Privacy Fence

Dude, I need some help here. I bought my house about 4 years ago, and with the close proximity of the neighbors and the fact that I have a very hot wife who like to lay out in the sun, wearing nothing, or next to nothing, I decided to install a privacy fence around my yard. I built an 8', board on board privacy fence with top rail and cap. I used 12' posts and buried them 36" in the ground and concreted them in. My problem is that We have a shallow water line, due to a lake close by, and when I dug my holes, I had about 6" of water in the bottom of each. I believe that this water is the cause of my posts rotting and now my fence is leaning from the high winds that we get around here. Any advice to keep the next posts from rotting? I'm trying to avoid using metal posts, because I like the wood look.

John P.
Flower Mound, TX

Dude!

Congrats on the wife!

In response to your question, I can say with 200% certainty that having lived and worked in the Dallas area, as well as having installed many privacy fences in the Flower Mound area, that your troubles are not only yours. You have neighbors with the same problems. I know this to be a fact.

Before you decide to rebuild with wood posts, check the local codes in your area. I may be mistaken but I believe that in most neighborhoods around Flower Mound, Lewisville, etc., the original fences built during the construction were built with landscape timbers as posts. This was a mass contract with a cheap fence company to do all the fences in the new neighborhoods at once and the posts were the cheapest way to go. I believe that there are local stipulations that upon rebuilding, metal posts MUST be installed, due to the shallow water table and heavy, hard driving winds.

To answer the question at hand, the only way to slow down the rotting process is this: Buy your $20.00, 12' x 4"x4" treated posts. let them dry completely as most treated lumber is still wet from the treatment process. while your buying your posts, go to the paint section and purchase 5 gallons of SPAR or MARINE varnish ( NOT FLOORING VARNISH OR INTERIOR VARNISH). This varnish is made for water application, like boats. It will only cost you around $40 a gallon. Take it home, lay all your posts out on saw horses and brush 2 or 3 coats from the bottom up to about 40" on the post. let it dry completely. Then go get yourself a truck full of gravel. (I assume you have a truck. You are in Texas after all) Dig your holes about 10" in diameter and go down about 36". Pack gravel in the base of the hole around the post about 6" deep. This will help with the water table seepage as well as help hold the post in place. Pour your concrete around the post making sure that you mix it with water as you go and "poke" at it with a piece of re-bar or a stick of sorts to remove all air pockets and pack it in tight. Leave a few inches at the top, to allow for replacing the sod around the post and let it dry. Re install all your fencing and pray, pray pray. Or you could just by 15 dollar, 2 3/8" fence post with the 4 metal runner clips for each one, push your fence back to plumb and install the posts next to the old wood posts, using the same method described above. After the concrete dries, and the posts are solid, use a reciprocating saw, with a good metal blade and cut the posts off, 6" below the top of the fence so you can re install your top cap once you've put on the metal post caps. The only other thing I might add is if you choose to go with metal, which would be my expert advice, you can fill the metal posts with sand to strengthen then even more, and then put your caps on the top.

You're probably going to have some upheaval of posts regardless, due to the weather extremes around there. When the ground freezes, the water will freeze which will move your posts. I've gone to major extremes to keep post strong and in place in that area, and I feel for you.

Again, congrats on the wife............good luck with the fence. might I suggest some Constantine wire???

NOTE: As an after thought It struck me that you mentioned and 8' fence. I know that with 8' tall fences in that area, your posts MUST be no further than 6' apart. If you set your posts at the typical 8' intervals, this is going to be a big problem in the future.