On Thu, 19 May 2005 10:52:49 +0100, Victoria Clare
wrote:


Janet's Metpost thread reminded me that I really need to put a couple of
gateposts in myself. Thought I'd start a new thread for it rather than
hijacking hers.

My soil is even more stony than Janet's (or I suspect, anyone's!) and I am
fairly sure that the bottom of the hole actually needs to be below the
point where the gravel starts to join up into large chunks and may even
count as bedrock. The stone is cacky splintery stuff, but no way can you
get a spade in more than one spade's depth, and that is horrible enough.

Is my only option to hire a pneumatic drill? Can they be operated by
normal people or do I need to hire a man wearing earmuffs too?


Victoria

--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall

I'd be thinking about concrete posts in that situation. They don't
need to be set as deep - you can make the holes wide rather than deep
and the stones and rock join with the concrete you use for the post
base. My substantial close-boarded fence is now on its 3rd
incarnation on concrete posts which have not moved in about 35 years.
They're not slotted, but drilled for the arris rails to be bolted to
them. When we had it replaced about 10 years ago the contractors
wanted to remove the concrete posts and use wooden because the bolts
had rusted in. I refused to let them. No way would wooden posts last
like concrete.
..