my fence project, or why fence guys charge a lot.

[David Gretzmier]

mentioned that we had been buiding a fence for the front of my shop on another thread, and as I am in the holiday mood I'd thought I'd share some thoughts and photos. I also will try to update my shop thread with a photo or two as we continue to improve and finish that as well.

This first photo shows us setting the 8"x8"x10' rough cut posts we got from the sawmill. this is white oak, which tends to be fairly weather resistant, and we coated the bottom 2 feet that went underground in cement with a paintable waterproofing tar that is used on foundations. we used a 13 horse post hole digger with a 12 inch auger bit. even though we used string lines and tried very hard to set a straight line, we still ended up being off a couple of inches. just hitting a root or rock can throw the bit off. a 16 or 20 inch bit would have allowed us to have a comletely straight line and although that would have doubled the number of bags of concrete.

costs- we set 13 posts that cost 27 bucks each ( 50 cents a board foot )=351
rental of post hole digger and bit 138 bucks
26, 80 pound bags of quickcrete, at 3.50 each 91 bucks
labor to clear tree limbs out of way, dig holes, deliver all wood ( not just posts) and set/brace posts- 260
total so far=$840