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I've got a neighbor who had some fence built by a guy he hired. Neither the neighbor or the guy he hired know much about building fence. He bought 6' posts (pull posts and line posts), but none of them are much more than 2' in the ground.

And then there's the time about 25 years ago when I was driving down the road where a large tract of land had recently been broken up into smaller tracts. One of them had a brand new fence around it. Whoever built it had used cables and turnbuckles and all kinds of fancy hardware for the bracing instead of just two thicknesses of wire. That would have been great . . . if they hadn't put all that big hardware on 4x4 posts.
 
I've got a neighbor who had some fence built by a guy he hired. Neither the neighbor or the guy he hired know much about building fence. He bought 6' posts (pull posts and line posts), but none of them are much more than 2' in the ground.

And then there's the time about 25 years ago when I was driving down the road where a large tract of land had recently been broken up into smaller tracts. One of them had a brand new fence around it. Whoever built it had used cables and turnbuckles and all kinds of fancy hardware for the bracing instead of just two thicknesses of wire. That would have been great . . . if they hadn't put all that big hardware on 4x4 posts.
Ah geez.
 
What is a proper depth?
Deep enough is the proper depth.
It can vary depending on conditions.
Not just what state your in. It can vary on a single stretch of fence. If I'm drilling into solid bedrock with a rock drill 2' might be proper. If I'm in the black land clay it might be 8' deep.
One thing for sure if someone is drilling with a regular 3 point auger until they hit rock and stoping ( like this brace was done) it's not proper.
 
I've got a neighbor who had some fence built by a guy he hired. Neither the neighbor or the guy he hired know much about building fence. He bought 6' posts (pull posts and line posts), but none of them are much more than 2' in the ground.

And then there's the time about 25 years ago when I was driving down the road where a large tract of land had recently been broken up into smaller tracts. One of them had a brand new fence around it. Whoever built it had used cables and turnbuckles and all kinds of fancy hardware for the bracing instead of just two thicknesses of wire. That would have been great . . . if they hadn't put all that big hardware on 4x4 posts.

I made a mistake there. He bought 8' posts and buried them 2' deep. He had two feet of post above the top wire.
 
Deep enough is the proper depth.
It can vary depending on conditions.
Not just what state your in. It can vary on a single stretch of fence. If I'm drilling into solid bedrock with a rock drill 2' might be proper. If I'm in the black land clay it might be 8' deep.
One thing for sure if someone is drilling with a regular 3 point auger until they hit rock and stoping ( like this brace was done) it's not proper.
You're from down that way, maybe you can answer something for me. I have some relatives down there who keep some critters. Nothing crazy, just a good little hobby farm. They said they had a corner post that wouldn't stop getting pulled. I think they said it was an 8-9ish footer, maybe 10. I said, hell, pull it up and then put it back 4-5 feet deep. They said that wouldn't help, they'd tried it. I said, hell, maybe concrete? They said somebody told them that wouldn't help.

Is it the soil type down y'alls way or something? Everywhere I've been out there, the ground is harder than Chinese trigonometry, can't imagine sinking a post that deep wouldn't keep it in place. Then again, maybe I forgot to ask if they braced it.
 
Deep enough is the proper depth.
It can vary depending on conditions.
Not just what state your in. It can vary on a single stretch of fence. If I'm drilling into solid bedrock with a rock drill 2' might be proper. If I'm in the black land clay it might be 8' deep.
One thing for sure if someone is drilling with a regular 3 point auger until they hit rock and stoping ( like this brace was done) it's not proper.
Wow... eight feet in some spots? That's not just deep, it's damn deep. Hope you don't see that very often.

How was it determined that the corner brace wasn't deep enough? Was the fence getting loose as the brace was pulling up and out of the soil?
 
You're from down that way, maybe you can answer something for me. I have some relatives down there who keep some critters. Nothing crazy, just a good little hobby farm. They said they had a corner post that wouldn't stop getting pulled. I think they said it was an 8-9ish footer, maybe 10. I said, hell, pull it up and then put it back 4-5 feet deep. They said that wouldn't help, they'd tried it. I said, hell, maybe concrete? They said somebody told them that wouldn't help.

Is it the soil type down y'alls way or something? Everywhere I've been out there, the ground is harder than Chinese trigonometry, can't imagine sinking a post that deep wouldn't keep it in place. Then again, maybe I forgot to ask if they braced it.
Out my back door is good deep soil. Old farm ground deep black clay.
Walk out my front door a few hundred yards and it's solid bedrock right on top of the ground. In the deep black dirt we go around 5' on the 2 h post and 7-8 ' deep on the Deadman. Don't use concrete. Everything is driven.
 
Wow... eight feet in some spots? That's not just deep, it's damn deep. Hope you don't see that very often.

How was it determined that the corner brace wasn't deep enough? Was the fence getting loose as the brace was pulling up and out of the soil?
It's typically easier to go 8' where it's needed than to go 2' where that's good enough.
 
Out my back door is good deep soil. Old farm ground deep black clay.
Walk out my front door a few hundred yards and it's solid bedrock right on top of the ground. In the deep black dirt we go around 5' on the 2 h post and 7-8 ' deep on the Deadman. Don't use concrete. Everything is driven.
If you gave me anything to tell them, what would it be?
 
I've had to tie heavy boulders to posts to get them to hold, especially in low spots. But I'm no expert. I'm sure Fence has a better solution.
I'm sorry, but there's something very comical about the idea of you cussing and using a tractor bucket or maybe even shoulder power to muscle a big azz rock into place, finally getting done and being like "To hell with it. That'll hold, I think"
 
If you gave me anything to tell them, what would it be?
Well you mentioned copperas cove in another conversation. The shell (not shale) but shell rock and yellow clay in that area is about as good at holding post as there is and not to bad to work in. Maybe they're somewhere else "down this way". Either they are not going deep enough or the brace is poorly designed. Or narrow the location down as much as you feel comfortable and I'll recommend someone if possible.
 
I'm sorry, but there's something very comical about the idea of you cussing and using a tractor bucket or maybe even shoulder power to muscle a big azz rock into place, finally getting done and being like "To hell with it. That'll hold, I think"
I've got some rock deadmans on my place. Not put there by me but my grandfather, great uncle's or great grandfather.
 
Well you mentioned copperas cove in another conversation. The shell (not shale) but shell rock and yellow clay in that area is about as good at holding post as there is and not to bad to work in. Maybe they're somewhere else "down this way". Either they are not going deep enough or the brace is poorly designed. Or narrow the location down as much as you feel comfortable and I'll recommend someone if possible.
Only one thing though. Would be go deeper. You can change lots of things about a brace but you can't get away with not going deep enough.
 
Well you mentioned copperas cove in another conversation. The shell (not shale) but shell rock and yellow clay in that area is about as good at holding post as there is and not to bad to work in. Maybe they're somewhere else "down this way". Either they are not going deep enough or the brace is poorly designed. Or narrow the location down as much as you feel comfortable and I'll recommend someone if possible.
Closer to Austin.
 

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