DEER FENCE INSTALLATION: EARLY STEPS 2
EARLY STEPS, CONTINUED If you don’t have suitable trees along the fence line, or if you choose not to use them, either wooden or metal deer fence posts can do the job. In general, wooden deer fence posts should be either cylindrical cedar posts 6+ inches in diameter or pressure-treated 4x4 posts. Plan on setting them two-and-a-half feet into the ground or below the frost line, whichever is deeper. Metal angle-iron posts studded with holes every two inches and painted flat black are also suitable, and smooth round metal posts can be can be interspersed with any of these or used alone. All of these posts should be driven at least two feet into the ground. Because they are thicker and stronger than T-posts or metal angle-iron posts, it is often worth using wooden deer fence posts at corners (only if no trees are available) and at places that can be expected to bear major loads. Avoid using untreated wood, because most untreated wood in contact with the soil will rot in a year or two. If the soil is sandy or otherwise loose, set your deer fence corner posts in cement footings that are roughly one foot wide and that extend two-and-a-half feet down or below the frost line, whichever is deeper; and provide similar footings at intervals of roughly 40 feet for every other post. (Unless the soil is extremely loose, you do not need to provide a footing for every post). By and large one should set wooden deer fence posts roughly 20 feet apart, and the deer fencing should be loosely attached to them with five or so U-nails (items 17-01 and 17-02). As a general rule, the fencing should be pulled tight enough so that it stands straight and rigid, but no tighter. Metal Fence Posts: Round Posts Round steel posts (items items 15-03E thru 15-03M) make very good long-lasting posts for deer fence that are easier and less expensive to install than wooden posts. Should you get round posts you should order brace bands with them (item 15-12) to provide a firm fence attachment point on the posts and prevent any possibility of sagging. The main disadvantage of these and other metal posts is that they look less “natural” than wood and do not grip the soil as well–so they are not recommended for use on corners, on sharp turns, or at sites with loose soil unless they are placed in cement footings the same size as those described above for wooden posts. If you decide on round posts, the type you get should depend on frost and soil conditions. if you have heavy clay soil with few rocks and deep winter frost, use our 10-foot posts without sleeves (item 15-03L). If your ground has a lot of rocks, like most New England soils, the rocky soil will grip the post well and prevent it from being heaved out, so the best choice (irrespective of frost conditions) is our nine-foot posts without sleeves (item 15-03K). If you face none of these problems, because you have few rocks in the soil and a frost line that goes less than two feet deep, the best choice is eight-foot posts with 30-inch sleeves (item 15-03E). To set a 10-foot post in non-rocky soil you should prepare the way with a digging bar (item 15-03PB) and pound the post in with a manual post driver (item 15-05). The driver is a weighted metal cylinder open at one end and closed at the other, with handles on the sides. To use it, one takes it up a ladder and slips it over the top of the metal post to be installed. It is then raised and dropped anywhere from a few inches to nearly its full length so as to tap or pound the post into the ground. When you use this tool, be sure no one is ever trying to assist you by holding the upper portion of the post to be driven with their hands, because the heavy descending driver can remove literally inches of flesh from the hands. As you proceed to drive in the post, eyeball it from the front and side every so often to make sure it is straight. Keep driving it down until only seven feet three inches remains above the ground. If you have not prepared the way with a digging bar, this pounding is likely to distort the upper inch or two of pipe to a point where it may no longer accept the post cap that goes on top. If this happens, get a plumber’s two inch pipe cutter (item 15-03G) and cut the top few inches of pipe off so that seven feet remains above the ground. 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). Metal Fence Posts: Angle-Iron Posts An economical alternative to round posts is provided by thick black-painted steel angle-iron posts (items 15-01 and 15-01B30). These posts have a smaller cross-section than the round posts and are less likely to be heaved up by frost. However, the angle-iron posts are not robust enough to serve as corner posts when falling branches, snow, or deer are likely to create significant stress on long fence runs. So in these cases, wood posts, round metal posts, or corner brace kits (item 15-06) should be used on the corners. If you get angle-iron posts you should be prepared to deal with rust by inspecting the posts at least once a year and spraying any rust spots with industrial grade rust-preventive paint (item 15-08 or 15-081). Like round posts, all of these posts look less natural than wood and do not grip the soil as well–so they are not recommended for use on sharp turns or at sites with loose soil unless they are placed in cement footings the same size as those described above for wood posts. To set an angle-iron post into soft soil, simply get on a stepladder and drive the post down with a manual post driver (item 15-05) until seven feet are above ground, testing it periodically from the front and side with a carpenter's level to make sure it goes in straight. If the soil is rocky, use a pry bar (item 15-03PB) as described above in the section on round posts (see the paragraph on setting in nine-foot round posts). As with round posts, when you are putting the fence rolls in place, attach the fencing to each angle-iron post with five or six eight-inch heavy-duty zip-lock ties (item 17-04), but in addition pass the zip-tie through one of the holes in the angle-iron post so as to prevent the zip-tie from slipping down the post and allowing the fence to sag. As noted above, 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 Stanley hog-ringer and 9/16-inch metal hog-ring staples (item 17-10). If there are no esthetic objections, a good solution is to alternate wooden posts with metal angle-iron posts, placing the wooden posts 30 to 36 feet apart if they are to support metal fencing, and then placing one metal angle-iron post halfway between them. (For plastic fencing the spacing can be a bit wider, up to 40 feet between the two wooden posts, leaving a span of up to 20 feet between the angle-iron post and the wooden posts on either side.) One can also use exclusively wooden posts in open areas. These should be spaced 15 to 18 feet apart to support a metal hexagrid deer fence or up to 20 feet apart to support a polypropylene deer fence. In any case, if the deer seem at all inclined to jump the more visible fence in this open area, one should consider installing posts topped with angled 13-inch extensions or straight 3-foot extensions to prevent jumping (see Anti-Jumping Insurance). Deer Fence Corners: Earth Anchors and Corner Braces
Use suitable trees as the posts at deer fence corners wherever possible. Lacking trees, you need some sort of corner brace (item 15-06) or a heavy-duty earth anchor (item 16-11) with a heavy wire or cable. The earth anchor system can be used effectively with any corner post set in a concrete footing (following the method described below for corner brace posts). This earth anchor system is appealing because all you have to do is run a heavy metal wire designed for outdoor use (item 02-07HT1) between a secure point on the fence system and the end of the earth anchor. To do this, first secure the earth anchor in the ground at a place beyond the corner post at a point halfway between the two imaginary paths that the incoming fence lines would follow if they both extended beyond the corner post in a straight line. Ideally, this place where the earth anchor enters the ground should be 8 feet away from the corner post if space permits, though this distance can be shortened to as little as 3 feet if property lines or other issues intervene. The earth anchor should be screwed into the ground at an angle, using a bar through the hole in the earth anchor for leverage, so that when you are done the earth achor points toward the top of the corner post. With a wooden corner post, proceed as follows: If the post is square or rectangular, set it so that one of its sides faces the earth anchor. On the opposite side of this post, 3 or 4 inches down from the top, pound 3 two-inch u-nails (item 17-01) four-fifths of the way into the wood. (Also do this if the post is a round wooden post.) These u-nails should be spaced an inch or so apart from one another and should be oriented sideways, like three croquet wickets in a line, so that a wire can pass through them. Then string one end of your heavy wire (item 02-07HT1) through the hole in the end of the earth anchor, up through the 3 u-nails, and back down toward the earth anchor. Next pass the two ends of this wire (heading in opposite directions) through a small gripple (items 16-05 and 16-05A) and pull the wires taut manually or (better) with a gripple tightening tool (item 16-04) until the wire running from the earth anchor to the post and back is tight. If the post is a round metal post (angle-iron posts do not make good corners), bolt a brace band on securely at the top of the post with the bolt opening facing outward toward the earth anchor. Run the heavy metal wire (item 02-07HT1) from the earth anchor up between the post and the bolt and back down toward the earth anchor, and join the two ends of the wire (as above) with a small gripple (items 16-05, 16-05A, 16-05B). If there is no room to place earth anchors outside your deer fence, you may need to use corner braces (item 15-06). These consist of a corner post and two supporting posts, one supporting post being placed along each of the two incoming sides of the fence. These posts are both set into the ground so that they rise at about a 45 degree angle to a connecting brace band on the actual corner post. Concrete footings are needed by all three posts, for without them it is very hard to make the corner post connections correctly, and the tension from the deer fence’s cable tends to make the risers act as the fulcrums of levers so as to destabilize, loosen, or even unearth the corner post. Thus, concrete footings are really required with corner braces, and also with the end brace system (item 15-07) sometimes used at the end of a fence run. To install a corner brace system, proceed as follows: If you can do so conveniently, start by drilling four three-quarter-inch holes in each of the three nine-foot pipes included in kit 15-06 with an electric drill. Place two of these holes 3 inches from the bottom of the pipe and the two others nine inches from the bottom. These holes, which are desirable but not necessary, will encourage cement to enter the space in the center of each pipe when it is poured into the footing and will improve the cement’s grip on the pipe. Dig a 10 to 12 inch diameter hole for the upright corner post (the thicker of the three posts) with an auger or manual post-hole digger. This hole should be below the frost line if there is deep winter ground frost, and 2 feet deep if frost is not a problem. If the hole is, say, 3 feet fill the bottom 12 inches with large rocks (softball size to hardball size), place the post in the hole, and measure to ensure that the top is 7 feet above the ground, adding or removing rocks as necessary to obtain the proper height. If the hole is 2 feet deep follow the same procedure without initially placing rocks but adding rocks if necessary. Plan on using a high-strength concrete mix (cement mixed with crushed rock) that should be available locally in 60 or 80 pound bags. Do not use the quick-setting type unless that is the only kind available. Mix up two batches of cement, one a soupy mixture and the other a mixture with a jelly-like consistency almost like peanut butter. Use the soupy mixture to fill the hole to a few inches above the rocks if the hole is 3 feet deep, or to a depth of a few inches if the hole is two feet deep. Then return the pipe to the hole and use moderate-size rocks to secure it firmly in place until it can stand on its own, keeping the post as close as possible to the center of the hole. Take a carpenter’s level and place it against the side of the post to make sure the post is straight up and down; adjust as necessary until the post is vertical. Put some of the smaller rocks (golf ball size) into the hole to fill in some of the spaces between the larger rocks, and fill the hole to the top with the firmer cement mixture. Now take another level measure to ensure that the post has not shifted. Let the cement set for 12-24 hours if the temperature is above 60º F, or for 24-48 hours if the temperature is below 60º F (it is not advisable to do this work if the temperature is below freezing). Once the cement has set, place the two brace bands on the post, arranging them so that the openings are 90 degrees away from one another with each opening pointing toward one of the incoming fence lines. Place one of these bands near the top of the post (at a height of about 6 feet 10 inches) and attach one of the rail ends to it by passing the bolt through one hole in the brace band, the hole in the rail end, and the other hole in the brace band. Then tighten the nut and bolt moderately until the brace band with rail end attached is snugly secure on the post and pointing straight toward one of the planned incoming fence lines. Do the same with the other brace band and rail end, placing this second brace band just below the first (it is all right if the two bands touch) with the opening of the rail end pointing directly toward the other planned incoming fence line. Now take one of the narrower (1 3/8") posts and hold it at about a 45 degree angle along the path of one of the incoming fence lines so that one end of the post touches the ground and the other end passes as close as possible to the rail end that it will ultimately fit into. Measure the distance between the upper portion of this rail end and the high end of the post. Then use a post hole digger, starting at the point where the post touches the ground, and dig a hole at about a 45 degree angle that is at least as long as the distance you just measured. The result will probably look more like a 45 degree trench than a 45 degree hole, but that doesn’t matter; and so long as it has the proper length it does not need to be as deep as the initial hole. Next place rocks around the post so that one end sits all the way up into the rail end and the other is secured firmly in the hole. Again it is important to keep the post as close as possible to the middle of the hole. Do two cement pourings, one of the soupy mixture up to the top of the rocks, and the other of the jelly-like mixture to the top of the hole after the excess water has had a little time to drain out of the soupy mixture. Allow the cement to set as above. You may gently adjust the brace band downward (up to an inch or so) if you need to do this to fully seat the post in the rail end. Then tighten the brace band nut and bolt completely so that everything is tight and nothing can move. Repeat with the second post. This completes installation of the corner brace. Installation of the end brace system is identical, except that the second supporting post, rail end, and brace band are omitted. |
McGregor Fence Co. 508-888-8305