Fence Builder

Most fence crews run a pneumatic stapler or a nail gun down the pickets. It is fast, and on day one you cannot tell the difference.

Cedar moves. It takes on water through a wet winter, gives it back through a dry August, and does that every year for as long as the fence stands. A staple or a smooth nail has nothing to hold onto through that cycle. It backs out a little at a time until the picket is loose and the fence starts to rattle in the wind.

A screw threads into the wood and holds through the movement. It costs more in labor and it is the reason my fences are still tight when the stapled one down the road is not.

There is a shortcut that has become standard on fence jobs: drop the dry bag in the hole, pour water on top, walk away. It is fast and the top of the hole looks like concrete by the time anybody checks it.

Water does not get all the way through a bag by gravity. What you end up with is cured concrete at the top, damp powder in the middle, and dry bag at the bottom of the hole. The bottom is the part of the footing that actually holds the post against wind, and on a dry-poured hole it never became concrete at all.

I mix the bags in a wheelbarrow with a hoe and pour the footing in wet. It takes longer and the whole hole ends up being concrete, which is the only version that does the job it was dug for.

How deep a post goes is not a number off a chart. It depends on what is under your yard, and around here that changes a lot in a short drive.

In Kalama you are lucky to dig at all in places. Hit rock at a foot and a half and the answer is not to force the chart number, it is to work with what the site gives you. Down on the river bottom in Woodland or out toward Cathlamet you have the opposite problem: soft, saturated ground that holds a post less well at the same depth, so it wants more.

A contractor who quotes you a depth before walking the line has not dug in your yard. I would rather look at it first and tell you what it takes.