Those cheap wooden post caps cracked on me in the rain yesterday

I put up a cedar fence for a client in Portland last summer and used those bargain bin post caps to save them a few bucks. Got a call yesterday saying half of them were cracked and split after that heavy rain we had. Had to go back and replace all 18 of them with some good vinyl ones, cost me an extra $200 in materials and half a day. Any of you guys had luck with a certain brand of wooden caps that actually hold up in wet weather?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara6421mo agoMost Upvoted

Don't agree, I've had basic cedar caps last years in Seattle rain.

hill.margaret1mo ago

Seattle's a different beast with all that moisture, so those basic cedar caps must be sealed pretty well or something? I had a batch of the cheap ones from Home Depot that were supposed to be pre-treated but they still warped after one winter. Did you do anything special to them when you put them on, like a coat of waterproofing or an oil treatment, or did they just hold up on their own?

victor7791mo ago

Had a buddy install cedar caps on his fence up in Bellingham a couple years back, the kind that come pre-stained from the lumber yard. First heavy rain in October and three of them split right down the middle. He ended up swapping the rest for some thick vinyl ones from a local hardware store, said they looked fine and never gave him trouble. I think @tara642 might have gotten lucky with a dry spell or something, because that Pacific Northwest moisture does a number on anything that’s not sealed good. Those cheap wood caps just don’t stand a chance once the water gets in and the sun dries them out the next day.