Fences

[tt3]

We're going with chainlink in the back yard, but never done it before. Any advice?

[Don-Dad]

Rent a post hole digger, doing it with a shovel and manual digger would be lots of work ](*,) i have never done a fence myself, just watched the guys who did mine at my old house. They dug by hand cause it was a small fenced in area, like 10X24. But the guy digging was not having much fun, haha!

[Weston]

I started a fence for the back yard when we moved in our house 5 years ago... but like almost every other project I've started, its not quite done yet :oops:

Its not chain link so can't help you there - It consists of a post with two *half-moon* railings connecting the posts. Later, I'll eventually add meshing to the rest of the fence so the dogs can run loose in the back yard and Alex will be able to run around back there as well.

I forgot the official name of the fence that I started but I'll get back to you when I think of it. It turned out to be one of the cheapest options, considering we have a whole acre of yard and the back yard takes up most of that. Needing to fence in two sides of four sides of the back yard, the linear footage came to about 250 feet. This fencing option (You can find the fencing material at Lowe's or Home Depot) with everything including the mesh and quickcrete came to less than 2 dollars a linear foot.

The best advice I can give on fencing is to just make sure your posts are all *plumb*. They sell a level that you can strap onto your posts and it will give you a *plumb* reading on both sides.

As far as change in elevation over distance - thats kind of tricky as well. I found that some of my posts had to be a different depth than others in the ground for the railings to look right in relation to each other. This took a little bit of playing by ear (re-filling the holes if too deep and digging deeper if needed.

I actually have a gas powered post hole digger that made the job of digging hole much quicker. We have very clayey soil so doing it by a hand post hole digger is very slow.

Oh yeah... and as far as getting your fencing straight... get yourself some bright orange string and stakes. Put the stakes in your corners and pull the string tight between them. Keep the string in place as you set your posts and it will ensure a relatively straight fence when you are done.

Hope this helped a little,

Mike J

Edited to say: I just remembered the name of the fence - called *split-rail* fence. Just imagine that with a rectangular metal meshing stapled to it... that's what I've got.
Mike

[dabrewinguy]

get yourself one of those come-along pulling devices, not sure if that's what they are really called, it's a ratcheting device with a cable and a hook on both ends. You'll need it to stretch the fence between posts. Chain link isn't too tough as long as you make sure all of your posts are positioned correctly and anchored good.

[mnsahd]

Make sure that you know where your utilities run, prior to digging.

In Minnesota you can call Gopher State One Call at 1.800.252.1166 and they can mark your property for underground utilities.

http://www.gopherstateonecall.org/

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

with all fences you should draw a layout of what you want and where you want it. this will help you when you go to buy your materials. if you have the number of gates and footage down. next you need to know the distance between post that you want to use. 7-10 foot is common. this gives you the number of post and the number of bags of concrete.
so with your string and your stakes or marking paint. go lay out your plans on the ground. this will help you double check the materials you will need.

here comes the post hole digger. there are two common types. one has room for one or two people. and the other has wheels and can run by one person. i like the one with wheels. it does not kick the cr-p out of you. after you have done that get that string back out and strech it across the holes you just made. this will gives you your straight line again. just to double check them.

next comes the concrete and your post. now you can go one of two ways here. you can do just the corner post. (don't foget to plumb them as well). or you can do them all at the same time. if you do the corners first this gives you a solid base to pull your string on and will help you line up your post top and bottom. by running two strings. so all you need to do is plumb them so they stand up straight left to right when looking at the fence from the side. the strings will also help you if the ground you are working on is not level. so you can make height ajustments to your post. try not to change to many post it makes it hard to tie off your fence. it may be easier to change the ground level. so your fence does not drag or run high.

or if you want to do them all at once you will need to put out corners stakes to pull your string line on. then you can run all your post at once. but this can be a hassel if you have never put up a fence before. because you will need to plumb each post as you go. and will also need to make your height ajustments along the way.(and your stakes and string may get dismantel by the little ones.) however this way is faster. after your post are in you can run your top rail. these go together with cuplings.

make sure you have given the concrete plenty of time to setup.

you should have some aluminum wire pieces that you got with your fence. along with some flat rod pieces to start and end each run of fence. you can use a come-along or just some rope to cinch up the slack. depends on how tight you want the fence. now tie off the fence with your wire pieces. four or five on post and about every two feet on top rail.

now hang the gates. well i hope its as clear as mud now. good luck.
you can use some stakes and some bailing wire to hold the post up if you dig to deep.

[jeffus]

Get a survey done to make sure your fence is on your property. :D

Check your local building codes too! For me, there's a 6" setback from the property line to the fence.

[GoatBeard]

Go to the store and get a case of really good beer and a 6-pack of cheap beer. Fill cooler with ice and beer. Call someone who does fences for a living and have them come out to do the job for you. Every hour or so, offer them a cheap beer. Sit on your deck and watch them while getting a tan. When they are finished, you will know exactly what to do. :twisted:

[tt3]

Goat, I'd have to shoot myself before I'd bring cheap beer into my house! :D (Oh, but you said leave it in a cooler, I guess thats ok.) :lol:
This is where I get my beer at home.
http://treml.org/tandv/kegweb/images/P6050033.jpg
And its homemade.


Whoever the guest was offering the step by step, that was awesome, didn't even think about using the corners to make the others level and straight, and there is a slight decline. Man, its going to be a bitch.
On the good side, there is a local place that rents the auger (http://www.toro.com/professional/sws/loaderattach/auger/22803.html) for my fil's dingo. (http://www.toro.com/professional/sws/loader/300/index.html) That ought to make the hole digging a bit easier, right? ;)
I'll take pics along the way once we decide and buy all the crap we need.

Thanks for the input everyone! More if ya got it!

[dabrewinguy]

Tony, if that kegerator is full, I'll pack the kids in the car and swing by to give you a hand. I'm suffering from keg envy now, I still bottle all of my homebrew :cry:

[tt3]

I'll be back up to capacity in 3 weeks or so, a pale ale and a porter. ;)

Goat, its funny, our neighbor had suggested asking a fencing contracter about the regs involved, and my wife said "might as well get a quote, too"
:lol:

[Jackson's Dad]

Get an estimate - get a couple. It'll give you an idea of the difficulty of the project, how they'd handle the slope, etc.

Building a fence is one of those jobs I think is best left to a pro - it's too easy to screw up, and they have the tools and knowhow to get it done fast. (But, that's just me.)

[Don-Dad]

Good thing about choosing chainlink, it would be the cheapest fence for a pro to install. I had pros do my small fence a few years ago and the price was not too bad. Just keep your wife way cause if they start pitchin vinyl or nice privacy fences, she will not want a chainlink fence :wink:

[Jackson's Dad]

Yeah but chain is so darn ugly. Our neighbors have it and I keep hoping they'll yank it out.

[jeffus]

get yourself one of those come-along pulling devices, not sure if that's what they are really called, it's a ratcheting device with a cable and a hook on both ends.

Well, not to sound smug, but it's called a "come-along".... :D

[dabrewinguy]

It was bugging me that I couldn't think of the name, I've always called it that, so I was hoping someone would chime in...Thanks!

[jeffus]

I really didn't mean to sound smug! Really! :roll:

Didn't mean to come along and tease you. Come along is something I usually say to my kid. Come along - we're going to the library. :D

[tt3]

I looked into just having it done, and one website quoted approx. $9/foot. A FOOT! When you pay ~$1 for the link fabric... and we're going to be doing about 200ft, total cost of supplies would be around $800... by their quote, it'd push damn near $2k! aaaaah, I think we'll do it ourself. Got another fencing co. coming Tuesday to look and give an estimate, but I'm not holding my breath.
The saga continues.
Jeff, there's a doohicky that attaches to the come along to help stretch the fence too...
;)

[Patrickz]

I'm with Dan on this Tony. Chain link is easy but looks like crap in a few years. It is also a pain in the a#!s to put it in your self. Getting the fence nice and tight is harder then it sounds. Go with nice wood sections from the depot or wharever and don't pour the holes untill you have the whole fence connected and built. Put blue stone in each hole to get things level. Use 2X4s to keep the fence up as you build in an A frame style. Quickret is great ready mix concrete and just pour dry into the holes and water. Good luck if you go this rout.

[tt3]

Thing is, we can afford chainlink, but not much else if we're going to get the other projects done as well.
We'll go back to the despot and menuards and re-see the options just to be sure...

We're going to rent a stump grinder this weekend to chew up all the shrub things on the side of our property. Things have thorns, tiny sharp painful thorns.
Want to hear something else funny? The city said there is no setback rules, if it comes down to an encroachment problem, its between you and your nieghbor and will be settled that way. The city can't/won't get involved. :shock:

[Anonymous]

When we lived in Phoenix, their rule was that the neighbor had 5 years to contest the property line, after that anything on your neighbor's property that you managed to fence off became your property. Now if only I could have convinced my neighbor to take a few years and tour the world. :twisted:

[Jackson's Dad]

Yeah, our projects this year are piling up. Finally got our drainage improved, and the gutters replaced. But now the house's paint is really looking bad. Ugh.

Watch for flying thorns! We had a ton of wild rose and blackberry (which also had poison ivy in it), and the guy who did it for us just hacked at it slowly with long handled shears. Soon enough, he broke through to the heart of the plant and got it to collapse. But ugh, disposing of it is a pain.

[jeffus]

Jeff, there's a doohicky that attaches to the come along to help stretch the fence too...

Um, yeah, I think its called a "Come-on-In".... :D

In the Southern US it's called a "Come-on-Down, y'all" :D

In the Northern US (NYC), it's called an "Aw, Come-on-Man! Mother F&@!cker" :D

And in San Francisco, it's called ........ no, nevermind.

[tt3]

And in San Francisco, it's called ........ no, nevermind.

:twisted: aawww and I was really curious where you were going to go with this one! :lol:

[jeffus]

Sorry, I was wrong. It's called a "Come-Around". It's best used on the mountain, preferably, with a banjo on your knee.

:lol:

[Jackson's Dad]

where's the emoticon for the Gong Show "bwah wah waaahh" sound? :wink:

[tt3]

Hey, looks like we might actually go with a wood fence instead. I'm sure the nieghbors will be happy. I'm going to take pictures of the progress to share in my follies. I cut down the row of wretched bushes on the western side of the lot... definately gotta take pics of the stump grumper. :lol:

[Eldukey]

Tony,
Yesterday I just finished tearing down our old fencing and installing a new fencing (I bought at Home Depot). It was alot of work but fairly easy...You just need to take it slow and keep making sure that everything is level. I would include some before and after pictures if I could figure out how to insert them :roll:

Please let me know if you have any questions...
Kevin[/img]

[tt3]

http://www.treml.org/tandv/house/EastFenceA.jpg
http://www.treml.org/tandv/house/WestFenceA.jpg
http://www.treml.org/tandv/house/FrontGateA.jpg

Got some more little stuff to do like lop off the posts but at least the main stuff is done. Thanks for the advice guys, and talking me out of chain link. ;)

[jeffus]

Looks good!

[dabrewinguy]

Hey, good work, it looks like it's "coming along" very nicely, even with out the come-a-long :P

[Jackson's Dad]

Wow, great job!

[GoatBeard]

The fence stretching thingie is called a "fence stretcher." Imagine. :lol:

[Weston]

Reminds me of working in the electrical trade...

Whenever a "green" guy would hire on, all the more experienced electricians (ie - the ones who had that little joke played on them already) would send him out looking for a "wire stretcher" if the wires that were being pulled happened to not be long enough.

It was kind of the running joke to send the new guy on a wild goose chase looking for something like that :twisted:

Imagine my surprise when I actually ran across a product called a "wire stretcher" in a catalog. Not for electrical conductors, but for a fence

[jeffus]

We used to ask them to find a "metric" adjustable wrench.. :D

[Weston]

We used to ask them to find a "metric" adjustable wrench.. :D

OUCH :oops:

:lol: