Fence Construction
These are the bulk materials needed to set fence posts. Sand and stone are used to mix concrete for th corner and gate posts. The stone dust is used to set all remaining posts. We used pressure treated 4X4 for posts.
Tubular gates were on sale when we put up our fence. The perimeter gates were covered with the fence wire to keep dogs and other hazards from just walking through.
Unless you have really soft soil with no rocks a machine to drill post holes is a must. The 8 inch drill was a little small for 4x4 posts. The holes had to be precisely placed or we ended up digging by hand. A 10 or 12 inch would have made the job easier.
All the corner posts and gate posts were anchored in concrete. In some places the rock would not let us get below the frost line of 4 feet so holes were dug bell shaped. So far this has prevented frost from moving the posts. All of the line posts were packed in stone dust.
Where the rock was very close to the surface we drilled holes and drove steel rod into the rock. The post was then set on the rod and concrete poured around.
Installation instructions called for the ends to be wrapped around the post and braided in addition to nailing. This is by far the most tedious part of installing this fence. This method allows you to put alot of tension on the fence without pulling it off the anchor post.
100 pounds of tension is supposed to bring the fence tight but we found this was not nearly enough. We used the weight of the Ranger and two hand winches to get the fence as tight as possible before nailing, wrapping and braiding to the end post.
We used both horizontal and angled corner braces. The horizontal are a bit more trouble to install but they have held up better than the andled. A 6000V electric wire was run around the fence about 10 inches off the ground. This keeps any digging animals from getting under the fence. The end result is a nice tight preditor resistant fence.