Fence project

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Not all of us have to worry about frost heave. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Here we do have clay heave. I have a bud who lives on a hill in Rockwall County. He claims his elevation changes two to three inches between our wet and dry seasons.

My reputation is based upon straight fences. Straight fences years later. The biggest difference between me and all the other guys is the amount of concrete I use as far as I can tell.

Look at it this way. Here we use a lot of pipe for posts and rails. I can buy new two and three eighths that has a wall thickness just on the edge of being schedule forty for about eighty to eighty five cents a foot. That's relatively heavy pipe for fencing for next to nothing. I get full weight schedule forty galvanized for about fifty percent more.

If you take a two and three eighths post and just tamp it in you have a little less than a two and half inch cross section resisting lean. If you have the kind of concrete footer I use, twelve to thirteen inches in diameter and three feet plus in depth. You have a much wider cross section resisting lean.

The other posters here from north Texas can confirm that seeing a straight pipe fence that's been up over two years is a rarity. They might have looked perfect when they were installed but after a couple of seasons they're friendlier than poor relatives. They wave just thinking you're noticing.

I see the reasons for the fences bouncing up and down and in and out after a couple of years strictly from taking shortcuts in setting the posts.

If the hole is dug but not cleaned out then you have fluffy stuff in the bottom of the hole that will compress over time, especially when it gets wet. When that happens the post settles.

If the concrete is a glob at the top of the hole then the wet heave will pop it out of the ground like a teen doing a blackhead. You have a post rising.

The pipe itself expands and contracts at a different rate than the soil it's in. The easiest direction for it to expand is sideways. Especially if the concrete footers are small. And what never seems to happen is it contracting back. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

A popular remedy for this is to have slip joints. They work good for the problem encountered when butt welds brake. But they don't do squat for fence weave up or down.

I've never installed a slip joint. I've never had a butt joint fail in a fence line either.

BTW one of the straightest fences in Parker Texas is at least fifteen years old. It was installed by a construction company, not a fence contractor. It's still dead on straight and I have to believe it's all about the good welding and great footers. It's nice to see someone else prove me right. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( In fact, all that concrete would be a real problem when you want to change your mind. )</font>

Almost all of my customers choose me and my methods because they want to put in the last fence on that property. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm not the person to give advice on fences going in where the freeze zone is below two feet. I'm a warm blooded animal. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

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I'm doing a five foot non climb in Rowlett Texas. It'll be a five foot schedule forty galvanized frame with the non climb stretched on the outside.

Here's some photos from day one, posts, sand-gravel, and mixer

 

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concrete bucket for tractor, sixteen inch auger bit for gate post hole, twelve inch auger for rock

 

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We had a ton of rain in November. This is black gumbo clay country. So the clay is perfectly wrong for digging post holes. That is when the clay is sticking to itself and everything else something fierce. If you get down over eighteen inches the auger wants to bog down to the point where you can't get is down or up. Also when you bring it out after three and a half feet it mushrooms the top of the hole.

Remedy, water. Here's the water tank on the tractor being filled up.

 

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Here's a nonwatered hole. Note the mushroomed top and keep in mind some of that stuff falls back into the hole and has to be cleaned out with hand diggers. That is extra work of the hard kind.

 

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Here's a watered hole. It's not only clean on top. It's only got a couple of clods on the bottom easily removed.

 

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I dug fifty one holes and used only about twenty to thirty gallons. So it doesn't take a bunch of water, just enough to slicken up things.

I take the auger down about three feet. I use a concrete hoe to pull the tailings away from the auger. I put a bit of water around the auger sticking out of the hole. I pull the auger out, back up, spin clean, and then go back down to thirty nine to forty two inches. This guarantees I'm going to have concrete below the post in the hole.

here's a before

 

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When I work in the city where a permit is required I put up one of my signs with an info tube attached. In the tube I put the building permit. I mark all my holes with white paint and then call for locates. The sign confirms the locator is at the right address and the marked holes give them an idea of where I'm going to be digging.

In the background you'll see I had to do some dirt work.

 

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Here's the equipment I use for doing that kind of dirt work.

 

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Here's where the installation will in interesting.