove the bark.

Yeppers, black locust is hard to beat when it comes to making a good post. My grampa always liked to find one with a good sized knot on one end for his corner posts.... He originally put the perimeter fence around the old homestead in 1934. His corner posts were still solid in 95 when the new owners tried to pull them out with a tractor. They wound up having to use a backhoe to dig them out!

[Jade1096]

My parents built their house back in 1979/1980.

Dad fenced 5 acres of it and used treated telephone poles and railroad ties as posts. Attached cattle panels to the poles then ran 2x6 boards across the tops of the cattle panels.
Those top boards and cattle panels are in need of replacement.
The poles and railroad ties are still holding strong.
I was pretty young back then but I do remember having to help and the poles stinking to high heaven and some of them even being gross/sticky.
They were obviously treated with something but I have no idea what.
Probably something that keeps it from rotting and is gonna give all of us cancer.

[ninny]

Good ol' cedar post with a large "heart" is hard to beat. We had them in our fence for 50+ years and they're still going strong.

.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by Jade1096

My parents built their house back in 1979/1980.

Dad fenced 5 acres of it and used treated telephone poles and railroad ties as posts. Attached cattle panels to the poles then ran 2x6 boards across the tops of the cattle panels.
Those top boards and cattle panels are in need of replacement.
The poles and railroad ties are still holding strong.
I was pretty young back then but I do remember having to help and the poles stinking to high heaven and some of them even being gross/sticky.
They were obviously treated with something but I have no idea what.
Probably something that keeps it from rotting and is gonna give all of us cancer.

They were most likely soaked in creosote... it was pretty popular back then. Its a nice "safe" organic product.... commonly found in chimneys when burning green wood. And yes, I am pretty sure its now considered to be extremely dangerous... something about cancer.

[slingshot]

Lol ok so we are still split right down the middle

Anybody know if the round posts are treated differently than the flat aided ones?

[Jade1096]

I am pretty sure its now considered to be extremely dangerous... something about cancer.

Figures....

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

want to see a post still standing in 50+ years make a triangular concrete post

Concrete Fence Posts

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by slingshot

Lol ok so we are still split right down the middle

Anybody know if the round posts are treated differently than the flat aided ones?

Most 'landscape' timbers are simply dipped in treatment, not pressure treated.

That is why they don't last. It also explains why they are cheaper....it costs far less to just dip than to really pressure treat.

The round posts are generally pressure treated.....as into put in a pressure tank, and the treatment forced down into the wood.

The old CCA chemical standard was .4 pounds per cubic foot of CCA was above ground rated lumber, and .6 pounds per cubic foot was ground contact rated. I don't know what the amount is for the new chemical.....I just know the new stuff isn't NEAR as good as CCA. Never saw a boring bee bother CCA stuff, and the new 'treated' lumber don't even phase them.

I can still buy CCA posts at the local farm co-op store.

[slingshot]

Originally Posted by TnAndy

Most 'landscape' timbers are simply dipped in treatment, not pressure treated.

That is why they don't last. It also explains why they are cheaper....it costs far less to just dip than to really pressure treat.

The round posts are generally pressure treated.....as into put in a pressure tank, and the treatment forced down into the wood.

The old CCA chemical standard was .4 pounds per cubic foot of CCA was above ground rated lumber, and .6 pounds per cubic foot was ground contact rated. I don't know what the amount is for the new chemical.....I just know the new stuff isn't NEAR as good as CCA. Never saw a boring bee bother CCA stuff, and the new 'treated' lumber don't even phase them.

I can still buy CCA posts at the local farm co-op store.

The landscape timbers are .06 MCA

The CCA posts at TS don't have a saturation content listed

[Nimrod]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...umber-15655848

http://www.wwpinstitute.org/document...an2012_000.pdf

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-...ood-decks.aspx

I knew the EPA was behind this somehow.

Take a good solid black locust post & set it upside down to the way it grew & it'll last a hundred years . I know this for a fact because I've done it twice .

[unregistered41671]

Originally Posted by WV Hillbilly

Take a good solid black locust post & set it upside down to the way it grew & it'll last a hundred years . I know this for a fact because I've done it twice .

How old are you?

[collegeboundgal]

for corner posts here we use hedge, aka: hedge apple, bodark, osage orange, &*%^$ tree... mostly because they will out last us, and they're the best crop/most prolific tree on my land. sigh... we also have locust, but it's the honey locust. it gives the hedge a run for its money on population numbers here.

[countryfied2011]

we use cedar trees off our property