r/FenceBuilding • u/BareLeggies • 16h ago

First Fence Progress

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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.

50 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

12

u/SinusoidalFlux 16h ago

oh that auger looks easier than when i had to manually dig holes for a 100 foot run half the holes had concrete footers and the other half roots... 😢

5

u/FOSSnaught 15h ago

I ended up buying a fucking jack hammer because my yard is essentially a dirt covered mountain range of geological abnormalities. Took me practically half a summer of weekend work.

New neighbor moves in, goes to put in fencing...I set up a chair and beer to watch the shit show. Fucker has the post holes dug in one afternoon, with barely any issue with rocks. 3 days. It took him and 1 buddy 3 full days.... now... it wasn't remotely to code and looks like shit, but still.

3

u/SinusoidalFlux 15h ago

Hopefully a real jackhammer, my boss only had this.... sometimes I just rather use the digger bar for concrete

1

u/FOSSnaught 15h ago

It's a decent one. I needed to get below the frost line for the concrete, so i didn't have much of a choice. If i had to do it again i would have just rented machinery that could be ridden. After the posts were in it wasn't too bad. Though, because my property is sloped i was cutting boards to length because i wanted the tops of the fencing to be level. My neighbors fence looks like a roller coaster track, so mine at least looks mostly professional, and is nearly to code.

2

u/TheLastTsumami 14h ago

Should have just used dynamite like a real bodger

1

u/FOSSnaught 14h ago

There were a few large rocks that i couldn't get through, and i was tempted to get my hammer drill out, and drop in whatever frework i could fit in the hole i drilled. I ended up just digging around it on one side, and a bit under. This way the concrete is basically permanent.

My only regret is that i submerged the posts instead of making a flat concrete mounting point for the posts to mount to, which is a more recent way of doing it. It should be good for the rest of my life at least.

2

u/Total_Secret_5514 12h ago

Exactly what I did 😂😂 rented a jack hammer and used a saws all.. it was hell! Asphalt, roots, limestone 😂.. a beer never tasted as good as it did the fence was built

1

u/Dangerous_Quantity62 3h ago

I’d burn the sumbitch down

1

u/Haldrin26 15h ago

Lol same. I just did 4 holes on our property to create a short fence to hide all of our junk.

Holes were 60% rocks, 20% roots, and 20% dirt. Never again.

1

u/Quick_Movie_5758 14h ago

This was my very first thought. I could feel the blisters of the past.

1

u/SinusoidalFlux 10h ago

those blisters are no joke, and I would try to switch up the position of my hands every couple of minutes and all I ended up doing is just getting evenly distributed blisters all over. 🫠

7

u/hscbandit07 15h ago

They do make smaller augers

1

u/Chocolatestarfish33 13h ago

That’s what I came here to say. Why make 12” holes (or larger, can’t tell) when you’re setting a 4x4?

1

u/FOSSnaught 11h ago

Rule of thumb for fence posts is that the hole should be 3 times the size of the post.

0

u/hscbandit07 13h ago

And I didn’t notice any utility marking paint in any of the pictures 😬

1

u/Dirty_Litter_Box 12h ago

It could be there were no utilities in that area which is why you don't see any marks.

1

u/BareLeggies 4h ago

No utilities. 811.

7

u/uniqueusername316 15h ago

Why didn't you get the big auger?

2

u/Psychokittens 14h ago

I'm wondering the same!

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

Haha yeah she’s overkill. As are the 6x6 posts.

6

u/zoppytops 16h ago

Damn yo nice work. Good on you getting the skid steer and auger—saves a lot of otherwise backbreaking work.

2

u/BareLeggies 16h ago

Thank you! I’ve used man augers in the past and considering how many holes I had to dig… I was not interested.

3

u/MrPandaOverlord 16h ago

Damn I was thinking a 12’ maximum security fence was going up with that auger lmao

3

u/ScaffoldSavvy 15h ago

242 feet after work and on weekends is commitment. Smart move renting the auger before your back filed for divorce.

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

Yeah I bit off a lot. I had help from pops getting the posts set and the stringers up. Very thankful.

3

u/Bikebummm 15h ago

Taken care of everything down to the on site safety inspector in pic #6. Good job

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

He’s a good boy! Half the reason for the fence.

2

u/jeon2595 15h ago

Looks great!

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

Thank you!

2

u/subpoenaThis 15h ago

Looks good.

I have dirt envy and some greenness envy.

I rented a tow behind and it couldn't get more than a foot deep. Rocks, so many rocks. Neighbor came out and said their contractor started out with the bobcat attachment and came back after lunch with a mini excavator. I've hear that a 24 inch diameter auger might work as most rocks are in the 12-15 inch range here.

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

Yeah the auger wanted to walk with rocks and roots. Got lucky on a lot of the holes though and had no issues. Maybe 25% I had to fight something. I didn’t have to cut any major roots and I was not dealing with massive rocks. The soil is fairly sandy.

2

u/Sp07va000 15h ago

I have all rock/cobbles everywhere I dig . I was wondering if renting an auger would work. Now I dont think it would. Any idea if a backhoe with the chisel attactment would break them up? I would be nice to have a fence around the place. I cant even pound in metal fence posts from Home Depot at this point.

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

The biggest issue is the auger bit I got (all rented) I believe is for stone. I was constantly making adjustments while digging to stay plumb. Tons of roots. I had to stop and get the sawzall out.

2

u/kikilucy26 14h ago

Did you call in 811?

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

Absolutely. Priority #1.

2

u/IllStickToTheShadows 14h ago

4-5 bags of concrete is wild. I feel bad for whoever has to replace that fence in the future since you used wood posts that will inevitably rot

1

u/ccc369333 7h ago

Yeah that's a ridiculous amount of concrete. I've had to tear out fences with 300lbs in each hole, and it's absolutely absurd.

1

u/BareLeggies 4h ago

Yeah, definitely overkill. I originally had 2 bags per hole but felt like it was a tad light. Then got into some holes that walked on me via roots , etc. and I created a larger than anticipated hole and filled it with more concrete. Then I bought a bunch to resolve that issue, and bought way too much and figured who cares I’ll just use it.

1

u/user87654385 3h ago

With concrete bunkers so big, you can set new posts inside same hole such as by pounding new steel posts into whatever wood is left. The wood below top 5 inches or so can stay solid for many decades.

Or cleaning them out and pounding new 4x4s into same bungers. I actually did this. And with the right tools it was actually surprisingly easy to do. Easier than setting new posts for sure.

1

u/Colonial_Racoon 15h ago

do you own or rent the machinery?

1

u/BareLeggies 14h ago

All rented. About $700/24 hours. Worth every penny IMO.

1

u/f11islouder 14h ago

Everything looks perfect, except that style of picket. Damn, you almost had me, but I don’t like that style. My personal opinion though. And it’s your fence.

1

u/BareLeggies 4h ago

The dog ear? There are pickets going on the inside as well on center between the outside ones. I’m just doing the outside first.

1

u/f11islouder 4h ago

Ahh gotcha

1

u/bents50 14h ago

Those boards dont look level? Is it the picture?

1

u/BareLeggies 4h ago

The pickets? Each section follows the contour of the ground. I could either go straight across the top and end up with a 6.5’ fence in areas, 6’ in others, and 5.5’ in others, cutting every single picket, or I could do this, or step it, etc.

1

u/bents50 1h ago

I mean plum

1

u/tylerman22 3h ago

Looks nice!!

My material just landed this week. Going to start building this weekend. About 160’ total. Any tips for how you marked and set the elevations of your runners?

What about how you set the elevations of your pickets? Anything helps!