Cheapest fencing option for shallow shale

scott123456789 · Nov 24, 2012

We bought our small place with a great pipe entry way and 65% complete around the property. I believe they stopped due to hitting a shale ledge that is exposed in places and only covered by 6-8" of topsoil in other places. To make matters worse in the final corner there is 30-50' span across a creek.

I have to run 700' with one corner. I don't have $20k to hire out the job but we are losing out of 3+ acres of grazing for our horses due to the lack of fence.

I tried brute force with a tpost to no avail. I then took an angle grinder and sharpened the post to a point and still no luck.

Would love to keep the pipe and cable look but that just didn't seem to be an option.

Three main options somehow hand drilling rock then driving the tpost into the hole, hiring someone to drive tposts in the rock(have a 45 Massey but no bucket or hydraulic setup so very limited with equipment on hand), or if you can't drive a tpost in, having someone hammer posts in that I would use slick wire and no top rail to save money?

Anyone dealt with this issue?

sixdogs · Nov 25, 2012

We dealt with that in New England. In some places a post hole digger with a screw tip and a running start can do surprisingly well. Just don't screw it in the ground. For harder rock i drilled as deep as I could and then drove a piece of rebar in the ground and left a foot or more sticking out. Then I drilled hole in the bottom of the post and it would work as long as I had at least a partial hole in the dirt for support. We ran high tensile in a lot of places and I can't recall but I think my line posts were 60 ft apart so this worked out well.

Ken45101 · Nov 25, 2012

You can use a spud bar to bust through the rock. I have one hole like that, it took me four hours

I no longer have fence in that area but I refuse to remove the post, "just in case!"

You could rent a skid steer with an auger tip designed for rock. For what you have, that would probably be your best solution IMO.

Ken

Western · Nov 25, 2012

If you can rent or hire someone with a Beltec auger, it will go pretty quick. Another option would be a jackhammer, I have used spuds and wouldn't care to do more than a few holes if the rock is solid. If your able to get 18" down then cement in the pipe, it is surprisingly strong.

I have also see one guy I knew in Colorado, lag bolt about a 100' worth of pipe to a granite hill top he had, just welded plates on the bottom cut 4 holes with a torch and drilled out the holes in the rock.

These augers work.
Drill holes fast with Belltec products -- Belltec Industries, Inc.

SPIKER · Nov 25, 2012

couple options rent rock auger or a mechanical post driver if it is SOFT shale to go some sort of conventional method.

There are other options too such as concrete posts or part concrete into shallow holes or like suggested drill & anchor bolts to the shale if it is HARD. Creek nearby sounds like close water so perhaps the part concrete method. If you can JET a hole using creek water down to the shale drop in a SONO tube or even short lengths of tube and set posts in...

read up on some Epoxy methods for Hard Stone post setting in bottom with concrete encasing into the bottom of posts too...

be creative & let everyone know what worked or methods you used/tried.
MM

aczlan · Nov 25, 2012

If its soft enough, you could rent a skidsteer mounted post pounder. Otherwise, I would go with a jackhammer or a SDS drill (powered by a generator if needed) to make the holes and the use something like epoxy to make the poles stick.

Aaron Z