The best solution was to have left them in the ground and cut the posts off. Now you are left with finding some stong backs to lift them into a cement post moving conveyance and finding another deep hole to dump them in if the local landfill won't take them. Some landfills are using bins now so you would have to be able to heave them up and over as well. If they are situated where you could rig up a pulley system to lift them, you could then swing them into your conveyance of choice.

ya, cutting them off a foot below grade would have been easiest, but since they are out of the ground now, how big are the concrete ballasts?

You can take a sledge to them and try and break them off into smaller pieces. Them dump them back in the hole or if there is a lot of concrete goto your local construction rental store, or home depot and rent a small hammer drill/or small jack hammer with a flat bit (ask them at the counter and tell them your application and they'll give you the right one) and have fun. The concrete should bust apart fairly easily off the post.

Do you have acess to the same maching that ripped them out? If it was a small skidsteer or something they can often "manhandle" these things to and do the busting up for ya.

Had no choice when removing them. The wind took down a section of my fence so the posts had to go back in the same place.

Thanks for the idea of breaking it into smaller pieces. That should work. 🙂

I would take the easy way out and make garden art with them: cut off most of the post and put them all together in a corner of the yard, some upside down like mushrooms, and even paint some. Be creative!
I'm not sure if I am being practical......but I can't see lifting heavy cement posts or even smashing them up! 😉

I have had to remove old posts with concrete many times, and have found a few tricks...one trick I did, was to cut the post so only a small stubby piece of post is sticking up, then screw ( or bolt better ) a scrap piece of 4x4 on the top, so you have a T. With two people ( after you have dug around & made the concrete loose ), one guy on either side & lift straight up & out.

The other way is to attach a 4x4 like a T on top also, and dig around the concrete, but dig extra on one side, so you have roughly a 45° slope on one side. Then with a good rope, or cable, attach the end securely to a ATV, or vehicles trailer hitch, and just slowly drive foward so the concrete post slides up & out of the 45° angle side of the hole.

You could also make a A frame to straddle the broken post, and after its loose from digging, attach a hoist or pulley, and lift it up, like you would lift a deer, after its been dressed.

You also can just cut the post off as low as possible, cover with dirt & seed, & dig a new hole or 2 & make a couple new smaller sections of fence, if it can be matched up without making it obvious it is not a 8ft section.

Rent a skidsteer and pull them out, simple

When the section of the fence came down, the posts had rotted off about 6 inches above the cement. The 2 young guys spent the better part of the morning digging them out. The are maybe 3 feet long and 15 inches across at the widest. I can not get most things into the back yard as the space between the houses is very narrow.

I like the "You also can just cut the post off as low as possible, cover with dirt & seed". I think I will try to break them into smaller pieces and bury the rest.

Thank you all for your suggestions

When you replace the poles forget about concrete It holds the water and will cause rotting of the post. Most important the frost likes to heave the concrete to the surface then you have another problem,.

i have always simply put some gravel in the bottom and a rock or two to stabalize the pole then backfill.

Good luck

HTP

Just did this with my landlord with cedar posts in cement. The hole was dug all the way around the cement. Then using a length of chain with hooks at each end and a length of steel I beam the cement was levered out. One end of the chain was wrapped around the chunk of cement and hooked to itself, the other end was hooked onto the the I beam that was set across the hole. Then there was a lot of grunting and lifting and swearing. if we needed to shorten the chain as we pulled the cement free, we'd twist the I beam 90degrees or 180degrees or whatever so the chain wrapped around it, shortening the effective length of the chain until the cement was pilled free. once it was free of the soil, it was just lifted out with one of us on each end of the I beam.

My landlord's family owns a dairy farm, so he replaces a lot of fence posts... 😀

Drive 4-5 holes around the post and pour some expanding grout in.. Buster in one of the manufactures ..
http://www.demolitiontechnologies.com/controlled-demolition-methods
Will break it up in 3-4 hrs,,or
wait until winter and fill the holes with water, on a really cold night..will blow it right to pieces..