Building my first fence. Shadow box. 4x4 on 8’ centers. 6x6 for the gates. Three stringers and cedar pickets. 6’ tall. 242’ total length. All posts set 36” in the ground with a 12” auger and 240-300 pounds of concrete each. I’m chipping away at the pickets and gates after work and on the weekends. I will follow up with the finished product.
I noticed this skinny picket in our fence after the walk through and after the crew left. How much would this bug you? Should I have them come back and replace it with a full sized picket? The owner of the fence company says they had to do that for spacing blah blah. I don’t believe him. I think it’s because the fence builder made the facia and the 2x4 rail too close and a normal sized picket wouldn’t fit in between them.
Turned out ok I think. Now placing stepping stones from the gate and into the garden.
Looking to build a fence to enclose our property, but I’m having a lot of trouble locating any fence posts, terminal or support 8-10’ tall.
We’re looking to build a 5ft fence and 3ft of the pole needs to be below grade. All I can find is poles from Home Depot and those are only 7.5 feet, after putting below grade that only brings us to 4.5ft.
Any recommendations are welcome.
Edit: height wanted is to be compliant with by-law when we decide to put a pool in
I'm building a small fence and live in the south east, not too many freezing days. Would gravel set posts be okay for a short fence? Thanks all.
We have these rocks/boulders of varying size, of length, height and thickness that make up the border of our property. We are on the water so are limited with what we can do from the front of the house to the water. No limitation from front of house away from the water.
These rocks are also 2 feet into the ground, yeah, they're like land icebergs.
Should we remove them and then have to fill in with dirt to have a nicer foundation for ease of fence construction. Do we build fence just inside these rocks?
Do we somehow use these rocks as type of foundation to drill into and put fence on top of the rocks?
The pics are along our border with our street. People have wandered into our yard to get a better view of water multiple times among other problems from the street.
Any and all ideas are welcome!
I have a 12 foot wide driveway and want to install a swing gate. I got a few quotes from different contractors, but one advised getting two 6-foot dual swing gates, claiming standard hinges can't handle a single 12 foot gate. However, the other contractors said heavy duty hinges would bear the weight just fine.
Who is right and what are your recommendations?
I’m planning to automate the gate and install a motor arm - lift master la400.
Bought a house with about 500ft of fencing (see picture 1). Eventually, the whole thing will need to be replaced because whomever installed it was insane. In the meantime (while I get the money together) I need advice on tip to temporarily repair the weakest parts of it.
As you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pictures, each 2x4 cant rail is nailed diagonally through the end grain into the side of the 4x4 wooden post through the end. This is very weak and all will eventually fall off, like shown in picture 4. Picture 5 shows a very quick fix I did on one, but I expect many more will eventually fail.
Does anyone have recommended solutions to temporarily provide extra support to these rails and strengthen their attachments to the posts? I'm guessing there's probably 100+ spots where these will eventually fail if left alone. Again, the whole thing will eventually need to be replaced... just need advice to buy me some time and reinforce the weakest ones while I gather the money for a full replacement.
Gates need braces.
There are 2 types of these struts. Compression braces and tension braces.
Compression braces are the type of brace you install on a new gate.
If you're out here installing tension braces on new gates, you're scamming your customers.
Tension braces should only be used as quick fixes to existing gates that droop. The only advantage they have is their ease of install on an existing gate.
The type of brace you use changes the structure of the gate.
Tension braces overload the top hinge.
I’m putting in a picket fence in a hurry on our farm to comply with some insurance requirement. I’ve got some question on posts. The soil here is clay mostly , frost line is 4ft. Fence will be 4 ft high.
Thank you for your wisdom in advance
Pre stained cedar with expert stain and seal redwood color. Black galvanized 1x1 mesh was trenched 1’ for extra critter prevention. Pretty sweet outcome for this one.
Hey everyone,
My mom and I are looking to build a black-finished chain link fence, 5ft high, gate with self closing latch, to enclose a 14ft round pool next spring.
I need to ask for some advice on materials needed and tips and tricks for making this as smooth as possible. Never did I think I would be here asking advice on building a fence, but my dad who is the jack of all trades handyman is waiting for a liver transplant and my mom and I are taking this on just the two of us, albeit nervous.
We are applying for a pool enclosure permit and I need to submit drawings (luckily I can do this myself) of the property and proposed pool/ pool enclosure.
Thank you!
I'm a homeowner who just used a Vevor fence post driver to drive down 8 Lifetime 80" steel posts. These are my notes on the experience.
I set 4 of the posts by myself, 4 with the help of a friend. I definitely preferred having help but I was surprised at how doable it was by myself. It was a bit awkward to balance the driver while walking the post to its precise location but it only takes a few pounds to stabilize the post so that it can stand with the driver on top. Likewise it is fairly easy to plumb the post by yanking on it when it's down only a few inches.
I could not get any of the posts to be perfectly plumb though they're good enough to fool the eye (they all tended to lean away from me, I wonder if this is due to how the post is shaped). One got way off plumb so I used a highlift jack to pull it up and redo. I was surprised at how easy this was - I attached some wood to the post and was able to jack it out in less than 15 minutes. Once it was mostly out I re-plumbed it easily.
It is fairly easy to drive the post down 18" or so but I wanted them down 36". I was able to do this but it is hard work. I could do about 2 posts a day before my hands began to blister.
My posts are installed about 4' above grade and 3' below grade. They do flex more than a wooden post that has been set in concrete but I believe that they will last longer.
Going forward, I think I will try to arrange my time so that I can rent a gas powered driver. I think there are a few situations where it can be useful to use a manual driver:
In conclusion, it is absolutely possible to hand drive posts but it is a lot of work.
I just need a simple, humble chain link fence for my backyard. About 160’ and two gates. I see Lowe’s sells the mesh fabric in 50’ rolls. Is there any way to buy these in smaller increments? Also, should I shop around on pricing, or do all stores and supply companies come pretty close?
Thanks to the search function, I was able to not totally screw up my fence build! I decided on this 9' Board on Board built with 12' Postmaster Posts set 36" in concrete because my house backs up to a commercial parking lot. It was already 8' (before it was blown over in October). At 104 feet long, the cost of materials, tools and misc came out to just under $5000. Ask me anything- its my turn to contribute to the community!
Building my first fence, what do I do with all this dirt from digging out holes for posts? Do I just spread it out around the post after filling in the top? Do I shovel it all away and get rid of it?
First off yes I’m aware about the gaps, I’m going to fix that once I figure out this mess.
I bought this gate kit, it works really well, except how the hinges work. If I want the gate to open out (which I would prefer) the panels get in the way, so I’d have to mount it outside on the panel. Which would in turn make the gate stick out slightly.
The alternative is to mount it inside post and have the gate swing in, but then the gate would be significantly inset along the fence.
I’m at a loss with what to do with this, besides try to return it and make it myself, or just live with it.
Any advice?
Replacing our backyard privacy fence and stuck on wood vs vinyl fence. Wood looks better to me but i dont want to stain forever. Vinyl seems easier but neighbors say it gets brittle. If youve lived with either for a few years what do you actually like more day to day?