I have been in property management for about 20 years. I get a different look at property improvement because what I do to my properties I get to see 20 years later. I have put many fences up on my properties over the years; when I was just learning, I put fences up with concrete and have since had to do repairs and even replace them. If your fence is wood one thing is certain: it will eventually rot and need repairs or to be replaced. Also it could be damaged by trees falling strong winds or even cars crashing into your fence.
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If you use concrete it's still the dirt around the concrete that supports the fence; you have just added 30 pounds of concrete to the bottom of it. If your soil has good percolation and water can settle away quickly (as I do where I am in Wisconsin) I prefer to use sand most of the way up and bout 4 - 6 inches of dirt on top of the sand. I do find that my fences are a slight bit more wobbly for the first year or so but have also found that the fences I put in this way last a bit longer. Then when the time comes to repair or replace the fence you can pull the fence post with a chain and an off-road farm jack. In one instance I had to replace the concrete side walk in my yard I was able to remove two fence panels and jack out the post in between in 10 minutes and let the cement truck into my back yard and then replacing the fence post was just as easy.
If you have soil that does not percolate well like clay, you are better off doing concrete. If you use a material like gravel, sand, or dirt to fill the hole in, every time it rains, water will run into your holes, fill in the voids of your material, stand in there, and accelerate rot.
The change in the way I do my fences was actually taught to me by Norm from This Old House and I would never use concrete again unless the soil required it.
Rural fencing is tough, durable and has many different uses – whether it be fencing paddocks for animal control, creating a perimeter for your land, or even just a boundary for your veggie patch.
Installing a rural fence doesn’t need to be difficult – but you do need to be diligent in planning it out and undertaking the works.
Once you’ve designed the layout of your fence on paper, you need to determine how much of each type of material you will need to construct the fence.
One of the key components of your rural fence will be star pickets – they’re available in a wide range of sizes as well as a hi-vis version, and are built to withstand harsh conditions.
Some of these will be strainer posts, and you’ll also need strainer post stays, a post driver and galvanised tie wire.
The following steps outline basic instructions on how to build a star picket fence.
Once you’ve planned out where your fence will go, you’ll need to prepare the area. Clear long grass, sticks and branches, and consider the location of nearby waterways, contours of the land and the soil type.
These posts are the backbone of your fence and will take the load of the tensioned wire – if they fail, then your whole fence will follow. Make sure you’re setting them in deep enough so your posts won’t pull out under pressure; the deeper they are set in, the greater their load capacity.
You can drive the post in using a heavy-duty post driver, or by digging a hole and backfilling it.
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Once the strainer posts are in the ground, you can install the stays – remember, when it comes to stay lengths, they should generally be at least 2.5 times the height of your fence.
Strain a wire close to the ground between your strainer posts – this will be your guide. Lay out your star pickets at even spaces, and make sure it’s straight!
A good rule of thumb for spacing is your pickets is about one every four meters – anything more than five meters will make for a weak fence that is difficult to tension.
Now that your star pickets are laid out in the right place, it’s time to drive them into the ground.
Use a post driver to take the hard work out of installing the star pickets – when the picket is positioned, place the driver over the top and use downward pressure to drive the post into the ground.
Your star pickets should be 600mm deep into the ground, so make sure when planning your fence, you account for this with the height of your star pickets.
If you accidentally drive your star pickets into the wrong spot, a star picket remover will make the removal process a lot easier than if you try to pull it out by hand.
Attach one end of your wire to your strainer post, then run it through your star pickets to the strainer at the other end. Using a wire strainer will make this an easier process and will assist with making sure your wires are appropriately tensioned.
Make sure you over-tension the wire slightly, as you will lose some tension when tying off. You can tie off using a gripple or twisting tool, or if you’re confident you can tie off with a figure-eight knot or a slip knot.
Your final step is to attach the wires to the star pickets and strainer posts. This helps keep the wire secure. Run one wire under the line wire and the other over the line wire to keep it in place, or simply use a fence post clip. And there you have it, your star picket fence is complete!
TTFS has a range of star pickets for sale along with other fencing accessories. We have built a solid reputation for always providing a high-quality product, backed up by competitive pricing, fantastic customer service and product guarantees.
With depots in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, we can deliver Australia-wide within 24 hours direct from our factory. For any enquiries, contact the TTFS team by sending an enquiry, emailing [email protected] or calling 1300 119 998
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Metal Star Pickets. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.