Privacy Fence Project

Yeah... I'll just see how it works out. At least if it is 4Ft in - gonna be a solid fence! Lol. But yeah, maybe 3 Ft would be more manageable.

What's best to use to dig out the holes? Just one of those hole digging shovel things be ok? (that's what I have now)
 
Bracing is good on gates. You will need to brace the section that is next to the gate too. It holds the weight.

I braced all sections on this last fence....but


The section next to the gate, bracing wasn't enough. Gate settled over night.

I took 2 eye loops, put one high and the hinge post and low next one away. Ran a cable with a turn buckle and tightened it right into place.....gate works pefect. Hasn't moved....and can still adjust if needed. This can be done to the gate itself too.
 
93' Blue on blue said:
Yeah... I'll just see how it works out. At least if it is 4Ft in - gonna be a solid fence! Lol. But yeah, maybe 3 Ft would be more manageable.

What's best to use to dig out the holes? Just one of those hole digging shovel things be ok? (that's what I have now)
Click to expand...

Thats alot of digging man. Post hole digging all of those 3ft and you will be one big dude at the end.


We have a 2 person auger. Basically an ice auger. 3hp 2 cycle Tecumseh on it.
 
You can rent a Prodigy single person ride on digger from Home Depot. But you would want to be set up to dig all pretty fast as you rent it per day. Could get expensive for to many days.
 
Lol. Well, the wife doesn't want me spending anymore than necessary on tools - especially as this fence will be a once in a lifetime deal.

I'll limit myself to 5 holes per day! :D

Speaking of hard labor - I chopped up all the trees in my yard with a 21'' hand saw! (only borrowed a chainsaw for one day and it was crappy)

A little manual labor never hurt! :D

Fence can take 6 more months for all I care... No rush.
 
93' Blue on blue said:
Lol. Well, the wife doesn't want me spending anymore than necessary on tools - especially as this fence will be a once in a lifetime deal.

I'll limit myself to 5 holes per day! :D

Speaking of hard labor - I chopped up all the trees in my yard with a 21'' hand saw! (only borrowed a chainsaw for one day and it was crappy)

A little manual labor never hurt! :D
Click to expand...

Wow. I hurt after using the auger, can't imagine doing them by hand. Without a Hot Tub I think I would still hurt.
 
Lol - just a little each day, TC. That's the key. We were in a hurry, but not anymore.

Ford nut: There are no gas lines.

This is a rural subdivision where the houses have gas bottles, but the houses themselves are electric powered. All our utilities are marked up. No worries! :)

I'll throw up a few pics tomorrow, so you guys can see what I'm dealing with.
 
My fence

I dont know what the dirt is like where you live but here in AR it is VERY rocky. Good luck digging a 3' hole, even with an auger. If you have an auger attachment for a tractor that would work. Otherwise it will be pretty difficult to get over 2'. Your choice.
As for pole height: remember that unless you are building a cap on the fence the post tops will not be at 6' off the ground. The panels are tapered at the top and you dont want to see the runners behind them. I think I cut all mine at 5'-8". If your yard undulates you may want to put a little more thought into it than that. Mine does but I wanted the top of the fence to be more evenly sloped. I measured several times and used a string to set my heights, marked my posts, then cut them; making sure none of them were more than 6' tall. One side was easy; it had an even slope toward the front of the house. The other side was broken into 3 slopes. I did not want the top of my fence to rise and fall with the ground. I did have to dig a 2" trench in a couple places to get the top of fence at the right height. Cutting that many boards was not an option.
As you can see below; I set the flat side (nice side) on the inside. It was not dictated in the covenants and one neighbor had already put in about 50' of the rear line for me with the flat side to me. One side of the property borders a detention pond and the other 2 neighbors just didnt get a say in it (renters). I even built around a couple gas meters and electric transformer in the back so they wouldn't have to be in my yard.
One of the photos shows the torqued post that I had to pull out. I haven't had any major trouble with gaps. Just butted the boards together and nailed them up. I did build in some gaps in the front gates though... just to get the spacing needed. By no means a perfect fence but damn good for my first attempt. The ground was not perfect anyway....
One thing I did wrong was leave the wood outside and in the weather. It got wet and started to mold a little. Stunk and looked a little funny at first but you couldn't tell it apart after being up a week in the sun of summer.
I highly recommend setting the corners and spacing 8' on center so you will cut fewer 2x4's. Think about that one.... say your side is 45' long: you can either do it my way and cut only 3 runners but have one span at 5' or you can set the posts evenly at 7'-6" and cut 18 runners. It's just easier if you dont have to cut your runners.

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Thanks, n8bachelor! Good info and excellent pics!

I'm probably being over fussy now - best way for me to learn is to just get out there and do it.

Our soil is very soft and sandy below the surface - digging out won't be too much of a problem.

Our land is pretty flat, but has an approx 2 Ft. elevation over the course of 170 Ft. (that's the main long length) The fencers have made it straight top - looks fine, but means back section is just over 5 Ft and front is well over the 6 Ft height limit. If I follow the land, should still look pretty good - I'll play it by ear as I do it - see what works best.

I'll add the pics tomorrow of what's there already.

Also, I want to close up the gaps between panels as much as possible. (some have opened up to about 3/4'') So, I'll have to definitely dry the wood out first - also means I can discard any pieces that have warped badly, prior to assembly.
 
yeah you have to follow the ground slope somewhat. Just not the undulations (if any). A nice steady 6' +/-2" is not hard to accomplish and looks great. It isnt hard, just takes a while to do it right. A 3/4" gap is huge. I put mine up green and most of them are 1/4" with a few warped in at 1/2". Like I said I just but them together and it worked out. I did have to add some spaces in the gates to meet the distance without ripping any panels. I did not have the tools to do that.
One thing to remember; every 5-10 panels you should check the level again to be sure they are vertical. Sucks getting to a corner and having 6" on bottom and only 3" on top for that last panel. I had to pull out a few panels to make up for that mistake.
Live and learn.

Nate
 
n8bachelor said:
every 5-10 panels you should check the level again to be sure they are vertical. Sucks getting to a corner and having 6" on bottom and only 3" on top for that last panel. I had to pull out a few panels to make up for that mistake.
Live and learn.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Duly noted!

Yeah, I'm gonna try to keep fence as straight as possible - there's only one significant undulation and I'm gonna fill that in.

You'll see the pics tomorrow - I'll show all the bad parts! Lol. Large gaps, warpage, color mismatched panels etc.

Being a fencing noob, I didn't think too much of the faults - was only when I went to dog sit the neighbor's retrievers that I noticed their fence was way, way better - and cost less too! I was sooo pissed! :mad:
 
If you ground is soft you will want to get 3'ish deep. Up here after a frost gets out of the ground the ground is quite wet and soft, even at 3' deep if you shove hard enough the post and ground around it will move. After a few years and frost in and outs you will have a very wavy fence. See them all over. My first fence oddly for my sister is still staight as can be at about 15 years old.

Cutting a picket the long way if you don't have a table saw is easily done with a staight edge and some quick claps with your basic power saw.

N8bachelor's fence is very similar to the first one I did. But its clear in our codes that framing must be to the inside, good side out. Its a few blocks from my house, still looks great.

The fence I just did was abit more fancy. I built between the posts so the posts show both sides. When a nice cap is planned it looks great. Breaks up the wall look. But it depends on what you want/need. My sister plans to stay at this house very long so the extra time to work each panel between the posts, working each panel center out, cutting the end pickets each section, was worth it to her. The addional cost of decorative cedar/copper caps and solar lit corner caps she saw worth it. My labor cost with the quality she gets is still less than a contractor. The lattice top units I did I actually table sawwed grooves into the lumber for the lattice to fit for a very finished look. Normal lattice panels are trimmed in tons of pieces that shrink and move....look crappy in time.
 
Shame you and Nate aren't close by - could give us a hand! :D

Yeah, the ground is very soft. Shouldn't be too hard to dig in to at least 3 Ft.

I prefer having the framework on the inside, anyway, so that's no problem.

With the holes... How big should they be, i.e. how wide? About 10'' - 1 Ft ok?

You'll see the style I want tomorrow, TC, from the current fence pics. I basically want to replicate that, just do it better, have it approx 6Ft all the way up the yard and make it more sturdy. Gonna run it just inside the plot line this time, too - not 2Ft in on one side!
 
Great info! I was just planning on putting up a fence myself and this actually just gave me the motivation to get started.
 
i installede a section of fence last year and the general rule for posts is divide height by 2 and that s how far you wanna go down, also flare out bottom of hole so concrete will be less likely to push up out of ground.. o and run string to keep a perfect line... mine turned out great with zero experience
 
Well, after talking it over with the wife, we have decided to compromise. (she isn't happy about scrapping approx $2000 of wood to start over)

So, I've decided to stiffen the wobbly posts with extra concrete, re-nail all the panels closer together and discard the bad ones, finish the rest of the fence myself, but slope the fence down after the 6 Ft peak to stay inside local regulations.

Anyway, take a look at the pics:

Here's a view of the partial fence, looking from our deck:

fencefromdeck.jpg


View from the front that I need to finish:

fencefromfront.gif


View of an unacceptable gap:

gaps.jpg


Nails protruding through: (gonna have to get shorter nails when I re-position the panels)

nails.jpg


Mismatched wood:

mismatchedpanel.gif


View from the street. (where they stopped decking is the 6Ft peak, gonna have to slope back down)

fencefromstreet.jpg


As you can see, fence is straight topped. All well and good but means the fence will be nearly 7 Ft tall at the house! That's not gonna fly with the Home Owner's Association, so I'll have to slope it back down abit.

I still have a whole side to build (gates too) Guess I'll just have to follow same pattern. Not happy about it, but what can you do other than rip out and start again?
 
Nothing yet. If and when they contact us, we'll use the excuse of their numbers ringing bogus.

They are the kind of people that make excuse after excuse - they're always right and you never are. They still won't concede that our property is half the size they say it is!

Losers. Not even worth talking to.
 
So far, we are out $3600.

We cancelled a further check of $1600.

They also tried to scam us out of another $5600.

There'll be NO more dealings with them now.
 
Sure, sure. But, goodluck trying to get money out of a bogus company with a bogus address who seem to disappear alot. Plus, they have guns, know where we live and know our routines. Rather just not piss them off any more than necessary and move on.

Now, if I had a shotgun...

Different story. ;)
 
WOW. You were right. That is some poor workmanship. The materials appear very good though. Your panels are finished and sanded. Mine were cheaper and relatively unfinished but I didn't have to pay for them so I really didnt care.
There should always be 3 runners to support the fence. The nails should never protrude through the runners and the fence should be more built per the customer's specifications! At the first sign of deviation you should have told them to stop immediately. But then again, if you had known exactly what to look for you likely would have built it yourself. My guess anyways.
As for cost.... I can't say for sure but I think the materials alone for my fence ran about $8-10 per foot. Not including gates. Hinges, handles, and L-bracket reinforcement for the gates was an easy $200 for the 3 gates (single and a double). I can only guess at the inexperienced man-hours it took to put it up.... probably 100-150 hours. I had a friend help probably 5 weekends and did the rest with the lady helping....

Did they at least leave you the materials to finish the job?
 
Nope. They stopped when they ran out of material. Their excuse being our plot is sooo much bigger than they had anticipated. :rolleyes:

Any material now, we'll have to purchase so I can finish. Looking at approx another $2000 of material.
 
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