Fence End post bracing

[Eric_Phillips]

I am hanging some flex fence. I have been setting the end post then a brace post about 6' from that. I then put a 4x4 between the two near the top and then a diagonal brace going down at a 45 angle. Now my problem is I have a swale and one of the diagonal braces will be just about in the bottom of the swale. So I figure I have two options.

1) Put in the end and brace post about 6' apart. Put brace across top then a tension wire from the top of the brace post to the bottom of the end post.

2) Put in end post then two brace posts each 10' apart to span the swale with braces across the top of all three. Then a diagonal brace down to the ground.

Any thoughts which will work best?

There is about 1' of soil on top of sand. The water level is about 3' so the ground is soft.

[bpattie]

I have done a fair amount of fencing. not sure what degree if swale you are talking about. Just my opinion but I would not worry about it too much. the top brace will take the brunt of the force and the cross brace is secondary.

[Eric_Phillips]

The swale is not real deep, probably about 18" from that side. It is just real wet there and I worry about the diagonal brace concrete pad moving around.

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

I'd go with the wire bracing in that situation.