Construct a Japanese Torii Gate for Your Garden

Step 6 Raising the Torii Gate

Once everything was painted and ready for assembly, I dug two holes about 700 mm deep and 350 mm in diameter in order to concrete the structure firmly into the ground. I then filled the holes with about 100mm of dry rapid set concrete to form a base for the poles. The torii was then assembled on the ground in front of the holes and the coach screws done up snuggly. With the kind assistance of my cousin, we lifted the torii vertical and then carefully lowered the posts into the holes. We attached the temporary supporting braces via the top coach screws to torii in order to stabilise it while the concrete cured enough.

Comments

[Roger408]

It may depend on your climate, but here in northern California, we need to put 6 inches of gravel in the bottom of a post hole, then add the concrete around the poles to anchor them.  That allows the moisture that gets into the wood to drain away and posts last much longer.  Redwood fence posts done that way last up to 50 years, fully encased in concrete you're lucky to get 10 years before the part in the ground rots away. 

BTW what is the species you call oregon?  Could it be douglas fir? Around here Oregon is  a piece of geography, that little bit of a state just north of us ;-).

[BlueRock]

Yes, suppliers here tend to use oregon and douglas fir interchangably.

[paxdonnaverde]

Thanks for that excellent tip Roger, I didn't understand the science behind the post-to-gravel method though I've seen it done that way.