Metposts or equivalent

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Metposts or equivalent
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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16134

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 14 8:19 am Post subject:

You don't need to treat chestnut on cut ends as the natural tannins in the wood preserve it. You shouldn't concrete chestnut or oak as they are acid, but having said that, son has dug out old oak gate posts that were concreted in that have been perfectly all right.

The preservative used to be copper-chrome-arsenic. The chrome was removed first, then the arsenic, and the copper just isn't up to the job. If you buy 'softwood' you can also be getting anything, and some timbers just are less suitable than others, but cheap.

The main posts are a problem as they have to hold up the whole structure, but a good log store needs open of slatted sides and a sloping roof. Ideally the logs should be held off the ground on pallets of slatted floor to help air circulation.

roobarb

Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 139
Location: Carmarthenshire

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 14 4:48 pm Post subject:

Blimey...all we want is to construct a simple log store... it may turn into an major engineering project at this rate

I need to consult with the OH, but metposts seemed the simplest option to us - we didn't want to have to dig lots of holes and mix concrete, but we may look again given your responses.

This is our second attempt at a log store (the first one is now too small for our needs), so we know about allowing air flow through the sides and floor, and used pallets extensively in the previous store. A downsizer world without pallets would be a struggle

mousjoos

Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 1986
Location: VERY Sunny SW France

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 14 4:51 pm Post subject:
I think the gist is that Metposts are shit

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46396
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 14 4:52 pm Post subject:
the simplest log store is a few sacrificial bearers and a bit of plastic on the top of the logs with a couple of logs to hold it on

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16134

Posted: Thu Feb 06, 14 7:18 am Post subject:
You are right Dpack. We tell people new to woodburning to stack their firewood somewhere the air can blow through it, preferably on a pallet or something and with a tarp over just the top and the sides open.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 14 3:42 pm Post subject:

Roobarb, if I were in your shoes then I would follow Ty Gwyn's advice, concrete 4 steel pieces into the ground and bolt the posts on, rather than drive them in. I was a fencing contractor years ago, and we never used metposts, but they can be driven into the ground using sacrifice timbers to be hit rather than the met post itself, without affecting the galv. However there are some decent galvanizing 'paint on's' now which with 90% zinc are pretty good. It is persuading them to drive straight that is the problem, and in the position you want them. Eventually the iron work rusts and the log store rocks itself free! Others may say differently, but he who descibes the metpost as s..t gets my vote!

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