Here's to privacy, well... six feet of it at least.
HOW TO INSTALL A PRIVACY FENCE YOURSELF
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Another person (preferably not a wimpy person)
Tools
Electric Drill and or Impact Driver
Concrete mixing paddle (assigning the mixing paddle its own drill is nice but not required)
Supplies
Masons Line (String) 3″ exterior wood screws attaching panels to posts 2″ screws or nails for attaching any pickets that may be loose Fence panels that cover your dimensions Wood Stain (optional) Bags of Quick setting concrete Water Gravel (optional)
2 pieces of 3' rebar
JUST A REMINDER: A permit may be required to build your fence. Do what you want with that information.
Step 1 : Deciding on your fence Determine where your fence will go. We ran ours right inside one of our property lines blocking our house from a dirt road. You'll want to find your property line markers to ensure you are correct in placement. We recently surveyed our property and staked our corners out at that time. There is an underground stake at each corner of our property which can be found with a metal detector (or you simply dig about 4 to 6 inches for it with a small garden shovel to find any corners you may need..
Step 2 : Pre-install preparations We are building our fence on virgin land off the grid with the understanding no utilities have been previously installed. If you have an existing on grid property you should CALL utility companies BEFORE DIGGING YOUR POST HOLES! This is an important step. Aside from being considered illegal to not have all of the utilities marked , skipping this step could be costly and even dangerous if you damage a gas line, water lines, or cables being cut. Utility companies will mark your water, sewer, gas line, cable, phone, fiber optics, electricity, and any other utilities you may have but hey won't pay for any damage you cause digging when it’s preventable. Call a week or two prior to starting your project so you aren’t delayed.
Step 3 : Installing the string guide
Measure the distance of your total fence using a long tape. We want 150 ft privacy fence going from a corner to another corner. We measured and installed rebar 6 inches inside of our corners understanding that the fence would be occupying approximately 5 inches of that space. We used these to create a line with a string which will ensure our fence posts are all in line with each other and on the property. Wood stakes got installed about every 8 feet to show where we’d dig the post holes. We did not dig all the holes at once, we dug holes as we went sometimes two at a time but we didn’t get too far ahead of ourselves.
Step 4 : Gather what you need Purchase the panels for your project and gather tools and materials. We are using 6 foot overlapping pressure treated fence panels but we also recommend cedar or Cyprus for their natural strength and pest resistance without all the chemicals.
Step 5 : Post & post hole Dig the first post hole (away from the utility marks). We are digging by hand but, if you are fancy or have tons of holes it may be sensible to rent or buy an auger. You'll find posts available in both 8 foot and 10 foot lengths. We used ten foot 4x4 pressure treated posts and buried them 3 1/2’ in the ground. You could always talk to a local contractor to see how deep they'd recommend digging fence posts in your area. Frost levels and soil type can make a difference. Using a line level make sure your string is level across your corners. The first post should be right off your corner nearly but not quite making contact with the string you laid out. The string will remain in place running along the inside of the forming fence.You will have to use a line level randomly to check along the way keeping you on track.
You can put gravel in the bottom of each hole if you want to help water to drain away and prolong the posts life especially if your area has soil that doesn’t drain well. We have very sandy soil so drainage isn’t an issue and we skipped this step. Once your hole in at the depth you want it put your post in followed by quick setting concrete around the post. We mixed it in 5 gallon buckets and an electric drill with an egg beater paddle we grabbed at Lowes. Pour the concrete into each hole. We used around 1 - 1 1/2 bags per hole at 3 1/2 feet but the bag has a chart to help you determine how much you’ll need. We recommend using concrete in all the end and gate posts at the very minimum but we used concrete in every single post. A mixture of sand and gravel is another good solution for center posts as it packs very tightly and does not eat away at the cedar. Once a post is placed, make sure it is level vertically with a 4 foot level and in line also with the string used to mark the fence line (not touching!) that ensures the row is straight. This first post will get completely covered by the first panel but the rest of the posts will hold a fence panel on if each side of the post butting them up directly in the middle of all other posts. We assembled the first two posts and installed the panel before pouring the concrete but after that the concrete was the last thing we did on any particular post so it would be undisturbed as we moved on.
Step 6 : Installing panels
Lay the panels out for each section. We worked a panel or two in advance but didn’t lay them all out at once (our project took 4 weekends to finish) . Your first panel is important to get right or your entire fence could be out of whack. We used scrap pieces of 2 x 4 to hoist the panels up on to while we manipulated them into position then when we got it into position used the 3" exterior screws and screwed one side into place. Following the grade of the land and our string we leveled the panel and screwed in the other end so that it covers precisely half of the fence post it lands on (leaving other half for next panel. We installed braces along the way so nothing got shifted and we poured the concrete moving on to the next two posts and panel.
