How to Build a Plastic Mesh Fence

Plastic mesh offers a homeowner or farmer a simple and flexible option for erecting a fence. If a barrier needs to be put up quickly, unrolling and fastening the plastic mesh is much faster than working with either wire mesh, barbed wire or fence planks. This makes plastic mesh a suitable material for a temporary fence, a stop-gap until the time becomes available for hanging wood rails or wire from the very same fence posts, or as a permanent, light-duty fence in and of itself.

You'll Need:
Measuring wheel
Plastic or pine stakes
Hammer
Mattock
Post hole digger
Eight-foot wood fence posts
Partner/Helper
Carpenter's level
Shovel
Iron tamping rod
Plastic fencing mesh
Staples

The Process
First, the fence line by walking down it with a measuring wheel, and drive plastic or pine stakes at intervals of eight feet to mark the fence post positions. Tie a line of twine between the terminal stakes at the ends of the fence line to provide a visual reference, and inspect placement of your stakes for straightness. Pull out and move any stakes that are not on a straight line.

Next, remove the stakes one at a time and dig cylindrical, 32-inch deep pits. Break up the ground with a mattock and scoop it out with a post hole digger. Then set the wood fence posts. Drop the first post into the hole and lay a carpenter's level on the side of the post, moving the post around until it is plumb (vertically level). While a partner holds the post, shovel several inches of earth back into the hole and compacting it with the iron tamping rod. Continue filling and compacting until the pit is filled with tightly compressed earth. Repeat this procedure for every post hole.

Unroll about a foot's worth of plastic fence mesh near one of the terminal posts and instruct your partner to hold the roll up. While your helper does that, fasten the mesh to the wood post by hammering in four staples at equidistant positions along the length of the post. Continue installing the mesh by unrolling it down the fence line.Unroll the mesh about a foot beyond each post, instruct your partner to pull on the mesh to tighten it, and then hammer in staples to secure the mesh to that post. Keep unrolling, stopping, pulling and stapling until the entire roll of mesh has been installed on the fence line.