Category Blog

Riprap "size" is really a graded mixture centered on a median stone size (D50), not one uniform rock. This guide explains what that gradation actually means, compares light, medium, and heavy classes on stone size, thickness, and density, and covers stone quality factors like specific gravity and angularity that matter as much as size alone.

Riprap is priced by weight, not volume, which trips up planning that starts in square feet. This guide covers the three numbers you need — area, thickness, and rock class — walks through the full formula with worked examples, and gives ready-to-use tonnage tables for common project sizes across all three rock classes.

Shoreline length alone can't tell you how much riprap to order — width up the bank is the dimension most estimates miss. This guide gives ready-to-use tonnage figures for 50, 100, 200, and 500 ft shorelines across all three rock classes, explains how slope steepness changes the width you actually need, and walks through worked examples for calm, moderate, and steep bank conditions.

Most fence post holes are close enough to round or square for a simple formula — but a genuinely tapered hole, wider at the top than the bottom, needs its own frustum calculation to get right. This guide covers all three volume formulas, a full inches-to-feet conversion reference, and worked examples showing exactly how much a tapered hole's volume differs from a straight cylinder.

A calculator is only as accurate as what you enter into it. This guide walks through every input the Fence Post Concrete Calculator needs — post size, hole diameter, depth, and count — explains the math happening behind the result, and links out to a dedicated deep-dive for getting each individual input right.

Most fence projects need more than one calculation — line posts, gate posts, and sometimes different materials all need to be added together into one shopping list. This guide walks through building a complete post inventory, choosing one bag size for the whole project, when pallet pricing kicks in, and a full worked example totaling 47 bags for a mixed 10-post fence.

Hollow vinyl posts need concrete in two places — around the post in the hole, and often inside the post itself for gate and corner posts. This guide covers both calculations, explains why overfilling the inside can prevent post caps from fitting, and covers the real risk of cracking vinyl through thermal expansion when a post is filled completely solid.

Metal fence posts range from a light T-post to a heavy ornamental steel pier, each needing a different amount of concrete around the same circle formula. This guide covers sizing for every common metal post type, explains the actual chemistry behind wet concrete and galvanized coating (it's protective, not damaging), and covers when a sonotube is worth using for a clean, exposed finish.

Wood fence posts range from a standard 4x4 (about 3 bags of concrete) up to structural 8x8 posts (13+ bags), with 4x6, 6x6, and round posts in between. This guide covers every common size in one chart, explains how wet pressure-treated lumber measures larger than dried lumber at install time, and walks through worked examples for rail, structural, and round posts.

Most cracks in fence post concrete are thin, harmless shrinkage cracks — a normal part of curing. This guide gives a quick visual test to tell those apart from the smaller number that actually matter, covers freeze-thaw spalling and settlement cracks, and explains why cracks radiating from the post itself often mean something is pushing outward from inside.