john in la
Well-known Member
These pictures are of a normal lumber yard 4x4 pressure treated post that was put into a hole and backfilled with the clay dirt from the hole. No concrete was used. As you can see it has rotted out and not at the soil level. It rotted out down deep in the hole. No sign of termites. Was a deep ditch about 3 feet away from this post that did not hold any water so the soil around the post should not have held any water.
So after seeing these pictures can someone tell me one more time why anyone would use wooden post buried into dirt for something as critical as a building foundation such as in a pole barn.
It's a fact of life. Dirt holds water and water and wood do not mix even when pressure treated. Sooner or later the wood will rot out.
And for the person that will surely come along and say "That's why you use something like concrete perma post"; I have to question the lateral wind load integrity of a post that is spliced together when the walls are 10+ feet tall and post spacing of 10 feet.
So after seeing these pictures can someone tell me one more time why anyone would use wooden post buried into dirt for something as critical as a building foundation such as in a pole barn.
It's a fact of life. Dirt holds water and water and wood do not mix even when pressure treated. Sooner or later the wood will rot out.
And for the person that will surely come along and say "That's why you use something like concrete perma post"; I have to question the lateral wind load integrity of a post that is spliced together when the walls are 10+ feet tall and post spacing of 10 feet.