The fence posts are all set!
That said, I owe many people a significant debt of gratitude. First and foremost Chris Broussard. He and I both completely physically exhausted ourselves yesterday. By this I mean we both collapsed. The most exhausted I have ever been. I got light-headed an hour and a half before we stopped. Then we both got up and started again today. Thank you Chris. I won't give you my first-born daughter, but I owe you something big. In a close second: Mark (my fencing sub-contractor from work) Will, Paul, Michael and Dustin. Everyone was a huge help. Y'all are awesome for showing up and for not hating me at the end of the day. I owe y'all as well. Oh yeah, and Frankie. Thanks for dropping by ;)
I set up this blog for two purposes: the first is that it is a way to keep all of our family and friends (that we may not talk to as regularly as we should) up to date on what is going on; secondly (as it was so delicately pointed out today) so that others can learn from our experiences. I have a pretty decent "nugget of wisdom" to drop on y'all here. Part of it is things I did right, and part of it isn't. If you never plan on building or having a fence built, ignore the next part.
1. This is key - If you have a significant number of trees in your yard and are building a fence over 150' HIRE SOMEONE. I knew this would be a good deal of work, but I would not have believed how much work it would be if I hadn't been there.
2. Rent an auger. Unless you are setting four or less posts, spend the money and rent an auger. This will make the job was easier. If you think the job won't be that bad, see #1.
3. It is advisable to have a professional or experienced amateur on hand. I thought I knew all that I needed to know (I've been picking my Mark's brain for weeks), but I didn't.
4. Have a reciprocating saw on hand. When you find a significant root, you'll understand.
5. When asked where you want the gate to go, don't say "ask the wife." You will end up with a double gate large enough to fit a semi-through (almost).
6. We hit a root larger than 8" across more than a foot in the ground. We dug out barbed wire a foot underground. We ran into concrete. We had to cut down a couple of small trees (up to 5" in diameter.) You will be amazed at what you find and the extra work that crops up.
7. This seems really obvious, I know, but it bears noting: 80 lbs sacks of concrete are heavy. The first one may not be that bad. The 5th one sucks. It gets worse from there.
8. Shop around for prices. Call the lumber yard 20 miles away. If they have the best price, they may deliver for free. If they don't deliver for free, Lowe's will probably price match if they can verify it. I shit you not, one Lowes (out of 3 in BR) has fence pickets for 30 cents less than the others. No 30 cents doesn't seems like much. Multiply it by 500. That's not just pocket change.
9. Home Depot sucks (don't ask).
10. You can't have too many friends. You know they are friends if they know that you are calling to ask you to help set posts and they still answer.
That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll post it. I thought it was a bit amusing that my neighbor walks over today as we are setting the last half dozen posts to tell us that we are welcome to tie into his fence. I didn't want to because it is only 4 feet high, but I thought it was kind of funny. Jenny has been taking pictures and I will upload them at some point. I believe that's all for now. I will update when we finish the fence, but that may be a couple of weeks.
That said, I owe many people a significant debt of gratitude. First and foremost Chris Broussard. He and I both completely physically exhausted ourselves yesterday. By this I mean we both collapsed. The most exhausted I have ever been. I got light-headed an hour and a half before we stopped. Then we both got up and started again today. Thank you Chris. I won't give you my first-born daughter, but I owe you something big. In a close second: Mark (my fencing sub-contractor from work) Will, Paul, Michael and Dustin. Everyone was a huge help. Y'all are awesome for showing up and for not hating me at the end of the day. I owe y'all as well. Oh yeah, and Frankie. Thanks for dropping by ;)
I set up this blog for two purposes: the first is that it is a way to keep all of our family and friends (that we may not talk to as regularly as we should) up to date on what is going on; secondly (as it was so delicately pointed out today) so that others can learn from our experiences. I have a pretty decent "nugget of wisdom" to drop on y'all here. Part of it is things I did right, and part of it isn't. If you never plan on building or having a fence built, ignore the next part.
1. This is key - If you have a significant number of trees in your yard and are building a fence over 150' HIRE SOMEONE. I knew this would be a good deal of work, but I would not have believed how much work it would be if I hadn't been there.
2. Rent an auger. Unless you are setting four or less posts, spend the money and rent an auger. This will make the job was easier. If you think the job won't be that bad, see #1.
3. It is advisable to have a professional or experienced amateur on hand. I thought I knew all that I needed to know (I've been picking my Mark's brain for weeks), but I didn't.
4. Have a reciprocating saw on hand. When you find a significant root, you'll understand.
5. When asked where you want the gate to go, don't say "ask the wife." You will end up with a double gate large enough to fit a semi-through (almost).
6. We hit a root larger than 8" across more than a foot in the ground. We dug out barbed wire a foot underground. We ran into concrete. We had to cut down a couple of small trees (up to 5" in diameter.) You will be amazed at what you find and the extra work that crops up.
7. This seems really obvious, I know, but it bears noting: 80 lbs sacks of concrete are heavy. The first one may not be that bad. The 5th one sucks. It gets worse from there.
8. Shop around for prices. Call the lumber yard 20 miles away. If they have the best price, they may deliver for free. If they don't deliver for free, Lowe's will probably price match if they can verify it. I shit you not, one Lowes (out of 3 in BR) has fence pickets for 30 cents less than the others. No 30 cents doesn't seems like much. Multiply it by 500. That's not just pocket change.
9. Home Depot sucks (don't ask).
10. You can't have too many friends. You know they are friends if they know that you are calling to ask you to help set posts and they still answer.
That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll post it. I thought it was a bit amusing that my neighbor walks over today as we are setting the last half dozen posts to tell us that we are welcome to tie into his fence. I didn't want to because it is only 4 feet high, but I thought it was kind of funny. Jenny has been taking pictures and I will upload them at some point. I believe that's all for now. I will update when we finish the fence, but that may be a couple of weeks.
4 comments:
What makes you think we don't hate you?
A lack of hate mail/voicemail. :)
This is why we decided NOT to do our own fencing. We also didn't have that much fencing to get put up, and the contractor who was putting a drainage system in our backyard did it. It wasn't terribly cheap, nor was it back-breaking.
I'm impressed.
Claire
From the safe vantage point of a couple weeks away, the post setting was a lot of work, but not out of reach. My observations:
Six or eight people definitely help.
Plan for two or more days on the post-setting.
Set a tempo and kind of get an assembly line thing going. It keeps the process going. It's easy to stop for half an hour when everyone completes a task at the same time. Dividing duties (two on augur, two setting posts, one carrying supplies and one doing the clean up digging after the augur) and having a rotation makes it less likely that the half hour break comes after every post.
Sharpen the augur.
Have watermelon. Buxom ladies in colorful aprons delivering it is a joyous plus.
Don't build a fence in July or August. March, April, October and November are much more suitable months, at least in south Louisana.
But, knowing what I know now, I'd still do it again... just better. Which, I suppose is kind of the whole point of doing it in the first place (well, aside from the whole "having a fence" part).
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