When it was all said and done – I felt a sense of satisfaction

My last three entries on the subject of constructing concrete fence posts has attempted to answer the question of why building your own concrete posts is a good idea.  I had walked interested folks through the how to’s of constructing posts that will last forever, and  gave pointers on building both braced corner posts and gate entree posts. Actually, there is not much left to say with the exception of some general thoughts concerning the fence line insolation process.  So here are a few closing pointers for folks who might even consider such a work intensive undertaking.

First, I would suggest placing your post at ten foot intervals. Because concrete posts have both strength and substance, I believe that  foot spacing is very adequate for a mess wire type fence. My great-grandfathers posts, as I mentioned in my first entry, (see entry #215) were spaced at fifteen foot intervals with spacer wires in-between. He was using them for a four strand barbwire fence.

Second, Concrete posts are very heavy. I never weighed one, but they must weigh at least a 100 to 150 pounds apiece. Thus, if you bury them two feet deep there is a lot of weight above the ground. That means that they need to be set ether in really solid soil or in a concrete post mix. I did both. I set all corner posts along with their bracing in concrete mix plus several line posts if the run was more than fifty feet between corners.

The third thing was setting my posts not only in a straight line by using a long snap line, but making sure they were perfectly straight up and down by using a long level.  Because concrete posts are so visible due to their size, if one is out of line it sticks out like a sore thumb. Many times I was tempted to say “good enough” to a post that was off an inch, but later was glad when I went the extra mile to re-dig a hole or reset a post when I didn’t really feel like it.

Once the posts were set in place, stretching the wire mess went pretty easy with strong corners to stretch to and plenty of wire eyes to hook the wire too. After all was said and done after a long summer of hard work I sat back feeling a deep sense of satisfaction for what I considered a job well done.