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Building a 6ft privacy fence.


Knucklehead97
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Been working up plans to build a privacy fence around my yard and wood prices are finally getting low enough to do it. Anyone have any experience in this? Currently I have a 4 ft tall chain link fence that was built when the house was built YEARS ago so it is sagging and my 60 pound husky/45 pound Border Collie hop it easily when they see a squirrel on the other side. I've already gotten permission from all of my neighbors and and I am paying for it myself because I am the one who really wants the fence (honestly I hate how my neighbors yards look so it's mostly to make my back yard look better) the total stretch is about 260 foot of fencing plus a gate on my driveway. 

 

Gameplan is to buy a Predator gas auger, and have my two best friends come over for a weekend to help. Going to either pull the chain link posts up if they're not cemented or cut them flush with an angle grinder/sawzall. Once they are gone we will be stretching a string from corner to corner and painting every 8ft on the ground to lay out the posts. Posts will be 8ft 4×4's put about 24-28" in the ground. Plan to use about 40-60LB's of quickcrete in each hole with gravel at the bottom. Going to have 3 2×4's stretched between each post. One as a cap beam at the top to protect the 4×4's end grain and make the top look better and the other two will be flush on the side of the 4x4 in the middle and about 4-6" off the ground. Going to use 3" deck screws to put the 2×4's on the posts and then use collated galvanized framing nails to install the fence pickets. Pickets are going to be 3/4"×5-1/2" 6ft tall dog ear pickets that will be stained/weather proofed either before or after installing. Plan to lay a 2×4 on the ground while installing the pickets to help create a small ground between them and the dirt so they do not rot as quickly.

 

Once the fence is said and done I am going to add a wire anti-dig system at the bottom.

 

Total cost at today's prices for just the fence/nails/concrete is looking at being about 2k-2400. 

 

And yes sadly I will be contacting the city to get a permit :brickwall:

 

Does anyone have any tips based off of experience? First time building a fence so anything helps 😁

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With the predator auger you will need water to get clay out. It goes through dirt and sand no problem. 2 people is helpful but I rested the auger on my leg to keep from ripping my arms off (did 95% of it alone). Check your boards every 6 or so with a level to make sure they are vertically straight.

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53 minutes ago, Minuit said:

Wait, really? Seriously?

 

(could it be more obvious that I know nothing about wood construction?)

 

I highly suggest looking into it before taking on a big project. :L: huuuuuuuge time saver plus you can unscrew them later if need be.

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I built a chain link fence... Twice.  Little different than wood but similar concept.  I'd recommend you rent the auger unless you really think you'll need it later.  I got mine from Ace hardware for somewhere around $40/day and had the holes done in about 2 hours. 

 

Also HIGHLY recommend you rent a small cement mixer.  Rental place in Des Moines had one for iirc $25/day and holy crap was it a huge time saver.  Had the whole fence built in 2 days, would have been 1 day if the cement would dry faster.

 

And after the Derecho came through and flattened 150ft of the fence, I had to rebuild.  I pulled the concreted posts out and reused the holes.  Its totally up to you if you want to pull the existing posts but it's actually pretty easy to do using stuff you probably have laying around.  Make a lever using 2x4, 2x6, 2 bolts, and a length of chain.  Dig a few inches around the concrete and wrap the chain around the concrete, then push the lever down and out it comes.  Here is the one I made.  Used lumber I had laying around, about 10ft of lever arm is plenty to pull the post.IMG_20201022_174827.jpg.6781fd722baf2f728503bef8679bba09.jpg

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33 minutes ago, Pete M said:

do you have access for a Jeep so you can use the tire method for yanking up the posts?

What is this method? I can get my MJ to most of the posts easily. My yard isn't big at all. 

 

That home made post puller is a great idea though, thanks!!! 

 

I will look into a concrete mixer/auger rental. I like just having extra tools laying around so usually I buy instead of renting. The dirt here is soft so I expect it to be easy to dig. Also I will look into doing the posts every 6ft instead of 8. Everywhere I saw recommended doing 8ft stretches 

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