Building a (wire) fence.

Comments

• Myabee09

  July 2013

  My friend put one up for his German shepherd mix. The dog was known for his strength and jumping abilities, so I was apprehensive about this type of fencing. It wound up working out really well. I don't know the name if the posts they used, but they were the metal kind. He stunk them about a foot down and used concrete to hold them in place. I know that isn't what you are going for, but our ground is really soft. I think the posts were about 8 feet apart.
  I know that he did it himself and fenced in about half an acre in one day. Just sink the posts first and roll out the fencing and attach it as you go.
  
  I think you have everything. Except maybe something to hold the fencing on the posts? I'm not sure about what kind of post is what.
  
  I hope this helps and I'm sure you'll do fine with the fence.
• shibamistress

  July 2013

  That looks pretty much like what we have. Standard wire ranch fencing. It's four feet in some places and five feet in others. None of our dogs have ever attempted to climb out or jump over (and Leo most certainly could jump over, just as Bel could have likely climbed over). It works pretty well, except of course as a permanent fencing other animals do sometimes get in, but it's economical. We've just reinforced it with chicken wire where we had problem areas.
  
  So I suspect it will work fine for you. Kind of pain to have to put it in if it's going to be temporary, but....
  
  Oh and for permanent? (not important for you, but in general) I will NEVER use wood posts. A good portion of our fence is wood posts. They are all rotting and collapsing. And I live in super dry New Mexico. We're having to replace those with metal posts, and given the ground here is mostly desert caliche which is like rock, it is really hard to get them in.
• Myabee09

  July 2013

  I second the wood post suggestion. In moist climates they are a tasty treat for termites, which leads to the critters eating your house as well.
• Calsurb

  July 2013

  I did the fence thing twice in the last year with T posts. Once when I was trying to get some grass planted and the other time when the six foot wood common fence was torn down by my neighbor to be replaced. I used a ten foot centering on the posts. Look at the T posts when you are buying them. They come in a light duty and heavy duty. The light duty are about half the price around here. Here is what to look out for. Irregularities in the ground. I have a little drainage swale. About 3 or 4 inched deep. Sunny saw a cat, took a 50 foot run at the fence and greased right through the swale. I though she was going to try to jump it. She did not even slow down. She hit that like a Japanese POW looking for freedom. I then staked the bottom of the fence down using the 12” stakes you use for weed fabric. The dogs can see through the Farmgard and Sunny was hyper because of that as she could not see through the old wood fence.
  
  Also you will need a gate. What I did was get some 1 or 1.5 inch pipe, a pipe nipple will do about a foot long, and drive it into the ground next to a T post. Then I attached another T post that I cut the spade bit off the bottom with a hack saw to the fence and put it into the pipe and just had a loop of wire to secure it at the top. Because this was a temporary deal I put up with the pain in the butt it was.
  
  Also check on the laws about dogs harassing live stock. Up here it is legal for the owner of the livestock (cattle, horses, chickens) to shoot a dog. You said you are going to be living next to a farm.
  
  One other thing. The fence replacement was suppose to be done in a month. That “temporary” fence was up for 8 months. I was constantly adjusting it to keep it secure.
  
  Hope this helps.
• fattball

  July 2013 edited July 2013

  We fenced in 4 acres with 72 inch 12.5 gauge welded wire fencing. 1.5 to 2 feet is underground. The whole property was Firstly trenched down 2 feet. We used 6 foot field fencing poles every 12 feet sometimes less. Every 5th one is set in concrete. It's worked so far. Our last place had 3 acres with chain link and wood with chicken wire on ground attached to bottom of fence. As to costs the fence cost $175.00 per 100 foot roll. Renting the trencher was 200.00 per 8 hours of machine time it took me about 16 hours on the machine. For the 4 acres its cross fenced and double fenced in areas and also there are 2 separate areas it took 38 rolls of fencing. Also I bought 400 6 foot heavy duty t posts they were 8.00 each. Concrete was 2.00 per bag and there was 70 bags used. I used wire and plastic attachers for the fence to t post and spent maybe $100.00 on those.
  I did most of the work by myself but when Rolling out the fence fabric rolls I hired my wife's brother at 10.00 an hour cash.
  
  Total costs were
  72in x 100ft * 2in x 4in 12.5 Gauge * Galvanized rolls x 38x 175.00 6650.00 tax 598.50 7248.50
  6 foot heavy duty t posts x 400(I did not use all of them) x 8.00 3200.00 tax 288.00 3488.00
  connectors 100.00
  concrete 140.00
  trencher rental was 435.00 total
  labor free if you do it yourself or varies.
  total cost was 11406.50 plus labor
  tax rate here is 9% so your might be less.
  
  Fence was not cheap but any other type would cost much more I got a quote for 6 foot chain link and it was close to 100,000.00
  
  The fence works good for most types of dogs and seems to keep out rabbits and other animals that would get eaten by my Shibas, which is good for the little critters. The fence looks ok not great but its functional and sort of invisible.
  
  I think you could use wire fencing but its not the greatest for temporary use since dogs can easily squeeze under it if its not buryed in the ground. Also most but not all Shibas can jump real high My rescue Shiba can jump close to 4 feet, so I would use at least 5 foot high.
  
  If you want any pictures or have any questions you can message me.
• sjp051993

  July 2013

  I have used that type of fencing before. It kept in multiple shibas without any problems
• BradA1878

  July 2013

  Instead of T-Posts we used these: http://www.dog-fencing.com/dog-fence-posts.html
  
  They're a little more money, but WAY more stable. Easy to install too if you don't have a lot of rocks.
• lindsayt

  July 2013 edited July 2013

  Those are interesting Brad, never knew about those.
  
  When I first moved here, and much of the place wasn't fenced, I put up tposts about every 5 feet and used 4ft tall field fence in some places, 6 ft in others. 4 ft is adequate for Shibas if they aren't climbers. It was ment to be temporary, but it took 3 years to finally get the whole thing fenced with 6ft cedar, and the field fence worked well for that time.
  
  I was able to do the posts myself, but the rolls of fence are a bitch, unless you unroll it and drag flat sections to where you want to put them.
• Losech

  July 2013

  @Calsurb It's legal to shoot dogs for chasing livestock here too. The farm I mentioned is where I work. We've got cows, goats, and chickens. Neighbors have a cow, some sheep, and a few horses.
  
  @fattball I'm not putting any concrete in. It's a rental property, not mine, so I can't do that sort of stuff. If I was buying it I'd go all out and put up a heavy-duty 6+ footer with concrete and buried fence and all that fun stuff.
  Conker can jump, but he's never gone over the 3 foot sections of my current fence. Not even for wildlife. He doesn't climb either, and has never gone under any part of our fence.
  Doesn't mean he won't try, but he does not have a record of escaping like that.
  
  I'm more worried about Juneau getting out. She's the one who'd chase/kill something. Conker's got one hell of a prey drive, but he knows what he is and isn't allowed to chase. Juneau doesn't.
  
  
  I just took out abut 600 feet of this type of fencing, and while it was hard, it was easier than I thought it would be. So even if I do only need the fence for a month, I know I can take it out on my own.
  Still haven't out one up on my own though...