Saw a whole street of fences in Portland with the posts set in gravel instead of concrete

I was visiting my sister in the Sellwood neighborhood last week and noticed every single new fence on her block had the posts set in packed gravel, not concrete. The builder I talked to said it's better for drainage and easier to fix, but it just looks wrong to me. Has anyone here actually done a full gravel-set fence and does it hold up over time?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_paul19d ago

Totally get why it looks wrong, it goes against everything we were taught. I felt the same way until I tried it. After reading what @irisowens said, I did one section of my own fence with gravel a few years back as a test. You have to be so careful about tamping every few inches, but it hasn't budged at all. The peace of mind for drainage in our wet springs is huge, and I know fixing a single post will be way easier if it ever comes to that.

faith_hart2019d ago

Yeah it's one of those things that feels wrong until you see it work. Like @irisowens said, the old way can trap water and rot the wood from the inside. I see this everywhere now, people choosing simple fixes that work with nature, not against it. My dad still puts everything in concrete and then fights the rot every few years. Meanwhile my rain garden just soaks up the runoff and looks better every season. Sometimes the "right" way is just the way we're used to.

irisowens19d ago

Oh man, that's actually a solid move. I helped my neighbor redo a whole section of his fence that was rotting out because the old concrete base held water like a bowl. We dug new holes, put in a solid six inches of gravel, tamped it down hard, set the post, and filled the rest with more gravel. That was five years ago and it's still dead straight, even after some nasty storms. The key is really packing that gravel tight so the post can't wiggle. It feels weird not slinging concrete, but it works.