Overheard a crew lead say my post holes were too bell-bottomed

I was setting 8 posts for a privacy fence in Sandy Springs last Thursday and this older guy walks by, watches me for a minute, says my holes flare out at the bottom. Turns out I've been digging them wrong for 2 years. Anybody else get told that and realize it messes with concrete holding power?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.morgan1mo ago

Watched a youtube video after my third fence job buckled in a storm and finally got it. You need straight sides with a flat bottom, like a coffee can not a bell. The concrete needs something solid to push against or it just lifts out with frost heave. I switched to using a post hole digger and then a manual tamper to square up the bottom. Made a huge difference on the last six fences I did in Gwinnett.

elliotm571mo ago

Funny you say that, a buddy of mine out in Lawrenceville did the same thing. He spent a whole weekend digging post holes for his privacy fence and bragged to me how he used the bell shape because someone told him it "holds better." First hard freeze that winter, three of his corner posts were leaning like the Tower of Pisa. He was so ticked off he almost ripped the whole thing out and started fresh. I told him about the flat bottom trick and he just stared at me like I'd grown a second head, but a year later his fence is still standing straight.

jessica7071mo ago

Is a bell bottom really that different from a straight wall with concrete? I used to do the same thing til I rented an auger and saw how clean the hole came out compared to my shovel work. Once I started tamping the bottom flat and keeping the sides straight, my posts stopped shifting after the first freeze.