Steel posts vs wood: I was dead wrong about rot resistance

For 5 years I swore by wood posts because they were cheaper and I thought the rot was overblown, but after pulling a rotted pine post out of a wet clay patch near Austin last month I finally tried those galvanized steel posts. Set up a test run of 10 steel posts on a tricky slope and they held perfect after 3 heavy storms. Anyone else switch materials after being stubborn for too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_palmer15d ago

Gotta pick your brain on the soil type you had issues with. Was that clay too or something like sandy loam? Because @finleym37 mentioned scratches from rocks on the galv coating, and I wonder if that's more of a problem in rocky ground versus smooth clay. I've got this spot that's half rocky clay and half pure clay, so trying to figure out if the steel posts are still worth it on the rocky side or if I should stick with concrete for that part.

finleym3715d ago

Steel posts are great but that galv coating can get scratched during installation. Had that happen on a few where rocks scraped the zinc off. If the scratch goes deep enough it can still rust just slower than wood rots.

joseph_green1315d ago

Galvanized steel is the way to go. I was the same way, kept using treated pine because it was cheap and easy to find. After replacing half my fence line in under 3 years I finally got smart. The clay soil around here just holds moisture against the wood and it rots from the inside out before you even notice. Put in 15 steel posts last fall on a retaining wall project and they haven't budged an inch. No warping, no cracking, no nothing. The extra cost upfront is totally worth it when you factor in not having to dig up rotten wood every couple years.