Undoubtedly, every home owner wants any structure erected on his site to serve according to the principle - the longer, the better! Today, I would like to raise the issue of fences, more precisely, fence posts or columns.
For myself, my wife and I decided that we would fence the territory of the site from the roadway with a wooden fence with columns, between which on metal rectangular pipes running parallel to the ground, boards will be placed vertically, covered with impregnation, emphasizing the structure wood.
Having looked at the fences of the neighbors, I thought that any brick used for outdoor posts sooner or later begins to collapse at the base of the column. And it does not depend on whether there is a layer of waterproofing between the column and the foundation or not. Even if there is one, it is still a brick located in close proximity to the ground will be saturated with water, whether it be from splashing rain or from melting snow in high snowdrifts. After several dozen freeze-thaw cycles, the first few rows of bricks within 2-3 years begin to crumble (exfoliate) as in the photo of my neighbor's fence.
After going through several options, I came to this... After the construction of the basement of the house and the porch, I had about 3 tons of rubble stone and without thinking twice, I tried to make my own fence post out of it.
I didn't know what kind of look I would end up with because each stone has a completely irregular shape and I thought it would be difficult to beat the angles at 90 degrees. But, it only seemed... As the saying goes, "the eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing"
The first row of stone is laid:
The bubble level was not an assistant here, so I was guided by the plumb line and the embedded metal pipes, which I installed in the level when the foundation was poured.
One batch of mortar, the volume of which was contained by a concrete mixer (output 50 liters), was enough for 70 cm. column height. The dimensions of the stone column are 40x40 cm.
One metal post was lined with stone, and the second will serve as a mortgage for installing the gate hinges.
The work was carried out for a long time, as the old gates interfered, which must be dismantled after the implementation of the new one. fence and secondly, fresh masonry cannot be heavily loaded in height, it was necessary to make large breaks ...
He finished laying the stone at about 15-00, so that the cement mortar had time to harden to dark, therefore how to embroider seams is possible only after 4 hours, when the solution begins to crumble and does not smear stone.
This is what the final version looks like after jointing:
As a result, it took more than 3 days for one 2.4 meter post.
Accordingly, for both pillars - a week. Now I have ordered the caps and started making the gate, after which I will move on to the next pair of pillars and the installation of the wicket.
Why did the pillars turn out to be eternal?
Rubble stone has a compressive strength grade M-1200 compared to a brick grade M-150, secondly rubble stone practically not subject to destruction even with a thousand cycles of changing the temperature regime from "+" to "-" due to the monolithic structure material. The stone does not absorb moisture.
I also tried to make the cement-sand mortar resistant to temperature extremes. The proportion was made in a ratio of 1: 3, where 3 parts are sand, 1 part is cement. But, in the process of mixing, I added the Penetron additive so that the solution did not absorb water either, so the pillars will stand oh-oh-oh-oh-very long, if the grandchildren of the grandchildren do not decide to break them :-)))
Roman was with you, the channel "Build for myself"!
Good luck in construction and repair!