Good advice all around, thanks guys!
While we're solving my backyard's ills, what should we do with that little scrubby tree by the house? It's a cherry laurel.
I hate to get rid of a tree, but it's right where we want to pour a deck, and it doesn't seem worth it/possible to move it?
I'm going to have to follow this one (or make another thread soon) because my wife informed me that she wants to put up a "cattle fence" in our backyard so we can let the doggos do their thing without them going on unwanted and unscheduled adventures. That type of fencing is relatively affordable, but I'm not exactly sure how we're going to tackle certain things, like making a gate to allow vehicles to get into the backyard and a few other things. Should be fun.
I'm up for a fence party. As far as protecting your post, I recently pulled up some 4x4 fence post that had been in the ground for 15 years set in dirt only. One they were still in place well and two they had no rot.
Katie Wilson said:Good advice all around, thanks guys!
While we're solving my backyard's ills, what should we do with that little scrubby tree by the house? It's a cherry laurel.
I hate to get rid of a tree, but it's right where we want to pour a deck, and it doesn't seem worth it/possible to move it?
My only advice would be to call a licensed arborist and ask what it would cost to move the tree. It will not be cheap, but if you can save it, it might be worth the cost.
We've had to have a few trees removed since we bought our house almost 8 years ago. 3 Bradford Pears in the front yard (disgusting, smelly weak trees that don't stand up to the wind in our neck of the woods) and two in the backyard.
We have another in the front that needs to come down after getting wrecked in an ice storm a couple of years ago. But it's still producing leaves and such, but it doesn't look good.
Make sure you get one of these squares.
Do it yourself. It will take longer, but fence contractors around here have gone insane in the last few years. Get a LOT of leveling/alignment tools. Redundancy in that department is your friend. Build the whole thing out with string at a couple different levels and use that as your index. Use each fence panel to space out your posts—don't rely on a tape measure for that as occasionally the panels can be slightly off on their size. Take your time and be cool with it taking a few weekends if it needs to. The time you spend doing extra measuring, leveling and layout will be worth it,
Stampie said:I'm up for a fence party. As far as protecting your post, I recently pulled up some 4x4 fence post that had been in the ground for 15 years set in dirt only. One they were still in place well and two they had no rot.
I set a few fence posts using gravel and dirt. Gravel to encourage drainage and dirt to pack in tightly. It worked really well. My understanding is that compared to setting it in concrete the posts last way longer and - assuming you've got plenty of the post in the ground - if the wind blows hard enough to yank it out it would probably have broken it off at concrete. I must confess my fence is a garden fence with narrow cedar slats; I have no idea how it would hold up to privacy panels.
In reply to dculberson :
I didn't do gravel but the sand down here drains real well. IIRC I put about 3 feet down in the hole.
dculberson said:Stampie said:I'm up for a fence party. As far as protecting your post, I recently pulled up some 4x4 fence post that had been in the ground for 15 years set in dirt only. One they were still in place well and two they had no rot.
I set a few fence posts using gravel and dirt. Gravel to encourage drainage and dirt to pack in tightly. It worked really well. My understanding is that compared to setting it in concrete the posts last way longer and - assuming you've got plenty of the post in the ground - if the wind blows hard enough to yank it out it would probably have broken it off at concrete. I must confess my fence is a garden fence with narrow cedar slats; I have no idea how it would hold up to privacy panels.
It takes hurricane force winds to pull/break a 4x4 out of the ground set in concrete. It took 80mph straight line winds, on a 20-year old privacy fence, to buckle the pickets between the posts. The posts were still good. Since my back has been giving me problems, I paid for all the material for my neighbor and his brother to rebuild 70' of fence that got wrecked by the storm.
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