Post Mix Blogs

Whether your fencing is for domestic or commerical purposes, most fence posts require concreting into the ground to prevent the wind loosening the fence post. Ready mix post mix is dry ready mix concrete in a bag. It is really easy to use, just tip it in the hole around the fence post and add water – job done simple as that! No messing around and no need to premix in the wheelbarrow or on a board.

What’s more the post mix is made from rapid hardening cement that goes off faster than conventional concrete meaning your fence is very soon safe and can’t be damaged by the wind during erection.

What is the other option? Buy ballast (a mix of pebbles and sand) and to mix this up firstly with cement powder and secondly with water to produce concrete which is added wet to the fence post hole.

Interesting Fact: Did you know that the Romans invented concrete, which when fused with their engineering expertise, allowed for the creation of villas, temples, towns, baths, walls, roads – the list is endless. So next time you think about Ready Mix Post Mixing your fence post – the Vatican City isn't that far away!

The Best ways to secure your fence posts

In this post we look at ways to secure your fence posts amongst the areas that we will look at are using post mix, met posts, concrete and soil back fill so that next time you are choosing fence panels and want to understand the different methods of fixing the fence post in connection with the erection of your garden fence panel you will be able to make an expert choice.

Post Mix
Post mix comes in a polythene bag and is a ready mixed concrete product made with rapid hardening cement which is poured dry straight from the bag into the post hole to surround the post, water is then added to the top of the post hole and is then absorbed into the post mix allowing the concrete to cure supporting your fence post. It is a product which is growing in popularity as a method of securing fence posts particularly timber fence posts for garden fences.

Best bits - post mix is easy to use and works well it is an inexpensive product.
Worst bits - few.

Met Posts
Met post is a trade name for a popular range of post spikes and bolt down post shoes where a fence post is being erected into normal soil ground a spiked met post is chosen. The met post spike is hammered into the ground using a simple and cheap met post installation tool and once the met post is installed the fence post is inserted into the top of the metal met post fence post spike. The most popular met post grips the post using met posts wedge grip system there is another similar met post post spike product, system 2 which uses 2 nuts and bolts to clamp the to the bottom of the timber post.

Best bits - no hole digging is needed with met post.
Worst bits - met posts may not hold the fence post fully secure in wet windy locations.

Concrete for Fence Posts
This is the most traditional method of holding fence posts firmly into the soil and has been used for many years the fence post hole is dug and the fence post inserted into the hole and surrounded by concrete. Concrete is a mix of sand, shingle and cement normally the sand and the shingle is pre mixed and purchased as a product called ballast. AVS sell ballast in 40kg bags and cement in 25kg bags, the product can then be mixed together on a mixing board or in a wheel burrow by hand using a shovel or in a cement mixer a little water is added to the concrete before it is added to the fence pole hole. The concrete used in erecting fence posts is made to a firm consistency.

Best bits - concrete is cheap to purchase.
Worst bits - ballast and cement needs to be mixed together before use.

Soil backfill for fence posts
What we mean by this is that once the fence post hole has been excavated the arisings that have been dug out of the fence post hole are refilled around the fence post, this needs to be done gradually and the practice is to tamp and firm the soil in stages as the hole is back filled around the fence post. A piece of timber that will fit between the fence post and the edge of the fence post hole is ideal to ram and firm the soil into position, for this method to work the soil must be rammed home really hard this way it will support the fence post firmly.

Best bits – cheapest method for fence post installation.
Worst bits – only suitable for fences without wind resistance such as post and rail fencing not suitable for fence panels.

So in summary you can see there are 4 ways to secure your garden fencing fence post and we have looked at post mix, met posts, concrete for fence posts and soil back fill for fence posts, From he Best bits and Worst bits you will be able to choose the most suitable method for the installation of your own garden fence panels and fence posts.