MUST corner posts of wire fence have special supports?

[jmc]

ok i just saw that link. VERY intriguing..........thank you
btw, i used 6 ft. posts all around, since the fence is 60". i drove them in deep enough to bury the 'fin' in the ground. no deeper.
anyone have issues with that? i sure hope not, cuz if i gotta drive em all in deeper, i gotta:

1. cut all the cable ties off to unhook the WHOLE fence
2. pound em all in deeper and poss. have em much to short for the 60" fence by that time.
3. probably bash the top of the fence in places, thus bending and mangling it.
4. put the whole thing back with a million new cable ties.

THE FENCE ENCLOSES A 96' X 72' FT. AREA. So it is not all that small................

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
While this sounds sensible, and for all I know it *might* work in *some* soils, it does not work anywhere I've ever lived. What happens is that a gravel-backfilled hole becomes a "bathtub" and actually holds MORE moisture around the post and it rots out FASTER. Personal experience speaking here. (A bit of gravel *under* the base of the post is a good thing, though)

Although, mixing a bit of sharp gravel with the backfill dirt is useful for discouraging the backfill from shrinking back in dry weather in clayey soils. It also makes the post noticeably harder to remove. I am not personally convinced one way or another what its effect on tendency to frost-heave is, but my suspicions lie with "more likely to heave".

Quote:
On the one hand, no, that is not deep enough for stability, unless perhaps this is an eensy tiny run (like 5x5 or something like that)

On the other hand, you have a couple other options BESIDES removing all that fencing. One thing is that, if you replace the corner posts with something appropriate and deeply-set and well-braced, that in itself will help stabilize the rest of the fence even with the line posts still being a bit shallow/weebly. For a modest size run (I dunno, maybe up to 8x15? dunno, sort of going on gut and experience here), that might actually be all you need.

If you do need further stabilization, if you enjoy using a sledgehammer (wear eye protection, bits of metal sometimes spall off the top of the t-post if you're driving it that way!!) you could drive in a second t-post just a couple inches away from at least some of the existing ones, drive that post deeper, and then just tie the original post to that.

Another option would be to (carefully, with a sledgehammer) drive all of the original line posts another foot or more into the ground, and then add on a piece of p/t 2x4 or rebar or scrap metal pipe or what-have-you, preferably the full 60" tall, attach them very securely into the original t-post (now shorter than the fence), and then attach the top foot or so of the fence to them as you did before.

I would for sure do something about the corner posts. But beyond that, to some extent you can wait and see on this, if your area is not subject to severe storm winds (sorry, I forget where you live). If you DO get severe storms, and especially if your run is large or is made of finer-meshed stuff or has ANYthing attached to it (shadecloth, burlap, tarps, whatever), it might be worth beefing it up proactively, so as not to have a big unpleasant surprise some day.

But, I

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jmc]

no 8 x 15 run here. the fence encloses close to 7000 square ft.................................

thank you Pat, again, for your 'support' on the fence. oh, another bad pun

 

[Baybrio]

Oh, you live in MA! Well if your MA soil is anything like the soil we had CT then you should definitely use any of the creative solutions Pat mentioned that don't require you to pound ALL of your posts in further. In CT we were always sure to hit a rock/boulder at the worst moment. Now I live in IL and we have clay soil, the only things we hit are buried farm debris from the last 100 years.

If you were planning on running a hooved animal like a goat, sheep or cow you would need to pound all those posts in farther but for chickens who really don't put much pressure on a fence, as long as it keeps the predators out I would definately just shore up the corners and take a wait and see approach to the line posts.

I wish I had a backhoe!