Fencemen, your advice please?

[andrewj]

I have built 4 fences in my middle aged life, and all of them were crooked. Never realy had a pro show me how to do it, and 4 is really not enough to learn all the tricks. So I turn to you, TBN Fencemen, for whatever tutorial you are willing to give me. I need to surround a one acre apple orchard with wooden cedar poles I will cut off my property. I want them strait, unlike all my other fences. I have access to a leinbach PHD and enoudh tractor to dig a 12 inch hole to china. the longest stretch of fence is around 300 feet. thanks for any advice.

 

[Willl]

Good, tight string lines top and bottom.

And don't move them till the jobs done !
(oh ya, and a good level)

 

[Timber]

Well fence is something I know about. Now when you say strait do you mean in a strait line or level along the horizon. The 1st thing I have to say is your PHD can only do part of the digging for you. You still have to use a clamshell and bars. If you have a rock or a root in the wrong place it has to be removed or cut. A lot depends on the kind of fence also as to what you can get away with. I have set stockade fence over ledge by setting the actual support post were I could sink it & then a dummy post were the panels join. I have even dug holes at 45% to support a shallow post. Now for level on the horizon you can get a cheep laser level on a tripod. Set your poles and in low light or at dusk mark your pole height and cut your tops level were you want them. You may have to level your landscape but you would be past this point by now. The line strings top and bottom are a must but keep them tight and be sure you don't bury the bottom one with your dirt. Now I never use cement, wooden posts have a lifespan & you will replace them some day. Keep an assortment of stones handy and as you fill the post hole tamp the dirt a little at a time. 6 inches of dirt and a couple of stones close to the post and tamp and so on till the hole is full, all the time checking level and plumb. A lot of people will put crushed stone in the bottom of the post hole to drain the water away from the post. I personally couldn't be bothered but that is a personal choice. Take your time and go buy some nice bars to get behind your rocks. You have to get on your hands and knees and stick your paw into the hole to pull stuff out. I love my PHD but like I say it has its limitations. Laying fence means dirty fingernails, skinned knuckles & splinters

 

[wroughtn_harv]

If you do a search for "setting fence posts" you will find gobs and then some threads about setting posts. Here's one http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ence-posts.html?highlight=setting+fence+posts

 

[andrewj]

If you do a search for "setting fence posts" you will find gobs and then some threads about setting posts. Here's one http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ence-posts.html?highlight=setting+fence+posts

Harv, I saw your other thread where you say you set over a hundred posts by eye, with a pic, I don't know how you do that with a 12 inch hole?

I get that youput end posts, then split the difference with a center post, then split the difference on the sides, but it seemed like youwere doing this by your self over a large span of space...golf cart? walk fast? not sure how you did this by yourself. Also, how do you lock the postin place while you go eyeball it?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harv, I saw your other thread where you say you set over a hundred posts by eye, with a pic, I don't know how you do that with a 12 inch hole?

I get that youput end posts, then split the difference with a center post, then split the difference on the sides, but it seemed like youwere doing this by your self over a large span of space...golf cart? walk fast? not sure how you did this by yourself. Also, how do you lock the postin place while you go eyeball it?

I don't know about walk fast. But I do a lot of walking.

If it isn't a windy day then stabbing the posts into the ground will suffice. You're not looking for something permanent. When the soil is dry and hard or stabbing just won't work then I'll use the skid steer and bucket to press it into the ground.

Let's say I have a thousand foot line. I'll stab the two end posts where I want them. Then most of the time I'll mark off my spacing dragging a tape measure and using upside down or utiltity marker paint. I do this so I can set up my marker posts and not have to worry about them being on a post hole.

I cheat on the sighting in of the middle marker post. I'll look down the line from one end and try to get a visual aid, something that I can walk to and use as my first attempt to get the marker in line. That might be only two hundred feet up the line. I'll stab the post where I think it's in line.

I walk back to the end and look to see how it stands. I'll keep walking back and forth moving the post until I get it in line. Once I have one post between the two ends in place I've got it made. I can sight in the middle post and then remove the first one.

The alternative is walking back and forth the five hundred feet. That can be wearing on an old man because sometimes it's moving the post a half an inch or less. What is probably the most irritating thing about this routine is whent he posts get plugged with dirt. Then one has to clean out the plug.

Setting fence posts is a good metaphor for my philosophy on life, (climbs on soap box). Human nature is to be intimidated by the scope of the project. But if one concentrates on one post at a time and doesn't go to another until that post is right by the time they get to the other end they can look back and it's a good thing (climbs, er, uh, stumbles, off the soap box).

 

[andrewj]

I do this so I can set up my marker posts and not have to worry about them being on a post hole.

not following you there- are your marker posts not exactly where the final post is gonna be? is it like a foot off or something?

 

[Farwell]

Harv,
Thanks for putting into words the exact way I have to do my projects. I have always found that I have to focus on one aspect of my projects at a time or end up worrying myself crazy. One problem that occurs with me on occasion is, I am so focused on the immediate portion of my projects that it causes a domino effect in other areas.
Farwell

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I do this so I can set up my marker posts and not have to worry about them being on a post hole.

not following you there- are your marker posts not exactly where the final post is gonna be? is it like a foot off or something?

Under ideal conditions the end spotters will be in line with the fence line but two to two and a half feet beyond the final end posts. The middle spotter post will be in between line posts but in line with the fence line.

The reason for this is if you mark you post holes with one line and then set them with another, well, it usually means moving post holes. Let's say you set you end post without using a marker post and set it it out of line two inches, easy to do in a one foot hole. If you do the same thing at the other end then all of your holes are off two inches from the get go.

If you're doing two lines that meet at a corner then that end post will have two spotters, one for one direction and the other for the other.

I'm sorry for not explaining it better.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harv,
Thanks for putting into words the exact way I have to do my projects. I have always found that I have to focus on one aspect of my projects at a time or end up worrying myself crazy. One problem that occurs with me on occasion is, I am so focused on the immediate portion of my projects that it causes a domino effect in other areas.
Farwell

Hmmmmm, I worked for the telco industry in my youth. I was a cable splicer. The one thing I learned in that job was that you always had to be looking down the road because the domino effect was real.

I spend a lot of time planning the job so that it goes in stages. I try my doggonedest to get that done all up front and then I can concentrate on the details without worrying about potential conflicts.

 

[Trahere]

Why would you want advice from a frenchman?

 

[LoneCowboy]

Fence's don't have to be level, they have to be straight. There's a difference.

I use T-posts to pound in for my end posts on each property line, beyond the last post. Pound them in. Set the string between the two. It has to be VERY TIGHT. If i'm building a rail fence, where the height matters I also like to set the height too at this time. I set each string at the height I want the posts to be at using a tape measure. If you go more than about a 100 feet, you have to put posts in between because the string will sag.

If you are building a picket style fence, don't worry about the height of the posts until after you finish, then take a big old circular saw and whack the tops off. (much faster)

The trick is to get the post level in all directions and directly centered under the string. Sometimes it involves extra digging. Then, once it's set (and it takes two people to do this efficiently), I take scrap wood (actually those cheap 1x4x6' cedar pickets) and nail them in for 3 or 4 directions at an angle so it holds the post straight and level. This is the key. Then, your cementing person can follow behind without worrying about moving the post, or you either as you set the next posts.

does that help?
Oh, and being off side to side is much less noticeable on a rail fence than being off on height. It should gradually slope and follow the lines of the land.

HTH

 

[radman1]

I second everyone's opinion about using a tight string between 2 posts. However, I have a small but important point to make. When setting the post, don't let it touch the string. If you touch the string on the first post you will almost always push out the string a tiny bit. The next post a tiny bit more, the third more etc. After 10-15 posts you will look back and go what the he__ happened and your posts are out of line. Don't ask me how I know this.
Also if your setting a smooth wire or barbed wire fence, use the wire as your string. A level can be used initially but after several posts you will get good with just eyeing the post to get it right. Your not building furniture my dad used to say.