Hey! We're just a group of humans building fences and we actually love what we do! We love to innovate, push the industry forward, and laugh while we're working (does that make us weird?). If you love to see innovative fence made easy (or if you just like watching people have a good time while they work), you're in the right place.
With concrete, try belling your holes (wider at the bottom) clean bottoms. With "dry" pack, thoroughly wet the hole, pour in your bags then wet the top. We dont have frost so that may make a difference, but from what i understand , shouldn't. The reason you wet set didnt bond was you did it in 3 pours, each pour jad already begun setting by the time of the next pour giving you cold joins. You have to pour all at once to do it properly . You need to get good.
I watched about 6 minutes of this and quit. It's dripping with sarcasm, complaining of the company not providing extra posts or other parts one wouldn't realistically be expecting them to provide, (they're not selling you the gate or posts, they're selling you the opening mechanism and you saw that when you purchased the kit that listed what was and wasn't included), unprofessional name calling, etc. Not going to waste any more of my time on it. These days it seems like straight forward honest feedback and civility isn't valued anymore. If you feel there are problems with this system, state them simply and professionally without all the sarcastic bullsh-t. Any company worth its salt would be happy to receive constructive criticism and feedback they could use to improve their product, but nobody appreciates being sarcastically trashed. I see from the comments that many people find this channel really valuable. Maybe it is, but I prefer dealing with people who are honest yet respectful.
I have a comment about your once illegal alien. It's not OK that he came here illegally and it's also totally not OK that he helps other people come here illegally! WTF man
I learned something today. Been off the farm for 60 years, but I know well about welded wire and low carbon wire. Wr used to have a tool to tighten low carbon fencing [had to do that every year or two. I don't recal having Hi-Tensil fencing back in those days.
Im no fence pro. But ill say that just packing the dirt, really well layer by layer, no mix nothing, holds up shockingly well. At least where im at. Its hard as hell, lotta work, but ive done it multiple times and theyre all still straight despite wild texas storms and droughts for years. I had just decided to try it one day and it worked so good i kept doing it. Hard work tho so idk if its worth it, but theres no movement so maybe.
FOAM : Don't use a backhoe. FOAM Can be removed by drilling holes down in foam with a large butterfly bit THEN apply Acetone. MELTS it and you don't need to do anything but clean up the goo!!
NOTE: When using the foam, remember your level so you don't have to run and get it while the foam is activating in bag. Takes it about 2 minutes before the bag explodes and blows foam all over yard. What a mess.
Where I lived most of my life the ground stays moist except one month or so in the summer. Packing the posts in the dirt that came out of the hole promotes rot where soil, air, and water meet. The last time I built a new fence on that lot, I used a form at the top and extended the footing about 4" above grade. That fence lasted 27 years before the footings or posts began to fail. I also built a tool shed with the posts in grade 42" with those giant 1/4"Ø nails hammered in all around, 8 to a post and poured in concrete using a grade beam about 6" above grade. In 2015 when the house was demolished, the GC told me the back hoe had to take several tries to pull that shed out of the ground. My friends used to say that was Fort Knox tool shed. I got tired of stuff rotting at grade. So it depends a lot on your soil conditions as to how you plant the posts. I'm 70 now and didn't want to haul those damned heavy bags around. I used Secure Foam that comes in bottles. It was a bit of a learning curve to not let the foam cure up before getting it poured into the hole. My only complaint about it is near the top it tends to pull away from the post; a place where dirt, water, and air can create rot. Great video!
Back in the 70's we carried these really long tamper poles with curved feet to tamp the dirt around the power pole. I think the handles were about 10-12 feet long. Then we had a hydraulic tamper that was controlled from the truck. Operating that thing was like riding a powered pogo stick with someone operating the switch 20 feet away. It provided many laughs for the old hands and a wild ride for the newby.
People try coating the post in creosote, wrapping it in a shrink sleeve, doming the concrete above ground to prevent water collection. Our go-to method is to simply never use wood. We've converted over to steel posts almost exclusively.
wet gear is way better.. Use a prop if you wanna. narrow holes are better. Can bitument paint the timber. String line for straight runs such as back garden. Tamping is good
Yup. They don't work great out here. Too many rocks. The big rocks stay in the shovel and everything else falls back into the hole. We'd get it done eventually but it'd take forever.
The foam calls for an 8" hole for a 4x4 post. 12" for a 6x6. It's a bit cheaper than you think per post. I had to replace a fence post at a gate opening because the old one was leaning bad. I used bracing because the rest of the fence was leaning a little bit, so it was fighting against me. I left the bracing on until the next day then cut the top hight. The job really came out nice. I like the foam and the customer was super happy.
Putting a post in concrete will cause it to rot out way faster than tamping it in the soil and wrapping a piece of plastic around the rich soil layer and tamping it in correctly.
Do you guys screw the side u channel for the panel slats I've had them leave spaces between the panel and the post so i solved it by screwing the channel to the face of the post
In places I've been, the issue is post rotting in the hole. I think with concrete it tends to rot at the line, with dirt everywhere. One good reason why gravel.
I replaced an existing fence simply by reusing the existing concrete inserts in the holes. If your concrete is in good shape, strongly consider this time-saving option, instead of starting from scratch (and then having to worry about disposing the old concrete).
