DEER FENCE INSTALLATION: EARLY STEPS 4
EARLY STEPS, CONTINUED Metal Fence Posts: Round Posts, continued If you have rocky soil, but not too rocky for a digging bar, prepare for post driving with a digging bar (item 15-03PB). Put a piece of tape on the digging bar at a height corresponding to the desired depth of the hole. Then take your digging bar and thrust it into the ground where you plan to set a post. With its weight helping you, work the bar downward however far you want the post to go. As you proceed, rotate the bar in the hole enough to open up a space almost wide enough to accommodate the post. If you do that, when you get two feet down you will know there are no rocks or roots in the way. (If you run into a rock or root that the bar cannot navigate, shift the bar to another place and try again.) Then proceed as above to drive the post down with a manual post driver until there are seven feet three inches above ground, eyeballing it from both the front and the sides as you go to insure it is straight up and down. Should you face the difficult task of setting your posts in a solid rock face (rock ledge), use a Hilti drill with an 18-inch x 0.5-inch “All Masonry” bit to drill three holes 12 to 18 inches into the rock. Then pound half-inch rebar 30 to 36 inches long all the way into those holes with a sledge hammer or post driver so that about 18 inches of rebar is left sticking out of each hole. Place a sauna tube over these lengths of rebar, arranging things so that all three lengths of rebar are at least a few inches in from the edge of the sauna tube. Before filling the sauna tube with concrete and setting your post in the center, put some big dents in the bottom 12 inches of the post with a hammer so that it cannot turn or come out after the concrete has hardened. Another tactic is to drill half-inch pairs of holes through the post in both directions, one pair about 2 inches up the post and another pair 8 to 10 inches up, before setting the post in the concrete—allowing concrete to enter the post and hold it firmly. To set an eight-foot post and 30-inch sleeve into non-rocky soil, get a drive cap (item 15-03C) and place it atop the sleeve. Put the closed tip of the sleeve where the post will go and drive the sleeve halfway into the ground with a sledgehammer. Then insert the post (which will go only one foot into the sleeve) and eyeball it from the back and sides to ensure it is more or less straight (the post will be able to move back and forth in the sleeve a little, but this small amount of movement can be stopped later). Then remove the post, replace the drive cap, drive the sleeve three-quarters of the way in, put the post back in the sleeve, and eyeball it again before driving the sleeve all the way into the ground. If the sleeve needs adjustment at any point to keep the post straight, place the drive cap on top and hit the drive cap (not the sleeve!) gently with the sledgehammer (if such a thing is possible) so as to move it in the right direction. There is likely to be some play in the post when it is finally seated. To eliminate this, pound two or three galvanized nails into the space between the post and the sleeve. Do this in a way that prevents the post from leaning slightly to one side or another, leaving the post truly vertical. When you are putting the fence rolls in place, attach the fencing to each round post with six or seven heavy-duty 14-inch nylon or stainless steel zip-lock ties (items 17-06 or 17-12). The monofilament line at the top of the fence can also be attached to the fencing with zip-lock ties, although this job can be done faster and better with a hog-ring stapler and circular metal hog-ring staples (items 17-09, 17-10, 17-14, and 17-15). |
McGregor Fence Co. 508-888-8305