If anyone wants to G2G nextweekend and help me out with putting up a fence I will provide food and beer. I got about 30 post holes I need to digprobly won't be doing them all in one day, since this is my first time putting up a fence i want my measurements to be good and not dig more than I have to. Then going set the corner posts, maybe some of the line posts depending on time available. Most likely be doing piece by piece throughout the week setting the post then putting up the panels. This is going to be a 6x8 foot wooden privacy, the estimate is about 30 panels.
Do yourself a favor and go to home depot and rent a post hole digger. Mark all your holes first then go rent it, it won't even take you 30 minutes.
you don't want to rent a post hole digger as that'll take forever. post hole digger: what you want is a two- or four-person power auger: with that you can do all of the holes, pour the concrete and place & align the poles all in one day.
i used to build fences for a living...no offense to matt but even with an auger it will certainly take more than 30 min to dig 30 holes especially if it's cold out. you should dig and set your corners first and then once those are pretty solid (they don't have to be completely dry but do have to be somewhat sturdy) pull a line around them marking the border of the fence. make sure the line is on the outside of the posts. also make you distance 7 ft that way you won't have to worry about being too long and also you will use all of you 2x4's. i can't make it that weekend because i'll be in charlotte but if you have questions i will do my best to answer them...a huge majority of the time when people build a fence by themselves for the first time it doens't turn out how they thought it would and we used to go in a lot after people got fed up and brought in professionals to finish the job and usually we had to tear them up and start from scratch. gotta run but i'll be back and post some more tips on making a great fence...good luck
you do want to have post hole diggers to clean out the holes too. augers are generally about 50-60 for a day. the post hole diggers will be about 10-15 max...def worth it to make the holes good and augers dig a good generally hole but if you need to move it left or right...that's where post hole diggers are good for. another thing is if there are a lot of trees consider a rock bar to chop up roots. big thing i almost forgot GET YOUR UTILITIES AND CABLE MARKED AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PERMIT if the town you live in requires permits to build fences.
Certainly don't plan on doing it one day or in a week, probly in about 2 weeks, a little bit each day is my plan. I have researched and planned out how this will be completed. This will be all manual labor using post diggers, if it comes done to it I will licensed contractor buddy come over, he don't work for free, not much of a buddy at all :0, but he has all tools I need at a more friendly price than home depot.
if that's the case i could try to make it up there the following weekend and help you out...let me know where you're at and if everything works out for me i'll try to help...if not i will keep giving you tips on how to make a great fence. another thing is when you're setting the post make the tops 66" off the ground from the top of the post down to the ground. and at least 2 ft deep. the holes should be about 8-10 inches in diameter. you don't want to post to go to the top off the pickets which are 72 inches tall. b/c it is a privacy fence.
Yeah I guess it will take longer than 30 minutes...and there is no way in hell you are getting me to come build a fence....LOL
If you can try to find one of these augers We (family and I) were able to dig and set posts for about a 3/4 acre lot in a day. Granted we prepped all the posts to length etc.