Fencing tips and tricks
- Thread starter Moonface
- Start date
JohnGalway
Member
- Location
- Connemara, Ireland
The biggest problem is lack of depth to drive the stakes.
Thick Farmer
Member
- Location
- West Wales
JCB with pecker is handy if trying to fence on solid rock. Peck the hole and tap the post into it.
Braces for the strainers should be about knee high as already said, and they should be eight foot long to get the angle correct.
Mortice a hole in the strainer with a chainsaw, and shape the end to fit. Then Mel in a stab at the buried end of the brace, at least two feet deep. This will tighten the brace into the strainer.
Tighten high tensile net with proper pullers and clamp. Walk the length of the net giving it a shake, then tighten it some more. Then tighten it some more... And some more.
Cut two marks on the handle of your hammer to make a guide for the height of the top wire and the net. If they're stapled uneven on the stabs it looks terrible.
Pull mild steel barb real tight, then walk to the middle. Using your claw hammer, pull the barb away, and keep walking and pulling to stretch it. Now go tighten it and repeat.
If the ground isn't perfectly level (and none of my farm is, all 1600 acres), the low points in the hollows will need a tie down, or the net tension will lift the stabs out. At the lowest stab, drive one in at 45 degrees at its base. Join the two together with plain wire, and chainsaw off the bit above ground of the angled one.
An even height fence that follows the contours of the ground looks lovely, but if it's not tight it's not going to last. Materials for a net fence are about £2/m so do the job right!
Mortice a hole in the strainer with a chainsaw, and shape the end to fit. Then Mel in a stab at the buried end of the brace, at least two feet deep. This will tighten the brace into the strainer.
Tighten high tensile net with proper pullers and clamp. Walk the length of the net giving it a shake, then tighten it some more. Then tighten it some more... And some more.
Cut two marks on the handle of your hammer to make a guide for the height of the top wire and the net. If they're stapled uneven on the stabs it looks terrible.
Pull mild steel barb real tight, then walk to the middle. Using your claw hammer, pull the barb away, and keep walking and pulling to stretch it. Now go tighten it and repeat.
If the ground isn't perfectly level (and none of my farm is, all 1600 acres), the low points in the hollows will need a tie down, or the net tension will lift the stabs out. At the lowest stab, drive one in at 45 degrees at its base. Join the two together with plain wire, and chainsaw off the bit above ground of the angled one.
An even height fence that follows the contours of the ground looks lovely, but if it's not tight it's not going to last. Materials for a net fence are about £2/m so do the job right!
JohnGalway
Member
- Location
- Connemara, Ireland
You got it. There's just enough depth in most places for five foot stakes. One particular spot I'm fed up with, a gate way of sorts - there's no gate just tied wire. Going to put a block pillar or two in it and even invest in a gate
JCB on my land would be a prime candidate for a bloopers machine thread
Track machine be the only job but I had the ESB in replacing poles one year and they cut the place to ribbons.Friend had an idea, and could work on some of my walls too, rent a drill suitable for boring holes in granite. Cut some rebar to suitable lengths, cement the rebar into the holes, cover with water pipe, tie on the wire. Net wire might be more complex but barbed or electric would be easy enough I'd say (not got electric here).
llamedos
New Member
If I were to replace barbed wire with plain on an existing stock fence, how do I tension that, without making the existing stock net sag. In some places the existing barb is rotten, but the net and posts are all sound, posts are all 1/4 telegraph poles. Do I do as mentioned above fix tight then pull it and tighten? I dont really want to repace barb with barb.
SilliamWhale
Member
I find cursing a lot helps (me not the end result).
I have a bad habit of not using proper strainers, and many more bad habits which may not all fall into the remit of this thread.
Think I'd be more tempted to use kiwi style multi strand with wide spaces or even electric fencing in those circumstances
If you use something like 3.2mm high tensile plain wire, you just need to pull it up tight with proper wire strainers.
If your end strainers are properly braced, they won't move when you tighten the top wire, so the net will remain tight. If they aren't braced, put in a stay and wedge it with a stab at the end where you bury it. Don't use the traditional stone and cover it with turf, it'll move.
It's only mild steel barb that needs stretched to get it tight.
There is another trick if your strainers are suspect, but you don't want to replace them yet. This works on short runs, looks ghastly, should only be used as a patch on an old fence, but can get you out of bother:
(and you never heard about it from me
)Around the base of the strainer, or the first sound stab, made a double loop of plain wire to around the top of the second in line. Join the ends of the wire either with a knot or a gripple. Put in two or three staples to hold the wire in place. Now twist the wire loop like a Spanish windlas until it's tight, or pull up through the gripple. The second stab will now take strain.
llamedos
New Member
If you use something like 3.2mm high tensile plain wire, you just need to pull it up tight with proper wire strainers.
If your end strainers are properly braced, they won't move when you tighten the top wire, so the net will remain tight. If they aren't braced, put in a stay and wedge it with a stab at the end where you bury it. Don't use the traditional stone and cover it with turf, it'll move.
It's only mild steel barb that needs stretched to get it tight.
There is another trick if your strainers are suspect, but you don't want to replace them yet. This works on short runs, looks ghastly, should only be used as a patch on an old fence, but can get you out of bother:
(and you never heard about it from me
Around the base of the strainer, or the first sound stab, made a double loop of plain wire to around the top of the second in line. Join the ends of the wire either with a knot or a gripple. Put in two or three staples to hold the wire in place. Now twist the wire loop like a Spanish windlas until it's tight, or pull up through the gripple. The second stab will now take strain.
Thanks for this really helpful, end strainers are full telegraph poles, and seem very sound, in the middle of the run, it is then another full round T pole, braced, so do I lay the wire out full length, or do it in 2 runs, end to middle so to speak?
Also, I have seen the twisted wire strainers on othe fence runs and on some pictures on here, how do they get the twist, what tool is used to twist it?
The T pole in the middle may be a strainer, or just a braced "turner" that changes the direction of the fence. It depends on the angle change of the fence line, if it's shallow enough you can loosely staple the plain wire at the correct height at the middle, then pull from an end.
The way to know if you can do it in one pull is if the net is continuous at the middle, it's a turner post. If the net is cut and stapled here, the angle is too big, and it's a strainer.
The twisted wire brace is dead easy, just use the round handle of the wire strainer. Alternatively use a scrap bit of pipe that you can then drive into the ground to stop it unwinding.
When using high tensile plain wire, it's best to use a spinning Jenny type of unroller. Or make your own. When you've got it out, stick the end of the wire into the ground so it doesn't spring back and try to roll itself back up.
I didn't know about unrollers when I started...... You can end up with some horrendous frustrating big piles of knotted scrap wire if you're not careful
Norfolk Horn
Member
- Location
- Thuxton Norfolk
When I was made redundant I done fencing for just over a year I found these you tube clips very handy they where my fencing bible there are 4 parts to this.Kiwis are the best fencers in the would.
Chris123
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
Good way to dig hole for a gate post is with pallet tines with telehandler point tines down from as many angles as you can get at push down into ground and should be able to lift out soil with tines. Can on ours anyway works perfect in clay but also not bad on loamy soils
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
JohnGalway
Member
- Location
- Connemara, Ireland
Nice bit of reading here from Fencing Contractors Association NZ
http://www.fencingcontractors.co.nz/Resources_Training/Fencing_Technical_Sheets
The problem I have with some of their techniques is I have only a few inches of depth in a lot of places before I hit bedrock, which isn't ideal for all of the digging and footing they talk about.
http://www.fencingcontractors.co.nz/Resources_Training/Fencing_Technical_Sheets
The problem I have with some of their techniques is I have only a few inches of depth in a lot of places before I hit bedrock, which isn't ideal for all of the digging and footing they talk about.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Chris123
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
Tend to concrete our gate posts in but also done a few packing
Soil back down with pallet tines once post in place post won't go anywhere after
Soil back down with pallet tines once post in place post won't go anywhere after