ShaneK
09-08-04, 07:30 AM
I just finished installing a pressure treated wood fence this last weekend. Here's what I did. Maybe someone can find some use out of this.
Materials:
1x6x6' pickets
2x4x8' rails
4x4x8' posts
3" triple coated screws - used to attach rails to posts
1 5/8" triple coated screws - used to attach pickets to rails
posthole digger
cordless drills
Prep work:
We measured on each post where the rails and the ground would be. That allowed us to keep everything parallel with the ground since there is a slight slope. We simply dug each hole about 30", placed the pole in the ground and checked to see where the ground line on the pole was and where the actual ground was. This also kept us from having to cut the top of the poles off to maintain their evenness. We also strung a string on the ground to keep the poles even with each other.
We used a posthole digger to drill about 26 holes. We had trouble getting it to start a few times. We also ran into a problem with our cordless drills. They ran out of juice because the chargers could not keep up with the pace that we were on. At that point we took a break and bought a corded drill to help make up some lost time.
My suggestions:
Get a lot of people and work in teams...
We basically had 3 teams of people at work on the project. The first team of 2 people was the posthole diggers. The second team of 2 people predrilled the rails and screwed them on the posts. The third team of 2-3 people lined up the pickets and screwed them in place. I served as a type of general contractor and helped out all the teams. Of course not everyone was busy all the time. But it allowed us to assemble the fence in a sort of assembly line fashion.
Have plenty of drill batteries on hand...
Screw at least one rail to the next unset post - before tamping into the ground. This allowed us to set the next post so that all the rails matched up in the center of the post.
Buy a post level. This was perhaps the best $4 that I spent.
Well I think that is all I had. If I think of some more, I'll post it here. It was a very successful day. We put up about 160 feet of fence in about 9 hours.
Materials:
1x6x6' pickets
2x4x8' rails
4x4x8' posts
3" triple coated screws - used to attach rails to posts
1 5/8" triple coated screws - used to attach pickets to rails
posthole digger
cordless drills
Prep work:
We measured on each post where the rails and the ground would be. That allowed us to keep everything parallel with the ground since there is a slight slope. We simply dug each hole about 30", placed the pole in the ground and checked to see where the ground line on the pole was and where the actual ground was. This also kept us from having to cut the top of the poles off to maintain their evenness. We also strung a string on the ground to keep the poles even with each other.
We used a posthole digger to drill about 26 holes. We had trouble getting it to start a few times. We also ran into a problem with our cordless drills. They ran out of juice because the chargers could not keep up with the pace that we were on. At that point we took a break and bought a corded drill to help make up some lost time.
My suggestions:
Get a lot of people and work in teams...
We basically had 3 teams of people at work on the project. The first team of 2 people was the posthole diggers. The second team of 2 people predrilled the rails and screwed them on the posts. The third team of 2-3 people lined up the pickets and screwed them in place. I served as a type of general contractor and helped out all the teams. Of course not everyone was busy all the time. But it allowed us to assemble the fence in a sort of assembly line fashion.
Have plenty of drill batteries on hand...
Screw at least one rail to the next unset post - before tamping into the ground. This allowed us to set the next post so that all the rails matched up in the center of the post.
Buy a post level. This was perhaps the best $4 that I spent.
Well I think that is all I had. If I think of some more, I'll post it here. It was a very successful day. We put up about 160 feet of fence in about 9 hours.