Concrete fence posts

[designinsteel]

I had a little disagreement with a fencing fitter, who insists all concrete posts are the same size, apart from length. He installed concrete posts, 130mm wide, with 60mm grooves, and used 45mm gravel boards and 45mm fence panels. These rattle something chronic as there's about 10-15mm of play in them. Is this normal, or has he made a mistake buying the wrong posts?

 

[Notadecor8ter]

I've just put some in and notice they are rattling on mine, they all do seem to look the same when I look at others so he is probably correct.

The question is what stops the panels moving?

 

[John D v2.0]

They do rattle a bit, but once they sag and bed in they should wedge themselves in nicely. In the mean time you could wedge in some corrugated plastic or something there's always got to be a tolerance so the panels can be dropped in.

 

[pcaouolte]

These things stop the rattling:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fence-Panel-Grips-30-Pack/dp/B00YQ6MKQG

You need 4 per panel, or perhaps 6 per panel if the panels are 5' or 6' high.

 

[Notadecor8ter]

Thanks for the help!

 

[Tigercubrider]

Because concrete doesn’t “give”, a wooden fence panel will distort and possibly break if it is too tight.
You are talking 5-7 mm on each side.
Have you tried sliding a whole 45mm panel into a grove with only that clearance with a 6ft panel?

 

[Keithmac]

It's quite amusing you're arguing the toss with someone who fits fence posts on a daily basis as part of his job.

One of "those" customers, we all get them..

 

[Notch7]

I had a little disagreement with a fencing fitter, who insists all concrete posts are the same size, apart from length. He installed concrete posts, 130mm wide, with 60mm grooves, and used 45mm gravel boards and 45mm fence panels. These rattle something chronic as there's about 10-15mm of play in them. Is this normal, or has he made a mistake buying the wrong posts?

they are made loose for tolerance to cover different panels sizes and so the panels can be slid out and replaced

personally I think its better to screw a batten the depth of the groove to each panel -that way the panels can be removed without lifting them out, which makes for much easier replacement.

 

[John D v2.0]

It's quite amusing you're arguing the toss with someone who fits fence posts on a daily basis as part of his job.

One of "those" customers, we all get them..

That comment made me smile, on the flip side we've all had a tradesperson swear blind they know what they're doing they've done it hundreds of times, when in actual fact they just want to get paid and onto the next job rather than having an argument for free.
Bad customers and bad tradespeople are a relatively small minority, most of the time it's gaps in expectation and lack of communication that cause the issues.

 

[ETAF]

on the flip side we've all had a tradesperson swear blind they know what they're doing they've done it hundreds of times,

I had this argument with trades when they fitted a new crate soak-a-way.
I found them smashing the top of the crates and pouring gravel into the crates below. With the pipework laying across the top of the crate
"Thats how its done, I've been doing it this way all my life mate 30+ years."
In the end i had to call the Director of the company to get them off site , and then to redo the whole soakaway correctly
They agreed to redo it and dig it all up - If i had not been there then we would never have known.
I have quite a few other examples of roofing , electrics ......

Problem was the grass was all then completely ruined and the land slightly dropped down, they agreed to re-turf , but the next i knew when chasing was they went bust.

Also on check-a-trade they had 100's of positive reviews 9.9 marks , mostly 10's, but 1 person marked down for timekeeping.

 

[Keithmac]

That comment made me smile, on the flip side we've all had a tradesperson swear blind they know what they're doing they've done it hundreds of times, when in actual fact they just want to get paid and onto the next job rather than having an argument for free.
Bad customers and bad tradespeople are a relatively small minority, most of the time it's gaps in expectation and lack of communication that cause the issues.

I get it now and again, normally the have broken something (that's why it's in for work) but still insist telling me how to do it properly. They don't get far.

Either that or their "mate" says it'll only take 5 minutes. Why doesn't your mate do it then?, he hasn't got time is the mormal bs reply.

I get there has to be some common ground and I don't mind customers asking for specific things but when people start telling you your job (who obviously don't know what they are talking about) it does get quite grating.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Seemingly every section of the forum is littered with threads where the trader clearly doesn't know how to do his job.

 

[Notadecor8ter]

they are made loose for tolerance to cover different panels sizes and so the panels can be slid out and replaced

personally I think its better to screw a batten the depth of the groove to each panel -that way the panels can be removed without lifting them out, which makes for much easier replacement.

Do you mean put a batten in then use fence clips on the batten like you would on a wood post ? I need to reduce a gap to an old post so think I could do this to help.