nope, we concreted in the main posts, then put a smaller piece inside that then screwed the merbau onto that....actually every second post was an existing one that mostly were burnt from the house fire,,and none were even, so we put new posts in between to try to even up the gap.....What Iw ill do is try tog et a photo of the inside so you can see a little clearer,,,basically though it was measure and cut each piece of merbau, stain each peice 3 coat individually, then screw them into place,,,and strangley 3 cans of stain, all the smae colour brand and size,,stained in THREE different colours!......I will also take some photos of our new garden beds,,,jase and I toted 3 metres of heavy blooming soil to make the new beds!!!