Your Professional Fence Checklist
Fences, what use to be just a means of separation, are now a critical structure in the safety, privacy, protection, and face value of your home. Whether it’s new construction or a full demo and re-build, we are building professional fences. But what does that mean? What makes a DIY fence any different from fence the big company installs? Well, here’s your answer!
Have you ever built a fence? For most people the answer is no, but come on, “it’s just a fence, right?” While I applaud all the brave home owners taking on the task, there’s more to a fence than you might think. Let’s dive in!
Holes. THE MOST CRUCIAL PART OF YOUR FENCE. the rule of thumb is 2x the frost line. Here in southwest Missouri, we dig 20 inch holes minimum. We also shape our holes wider at the bottom than the top, this helps prevent what we call freeze squeeze, where the ground freezing will actually push your concrete out of the ground… Like a pimple.
Concrete. Use plenty of concrete! There’s an ongoing debate about weather concrete or just dirt is better, it has to do with moister lock and rotting posts. At lineage we use 80lbs of dry packed concrete in each hole, ensuring that the fence isn’t going anywhere. furthermore the very bottom of our post IS NOT covered in concrete. This allows rain water to flow through the post, preventing moister lock and prolonging the life of your fence.
Rails. Once you have you posts in the ground, you need something to nails your pickets to. To many times we have seen contractors WHO KNOW BETTER (talking about big name fence contractors in sw Missouri) use 8ft rails. At Lineage we use 16ft rails, tying more of your fence together, AND we stagger our joints in our rails, tying you ENTIRE fence together. Is it harder and less convenient? Yes absolutely, but at the end of the day, we want your fence to last a long time. We do it right.
Next you just slap pickets on, right? Wrong. We won’t nerd out on you now, but just know there’s a lot that goes into nailing on pickets! Nail patterns, height, width, spacing, plumming, all of it! There’s lots of tutorials out there on putting on pickets. If you do decide to tackle it yourself, do your research and don’t overlook this step.
Gates… The reason fencers are still in business. Gates are normally the first section of your fence to collapse. Bad gates are as annoying as sand in your crack. If you do build your own fence, at least let your local fence pro build your gates, and if it’s “too small a job” for them, then call me!
This is just scratching the surface but hopefully you now have a better idea of what goes into a fence. Now you just need to decide, can you handle it, or should you let us handle it? We’d be more than happy to help!
