How to Install Fence Posts

There is a difference between thinking about the ease of building a fence and actually executing it with ease. Often the hardest part of a project is planning it out and beginning the actual work. Once you know where your fence is going to go the next step is laying the foundation of the fence and that is your posts. Committing to putting posts in the ground is the fist step to completing your fence project. Here is a quick guide to laying your posts and getting started with your fence project.

A normal "every day" fence will have 4x4 posts, but any size can be used. The first rule of thumb is that a posthole should be about 4 inches wider than the post itself. If there is no frost where you are building a fence you need to dig holes so that one half the exposed height of the post is below ground. In areas where there is frost you need to be at least 6 inches below the frost line. The best way to dig your holes is with a gas powered auger. You can dig them by hand but this can be very time consuming, not to mention extremely hard on the body. You can usually rent an auger at a local rental shop for about $30 for a few hours; trust me it's worth the cost.

When digging your holes you should consider a few inches extra for putting in a gravel base. Putting gravel in the bottom of your hole will create a drainage system under your post. I have never done this and never had a problem it is recommended by any commercial fence builder. Once you have your holes dug you want to start mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow or bucket. Put your first post in and start shoveling in the concrete, at this point don't worry too much about level or square. You can either fill your hole all the way with concrete or you can fill 6 inches and then fill the rest with the dirt dug out of the hole. It can save you some money if you use only 6 inches of concrete in each hole. Once you have put your concrete in then level and square your post, the concrete will take a bit to dry so moving the post around in the concrete while it's still wet is not hard.

Once you have your first post in move to the next corner post and stretch a line from the first to the second, this will make sure you have a straight line. Once you have all your corner posts in you can start installing your line posts or "in-between" posts. By doing it this way you won't get a curvy fence, it will be straight and it will look nice.

Once you have all your posts in you can go back and cut them to length and prepare them for the fencing itself. Once you have your posts in the rest is easy sailing. You will want to wait at least 12 hours, or overnight, until you start banging on the posts. If you start too soon you could whack the posts out of level and at this point it is very hard to get them back to level. Well, you are ready to start your fence, and it is easy knowing that the hard part is behind you.