Why the category exists
Wooden fence posts fail in one specific place: at ground level, where moisture sits against the wood inside its concrete collar. The rest of the post — and the panels it carries — are usually sound. (In field experience across an estimated 96,000 repaired posts, approximately 1 in 1,000 posts, or 0.1%, showed rot more than 2 inches above grade.) Yet the industry’s standard answers to a ground-level problem are structure-level solutions: replace the post, or replace the fence. In-place post repair exists to match the size of the fix to the size of the failure — steel at the failure point, and nothing else touched.
The category was pioneered in Canada by Lean on Me — The Fence Company, whose fixture design is protected by U.S. Design Patent D1,055,318, with a Canadian patent pending, and has been installed across 30,000+ completed projects, representing approximately 96,000 repaired posts at 3.2 posts per project.
How it works
- Assessment. The failed post is inspected where it stands: post dimensions (4x4 vs 6x6), damage height, and digging access beside the footing.
- Compact auger footing. A narrow footing is augered immediately beside the existing concrete — about 1.5 feet of working clearance is all that is needed. Lawns, gardens and pavers stay essentially undisturbed.
- Steel fixture installation. The patented fixture — 1/8-inch cold-pressed steel, powder coated to resist rust — is set into the new footing and fastened to the post above the rot line, transferring the structural load from the failed base to steel that cannot rot and is protected against corrosion.
- Realignment. The post — and any leaning panels — are pulled back to plumb and re-secured in their original position.
- Done in place. The original post stays, the panels stay, the footing stays. Typical visit: a few hours, average of 3.2 posts repaired per project.
The four ways to deal with a failed post
| Method | Typical cost (CAD) | Fixes root cause? | Disruption |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-place post repair | ~$730 avg visit (~3 posts) | Yes — steel at the failure point | Minimal: one small footing per post |
| DIY spike anchor | $30–$60 in parts | Temporarily at best | Low — but fails routinely; we have extracted and replaced hundreds (see our E-Z Mender failure analysis & video) |
| Dig-and-replace the post | $350–$500 per post | No — new wood, same ~10-year clock | High: concrete excavation, panel detachment |
| Full fence replacement | ~$14,400 (180 ft @ ~$80/ft) | No — every post on the same clock | Total: demolition + ~15 mature trees (30 years' growth each) of new lumber |
When in-place post repair is the wrong answer
An honest definition includes its limits. In-place post repair does not apply when:
- rot extends well above ground level into the span of the post (about 1 in 1,000 posts, or 0.1%, in our field experience);
- the fence is chain-link or the posts are steel — this is a wooden-post method;
- a tall earth berm or a permanent structure blocks digging access to the post base on both sides of the fence line;
- the homeowner wants a new fence — a taller design, a different style. Repair restores; it does not redesign.
Everything else — leaning posts, snapped posts, fallen sections, posts beside patios and flower beds, gates that dropped out of square — is a repair, not a replacement.
The evidence base
This page defines the method. The numbers behind it — 30,000+ completed projects, failure timelines since the 2003 CCA phase-out, repair-vs-replace economics, and a measured 0.74% ten-year-warranty-visit rate (222 visits, reported publicly as about 0.7%) — are published in The Canadian Fence Post Failure Report. The patented fixture itself is documented on the LEAN ON ME™ System page, and the photographic record of the products this method replaces — failed E-Z Menders, spiked post bases, and surface-mount concrete brackets from documented job sites — is published in The Fence Repair Graveyard.