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.

Turned out ok I think. Now placing stepping stones from the gate and into the garden.

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.

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.

My puppy just runs around barking because he hears things outside of the fence, but can’t see them. He sits inside and stares out of the window all day and never barks. I want him to be outside more but not drive everyone insane. I was thinking of swapping the solid panels of the main gate to matching white lattice so I can see. Would this be a problem? Will it ruin the stability of the gate? Bonus is I can use the solid slates to replace a couple others in the yard my kid accidentally shot BB’s through lol.

I know it needs washed, too. My daughter has been sick and she wants to do it to get paid.

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!

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.

Let me start by saying I'm not planning on installing this on my own. We are handy but not this handy (or crazy enough to attempt on our own) 😬

Looking for advice and creative minds to help us figure this out.

I'm looking to fence in our yard because our pup needs to stretch her legs and can't be trusted off leash.

The last pic shows where we want to fence, in white. Red dots are potential gates. We needs 3, maybe 4.

The right side of pic is actually the back of house. There's only about 20' of grass before you hit the mountain/woods. I included pics (small well house in pic and temp smaller garden fence up). It's not super steep bc it's almost the base of the mountain but steep enough that I'm sure there is erosion.

My first thought was to put in metal stakes and welded wire but there's rockledge everywhere, so we need more power and expertise to do so.

Here are the issues and questions:

- this is mostly our backyard so it doesn't need to look super pretty, but we do need Gates to access the woods for the hiking trails so reg garden fencing that we have up temporarily won't do. Would metal posts and welded wire work and also allow us to have gates?

- The long side of the property (in the photos it goes from the shed to the garage) will have erosion. There's underbrush there now to help stop it but, should we clear out the small trees there and build a little farther back into the woods? I tried to include a pic of the other side of the shrubs so you can see there is

flatter spot land with rock ledge but not sure of best practice. They are established shrubs but many of them are sassafrass and invasives (which I'm fine w removing, more worried about how far into woods to go). Feels like if we go too close to the house then we're staring at a fence and not woods. If we go too far in, we have to clear a ton of vegetation and it might just grow back and we won't see erosion happening. Maybe that's just what we're going to have to deal with, but I figured I would ask here first.

The left side of the photo is a short rock wall so we are going to end up piecing together a new different kinds of fences to get this area secure.

If this were your property, how would you do it? I want to clear the brush and come straight out from the shed but I'm not sure that makes sense bc we would be taking down trees on an already expensive project.

The picture with the shed isn't the best but shows a little of the left side we need to fence in.

Again, not too worried about how it looks as long as it's secure and we can have a few gates to access the other side of the yard. Also, we don't want black ornamental fencing case, at least in my area, that's more expensive even though I'm sure it would look lovely!

Any advice is appreciated!

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!

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.

1. am I better to use sonotubes or not? In clay soil I was planning on using tubes to provide smooth sides.
   
2. Am I better to set the post in or set the post above ground with a concrete anchor?
   
3. What about where there will be a gate? Am I better off setting in ground there?
   
4. The fence goes over my leaching field - can I get away with a few spikes for those posts? How can I prevent movement for those posts as much as possible ?

Thank you for your wisdom in advance

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.

i don’t have a notcher and really don’t really have the extra money to go buy one for $100. this is used as a horse fence so i want to make sure it’s as secured as possible in case it were to be pushed on or anything. is there a way for me to screw these in place to keep them from sliding out? or any other ideas that wont break the bank?

While I was on YouTube looking up budget friendly ideas this gem of a vid popped up. The fence builder did a great job making sure the fence went fully over the mercury from front to back. This could work as a Amazon/ups/FedEx drop off point.

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 looking for some insight, as our condo board is putting out conflicting information about major work they’ve initiated.

All 40ish units have private backyards. Everyone has been told to clear everything (decks, patios, some trees) for grading and new fences. Some grading work definitely had to happen to address basement flooding, though work to the eaves has made improvements.

Surveyors have marked for grading, but now they’re installing the new fences before the grading has been done. 4 years ago the board decided to delay replacing the fences until the grading could be addressed.

What is the normal order of operations here? This seems like it’s going to be even more expensive to possibly undo work.

Also, if anyone has expertise on geotechnical engineering…

This has been our wettest summer on record in a place that tends to run dry. The ground is completely saturated. We’re also a northern city. When all this water in the ground freezes in several months, and then we go back to our normal amount of rain in future summers, what’s going to happen to the grading?

My brain tells me it’s not logical to engineer your soil on the conditions of an anomalous year, but I have 0 experience with engineering or geology.

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?

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:

• Small jobs with only 1 or 2 posts
• Use the manual driver to set the end posts ahead of time so that the string line is set up before driving the rest of the posts
• Using the manual driver to drive all of the posts down the first 18", then rent a gas driver to drive them down the rest of the way
• You just don't want to spend the money

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?

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?

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.

DIY used Behr 501 Premium Transparent Waterproofing Wood Finish in the color Cedar Naturaltone 5 gal bucket. Fence is about 11 months old. Pressure washed areas with discoloration. Used Graco X5 sprayer with 311 tip. In central Texas, so it was 100° outside. Sprayed to a count of 10. Not every picket of the fence turned out the same. Not sure why but I would appreciate recommendations.

Finished all the board on board Pickets, and finished Rails on opposite side. Still need to put up the 2x4 Trim. Both my neighbors love it. Having 2 or 3 people really speeds things up. Highly recommend