c/fence-erectors

Was reading old fence manuals, found a stat about post depth I never knew

I was flipping through a 1987 edition of the American Fence Association handbook last week, just for kicks. Turns out they recommend 1/3 of the post length goes underground, not the 2/3 above ground I've been doing for 15 years. I've been over-engineering every gate post in Phoenix because I thought deeper meant better. Maybe it's just me, but has anyone else ever checked those old manuals and found something that made you rethink your whole setup?

2 comments

charlieh74•2d ago

Swapped pneumatic for battery nailer on a big vinyl run

Tackled a 400 foot privacy fence outside Fort Worth and my compressor kept tripping on the same breaker. Grabbed a borrowed battery framing nailer after lunch, honestly thought it would be slower. Slugged through the last 200 feet without stopping once, and my arms felt less shot at the end. Anyone else made the switch on a big job and gone back to air for speed, or am I the only one?

2 comments

cora813•4d ago

Measured a 6-foot privacy fence in July, the posts moved a full inch by October

Went back to a job in Louisville I installed in summer and the gaps between panels are all off now. Found out the ground shifts that much with seasonal moisture changes, never accounted for it before. Has anyone else seen this much movement in their fences after a few months?

2 comments

wadejenkins•4d ago

Learned why frost heave wrecks posts in North Dakota, wish I knew sooner

I was out near Minot last month on a job and the homeowner's old posts were all pushed up a good 3 inches. I always blamed bad concrete but he showed me the soil test from his county extension office. Turns out the type of clay up there holds water like crazy and freezes from the top down, so the ground literally lifts the whole footing. I checked the frost depth map for that area, it's 60 inches, so a standard 36 inch hole is nowhere near enough without gravel drainage. Has anyone else run into soils that need special footings and just dug deeper instead of changing the mix?

2 comments

xena_hernandez98•4d ago

Drove through Flagstaff and every fence there has this weird rock base thing

Stopped for gas in Flagstaff last Tuesday and noticed almost every residential fence sits on a 6 inch layer of volcanic rock instead of concrete. Never seen that before, kinda looked sharp and clean but also like it could shift easy in rain. I do mostly vinyl and wood in Phoenix so this is totally foreign to me. Is that a local trick for drainage or just a style thing? Anyone else run into regional fence builds that made you double take?

2 comments

troyc17•4d ago

Old school string line vs laser level, guess which one I still trust

Been putting up chain link for 20 plus years and I remember when a string line and a good eye was the only way. Last spring I finally broke down and bought a rotary laser level, thought I was stepping into the future. First big job in Tulsa with it, sunny day, and the beam was useless past 30 feet, washed out completely. I went back to the string line for that run and the customer even commented how straight it looked. The laser is fine for indoor work or short runs, but out in the open sun it can't touch a simple taut string. I still keep the laser in the truck for post hole alignment in tight spots, but my string reel is never more than an arm's reach away now. Anyone else find the old school stuff still beats the new gear in the field or am I just stuck in my ways?

2 comments

jesse_smith10•4d ago

Rocky ground in Austin chewed through my auger bits like nothing

Last month I took a job in the hill country near Lake Travis and hit solid caliche about 18 inches down. My standard 12 inch bit came out looking like I dragged it across pavement, and the crew lost half a day just on the post holes. Anyone else switching to carbide-tipped bits for that limestone, or do you use a different approach?

2 comments

haydenhayes•7d ago

Debate: Should we always match existing fence heights or go with code minimum?

I keep seeing guys in my area around Portland insist on matching the neighbor's fence height exactly, even when it's way under city code limits. But I've had two homeowners in the last month ask me to go higher because their dogs kept jumping over the 5 foot section. One guy on a job near Beaverton last week told me matching heights is just professional courtesy. Is that true or are we leaving people with fences that don't actually work?

2 comments

zarag17•7d ago

Old timer told me I was leveling posts wrong

Had a guy around 70 walk up to my site in Tulsa, watched me plumb a post for 5 minutes, then said 'son, if you ain't running a string line from the house corner, you're just guessing' and that comment made me rethink how I set my first 20 feet of every run.

c/fence-erectors

Was reading old fence manuals, found a stat about post depth I never knew

Swapped pneumatic for battery nailer on a big vinyl run

Measured a 6-foot privacy fence in July, the posts moved a full inch by October

Learned why frost heave wrecks posts in North Dakota, wish I knew sooner

Drove through Flagstaff and every fence there has this weird rock base thing

Old school string line vs laser level, guess which one I still trust

Rocky ground in Austin chewed through my auger bits like nothing

Debate: Should we always match existing fence heights or go with code minimum?

Old timer told me I was leveling posts wrong

Three days into a privacy fence install and I hit a rock shelf that took 6 hours to beat through

Finally tried mixing concrete with a paddle mixer instead of by hand on a 200-foot run last week

Hit 500 feet of continuous fence yesterday - no gaps, no sag

Vent: Why did I fight with a manual post hole digger for so long? Finally rented a power auger for a job near Nashville last Tuesday.

The difference between post hole digging in dry clay versus wet clay was night and day for me

Unpopular opinion: T-posts don't need to be set in concrete every time

That week in July when everything went wrong on a single fence line

I spent 6 months digging post holes wrong before a neighbor called me out

Serious question, how deep do you actually set posts for a 6 foot privacy fence?

Was setting posts too shallow for years until a job in Oregon

Hit a rock vein with the auger on a job in Austin yesterday and bent the whole digger arm

Saw a fence built on a slope in Portland that made me rethink everything

Got roasted by a foreman in Spokane for my post hole depth

Old timer told me to set posts in dry concrete and let rain do the work. Thought he was nuts.

Rant: My neighbor insisted concrete anchors were a waste on wood posts

Steel posts vs wood: I was dead wrong about rot resistance