Fencing - how to remove old post stump

[Tankrizzo]

Hi gang,

Like most people I lost a fence post in the recent storm. Removed the snapped old post today and started clearing the hole for the new one. Once I'd cleared all the pieces of rotten post, I'm now about a foot down, and I can't see how the bloody hell to remove the remaining (I assume) 1 foot of post which is still stuck in the hole. It's not easy to dig around it due to concrete around the hole. Tried drilling down it to break it into pieces but this isn't working well.

Is there some special tool fencers use for this? Or am I just going to have to attack it with drill and chisel for hours until I kill it?

Pic, stump is ringed:

Edit: had an idea, going to screw a coach bolt through a short piece of wood, then into the stump, then use a 2 ton hydraulic car jack to see if it'll pull out. No idea if it'll work.

Edited by Tankrizzo on Saturday 12th March 16:41

Edited by Tankrizzo on Saturday 12th March 16:42

Edited by Tankrizzo on Saturday 12th March 17:25

[tt601]

I posted the self same question about Tuesday of this week. Have a quick look-some responses there that may help you.

I’ll see if I can find the post ( badoom tsh)

[LocoBlade]

You really need to get the post and the concrete around it out so you can set a new post in at the right height and with some new concrete around it. If you really can't dig out the existing concrete then I'd look to just break the concrete up around the old post to withdraw the old section and make a hole in the concrete big enough for the new post to pass through and allow some new concrete to fill the gap.

[Scrump]

tt601 said:

I posted the self same question about Tuesday of this week. Have a quick look-some responses there that may help you.

I’ll see if I can find the post ( badoom tsh)

‘Tis here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Tankrizzo]

Thanks guys. I'll try pulling it out with a hook drilled into it tomorrow, failing that I guess I'm getting the breaker out and going full potato!

[Jimbo.]

Had to do similar the other day. Chances are the wood will be wet and soft. A post hole digger or a digging bar will go some way to breaking it up. You’ll never get it all out however.

And once you’d got the wooden post out, how are you going to get new post in and new concrete/postfix around it? You’ll need to break out something.

[Randy Winkman]

Tankrizzo said:

Thanks guys. I'll try pulling it out with a hook drilled into it tomorrow, failing that I guess I'm getting the breaker out and going full potato!

If you can secure something into it, don't write off using simple leverage to get it out. I did it with a similar situation last week. Attach a bit of rope/line to it, lay a new fence post across the top with the rope/chord looped over it and just lift one end of the post.

[Tankrizzo]

Tankrizzo said:

Edit: had an idea, going to screw a coach bolt through a short piece of wood, then into the stump, then use a 2 ton hydraulic car jack to see if it'll pull out. No idea if it'll work.

Actually this worked a treat! Bolted in a metal bracket I had lying around with 4 150mm coach bolts, slung a rope around it and used a trolley jack to pull the git right out of the ground. Deffo doing this again.