Anyone built their own fence?

[ManBearPig]

How hard is it to do?

 

[vi edit]

Depends on the yard, distance you need to cover, and tools/help available. Also depends on materials.

If you've got a fairly square & flat yard, rent a post hole auger and have a couple friends able to help line up and hold things it's not terrible. If it's just you, the yard is oddball and rolling and you suck at handywork then it's probably going to be ugly.

 

[Imp]

Nope.. dad did. Neighbours hired lawyers and tried to bribe the surveyor to say that it was built over the property line, when it wasn't - no, the fence was just so dilapidated that it was on a 30 degree lean, giving them more space.

Lesson: check with neighbours first.

 

[vi edit]

Nope.. dad did. Neighbours hired lawyers and tried to bribe the surveyor to say that it was built over the property line, when it wasn't - no, the fence was just so dilapidated that it was on a 30 degree lean, giving them more space.

Lesson: check with neighbours first.

That's a good point too...make sure you know where your property lines are.

 

[0roo0roo]

read up, and pour the concrete...its hard in that its hard labor, it isn't complicated at all, line up the post holes with string and dig away..

 

[spacejamz]

my fence is almost 10 years old and was built with 2"x3" wooden posts...most of the posts are rotted so I have begun replacing the 21 posts with metal poles. I have replaced 15 so far....hardest part is removing the underground part of the post stub..
Once all of the poles are replaced, I will will replace the rails and pickets...they are definitely showing their age...they might last a year or two at the most...

If you are building a new fence...use metal poles....for a 6 foot fence, you need 2 foot deep holes and for an 8 foot fence, you need a 3 foot deep one...(deeper in you live in an area that snows (need to get below the frost line)....once the poles are cemented in (eight feet apart), just attach the rails (horizontal 2x3 or 2x4's) and then nail/screw the pickets in...definitely get an power auger to drill the holes and you will be all set...make sure you check with the utilities before you dig though...

 

[Alienwho]

I didn't build my own fence, but I had the vinyl fencing pieces delivered and I did assemble it myself.

Wasn't too bad. Rented an auger and drilled all the holes. Lined up everything and stuck the posts in and cemented them in. IMO the biggest pain was cutting the pieces to the right size with the crappy table saw I borrowed from the neighbor.

 

[lxskllr]

That's a good point too...make sure you know where your property lines are.

And don't trust what the realtor told you. They know fuck all about property. You need a surveyor if it's gonna be close to the property line.

 

[iGas]

Use quickcrete to save time. Post should be at least 1/3 of the height of fence above ground (ie. 2' underground if fence is 6' high above ground).

 

[iGas]

my fence is almost 10 years old and was built with 2"x3" wooden posts...most of the posts are rotted so I have begun replacing the 21 posts with metal poles. I have replaced 15 so far....hardest part is removing the underground part of the post stub..
Once all of the poles are replaced, I will will replace the rails and pickets...they are definitely showing their age...they might last a year or two at the most...

If you are building a new fence...use metal poles....for a 6 foot fence, you need 2 foot deep holes and for an 8 foot fence, you need a 3 foot deep one...(deeper in you live in an area that snows (need to get below the frost line)....once the poles are cemented in (eight feet apart), just attach the rails (horizontal 2x3 or 2x4's) and then nail/screw the pickets in...definitely get an power auger to drill the holes and you will be all set...make sure you check with the utilities before you dig though...

Rent a post pull-jack.

 

[spacejamz]

I didn't build my own fence, but I had the vinyl fencing pieces delivered and I did assemble it myself.

Wasn't too bad. Rented an auger and drilled all the holes. Lined up everything and stuck the posts in and cemented them in. IMO the biggest pain was cutting the pieces to the right size with the crappy table saw I borrowed from the neighbor.

if you didn't like your neighbor's 'crappy' saw, why didn't you just buy your own???

 

[vi edit]

If it's just you, be sure to grab some clamps big enough to clamp the rails to the post while you level them out.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never done it myself but if I were to do it I'd go at least 6 feet deep to go below frost line, it will have a much longer life that way. I see lot of fences that are all crooked and it's because the frost has pushed the posts up over time.

 

[bbhaag]

A couple years ago I installed about 80 feet of 6 foot tall wooden privacy fence. I did it by myself in one day but it was a PITA. If you have an extra set of hands to help it would go faster.
The hardest part for me was digging the holes for the posts. They had to be 3 feet deep because of the frost line and I was digging them under a large tree. Roots upon roots every time I jabbed the post hole digger in the ground. It sucked.
Setting the posts in concrete and hanging the fence went pretty fast. Just make sure your string is level and straight and your marks on the string where the posts go are acurate.

 

[spacejamz]

Rent a post pull-jack.

too cheap I guess and besides, it is a good workout for me....i use a 5 foot slate bar to chip the concrete around the post off....when most of it is off, I rigged my floor jack to lift the pole out...drilled a hole through the pole and wrapped a chain to an 8" bolt I put through the hole....not pretty but it works...takes about an hour or 2 per hole...

 

[olds]

Not very hard. Depends how hard the dirt is and how much a perfectionist you are.
I hired a fence builder two years ago to build a fence and gate. Had to fire him, he sucked.
I ran a string line down the edge of the property and off the front of the house. Gave him perfect lines. He still had the fence out at the end of a 10 foot run by two feet. Into the neighbors property. When I asked him how he could be so far off when I had laid it out for him, he told me he didn't know what the string lines were for.
I fired him and pulled his posts out of the ground.

 

[The_Dude8]

my fence is almost 10 years old and was built with 2"x3" wooden posts...most of the posts are rotted so I have begun replacing the 21 posts with metal poles. I have replaced 15 so far....hardest part is removing the underground part of the post stub..
Once all of the poles are replaced, I will will replace the rails and pickets...they are definitely showing their age...they might last a year or two at the most...

If you are building a new fence...use metal poles....for a 6 foot fence, you need 2 foot deep holes and for an 8 foot fence, you need a 3 foot deep one...(deeper in you live in an area that snows (need to get below the frost line)....once the poles are cemented in (eight feet apart), just attach the rails (horizontal 2x3 or 2x4's) and then nail/screw the pickets in...definitely get an power auger to drill the holes and you will be all set...make sure you check with the utilities before you dig though...

how much it is to rent a power auger from homedepot?

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

use 4x4 treated posts, you'll be fine. make sure you install the rails vertically (the 4" dimension), otherwise they will sag badly. oh, and use powder-coated fasteners, especially if you use cedar pickets, galvanized will cause black streaks.

 

[jagec]

Lesson: check with neighbours first.

+1 on this, property lines are always a sensitive issue, and sometimes it turns out that the old fence is actually over the line, complicating the placement of the new fence.

A friend went through that. He lived on a funny-shaped triangular lot that bordered 5 other properties, and the person who had built the old fence had done a very poor job, wandering back and forth over the property line and costing my friend up to 5 feet of land in some places. Luckily he's a great schmoozer and managed to convince all 5 neighbors to not only let him build the fence on the actual property line, but to pony up 1/2 of the material costs for each section of the fence that bordered their property. And he got the nice side of the fence to boot!

Talking first generates goodwill that saves you a lot of lawyering later.

 

[0roo0roo]

Never done it myself but if I were to do it I'd go at least 6 feet deep to go below frost line, it will have a much longer life that way. I see lot of fences that are all crooked and it's because the frost has pushed the posts up over time.

easy to say, digging that deep would be pretty severe work. 1/3 depth of post is good enough, just make sure the concrete is not mushroom shaped so that it can be heaved out by the thaw cycle.

doing it right means you dig a little deeper so you can fill the bottom with gravel, then put the post in and concrete around that for drainage. or simply get post brackets you can cast into concrete, that way you can replace the wood post whenever without digging anything out, but people don't do this because it costs more.

metal will last but the chain link type posts are kinda ugly

 

[Gunslinger08]

I just finished fencing in 2 sides of my back yard, along with gates on each side connecting to the house. About 190 feet total. It's not that bad, but I'd recommend getting help from a few friends. Digging is the worst part. Even with a Dingo, I had to hand dig the holes near my foundation and near my neighbors fence. I also had to dig out several holes where we hit rock. I live in a terrible place for digging, so this was all done with a digging iron, then cleared with post hole diggers.

Setting the posts and putting up the rails and pickets wasn't a big deal. Gate building is just time consuming.

Overall, I'd do it myself again, even after nearly killing myself digging holes in 100 degree heat. I saved about 40% over a contractor quote, I got some exercise, I learned some things, and I know for sure that my fence is built right.

 

[DrPizza]

Depends on the ground & what you're building the fence out of. I've done a lot of fencing; just helped put in about 1000 feet of fence a weekend ago (well, until I split my head open.) Very rocky soil sucks. In a couple areas on my property, digging a hole for posts is incredibly difficult. One of those power augers that you can rent would be laughable. I have a 3-point hitch auger on the back of my tractor & sometimes it still takes 10 minutes to get down a couple of feet.

 

[Alienwho]

if you didn't like your neighbor's 'crappy' saw, why didn't you just buy your own???

Why be such a dickhead? I honestly want to hear your reason for making this statement. You must be the biggest douche I've ever e-met. The saw did the job fine, it was just the most difficult part of installing my fence.

To answer your question, the reason why I installed my own fence was to save money. To spend several hundred dollars on a saw that I would use once per decade and take up a such a large space in my garage makes no sense. Are you happy? Doesn't take a genius to figure this out does it?

 

[kalrith]

how much it is to rent a power auger from homedepot?

I think I rented a one-person auger for $60/day and a two-person auger for $100 to $120/day. The two-person auger works much, much better. However, as already mentioned, they're total crap for rocky soil. In SW Missouri, I'd say that half my holes couldn't get deeper than 12-18".

If I could do it all over again, I would've paid someone to put up my privacy fence, but mainly because of the rocky soil.

Since then, I've put up some farm fence with T-posts, and that's much easier. I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for (it's not even allowed in many neighborhoods).

If you're property has ground pins at the corners, then you can pay a surveyor probably less than $100 to locate the pins (or do it yourself with a metal detector). Drive a stake at each pin and tie a string between the stakes. Then you have your property lines.

 

[Texashiker]

Call BEFORE you dig!!!!!!!!!!

Call all of the local utilities before you dig anywhere. You cut a fiber or gas line, you are looking at a heck of a bill.

Back around 1997 or 1998 a guy putting in a fence cut the main fiber optic line going to Atlanta Georgia.