Is it worth doing myself? I’m looking at anywhere from 700’ to 930’, depending on how I end up laying it out. Plan to do 4’ high, 1 walk through gate, 1 drive through gate. Probably about $2k in materials from Lowes or Home Depot.
How long might this take 2-3 guys? Is it a real PITA?
I’ve got quotes for $6300 material + installation and buy my own material and ~$2/ft installed.
Chainlink is easy compared to a wood fence. The PITA part is digging the fence posts every 10’. Once the holes are dug, and posts in place, you can hang that much chain link in about a day.
I did ~700’ of combo chain-link and wood fence and it took 3 of us about 3 long weekends to do it. 63 fence posts, 23 of them wood, the rest for the chain link. And this was using a Kabota tractor with a post hole digger; we had issues with about 10 holes that took us prob a solid 2 days to deal with just those 10 holes.
Total cost not including the tractor was about $3k from Lowes; with a 10% discount because I bought it at the contractors desk all in one shot.
Luke_L and my dad were the other two that helped out; with my GF helping sometimes.
If you’re using a 2-man post hole digger and you have good soil to dig through with not a lot of rocks or heavy clay; you’re probably talking 2-3 long weekends with 2-3 guys. Personally, I wouldn’t do it without the tractor, but I got jaded with that thing.
My Uncle has a small business out of Webster doing this sort of work. He has a Caterpillar (with tracks) and I am pretty sure he has a post hole attachment for it. I know he has done a bunch of chain link fence installs before so at the least he could give you some pointers and what not if you decide to rent a hole digger.
Is digging and cementing every post necessary? My father did his yard and didn’t cement a single post and it lasted the 16 years we lived in that house.
Depends on what the fence is for. Keeping your dog from leaving your property…invisible fence FTW.
Keeping people off your pristine green grass like an elderly gent would require a true fence.
My only concern is our pretty hard soil and how much you’re going to damage the tops of your posts getting them driven in, especially when you run into the inevitable rock or tree root. I have little doubt that a post driven in clean a couple of feet into undisturbed soil is going to be secure. I had a single post that I drove in as part of the support for that giant play yard I installed and I mangled the shit out of the post top getting it driven in about 1.5 feet. And that post was your typical chain link fence style.
If it was me I’d probably just rent a 2 man post hole digger and then go this route for any non-critical post:
Cement for corners and gates. By the time you deal with all the issues with driving them I doubt you’re going to save much time, money or effort.
I wish I’d kept my Uncles old posts. “They don’t make shit like they used to” indeed. I’m sure you’re right Jay, the posts today would probably just bend and get mangled.
It didn’t bend, the top just mushroomed a bit. I tried putting a piece of wood on top but that absorbed too much of the impact to drive the post. I probably hit one of the 1000’s of roots in my yard.
You can also rent a towable gas powered auger for about $70/day. It works great in normal soil. I would use cement in every post. You can also buy a chain link stretcher at HD or Lowes and then just return it when you’re done.
700’-930’, I truly feel for you. I did a cedar picket fence at my house and it was a decent amount of work, but, the results were WELL worth the effort put in. I would cement every post if I were you. I am still fucking baffled at those numbers, thats a shit ton of posts.
With the exception of the holes that could not be dug with the auger the entire process was fairly easy. I would not pay someone to do it unless you are the “my time is worth more than…blah-blah-blah…”
For the holes that had to be dug by hand…we had to break concrete, blacktop, and dig up some thick roots. It just took time and a BFH, BFB, and BFPA.
Dug and cemented the corner, end, and fence posts this weekend. Drove in another 50 line posts as well. Probably another 15-20 posts to go and I can start putting the top rail on and wait on the fabric to arrive. Should be done this week!