As most of you probably remember from a previous post, we had quite a storm a couple weeks ago in which we lost about a third of our back fence. When I finished the posting I was waiting on estimates from two separate crews to see about replacing the fencing all together. I am not sure, but I can only imagine that after a big storm rolls through, doing damage to fences all over town, that magically their prices increase because you don't really have any other choice but to pay it. The two quotes I got were for $2600 and $3300. I will give you a moment to process the amount of non lubricated screwing that I felt was going on here. Not only were these amounts well above budgetary constraints, they were also, in my opinion, highway robbery.
When faced with this option we realized that we were going to just have to break down and do it ourselves. Building codes in the area had just been updated, requiring steel posts to be used instead of wood. This was our plan, and I am glad we didn't rebuild with wood. I wasn't sure if I believed the contractors when they tole me about the code changes, but I checked and it is correct. Thinking back on the wind we get here, it only makes sense to use a stronger material to keep these dang fences standing.
The removal of the old posts and the placement of the new posts is the worst part of fence repair. Just plan on ruining your whole day and your muscles if you don't have some sort of heavy duty machinery to lighten the load. Replacing a single post in the past, was torture and the thought of doing eight this time around almost made my brain bleed. So we went high tech and rented an auger!! We had all 8 holes dug to the proper depth in about 1/100th of the time it would take to dig one hole with a shovel.
To make the removal of the old concrete easier, we decided to just leave it. Yup, I said it, we opted to leave the old plugs and place two steel posts on either side of the old wooden ones. It just made sense, this was already a 2 weekend project and that was just how it was going to be.
We got the new posts cemented in the ground and allowed them to set up properly and thankfully we got the fencing sections placed back up before the new set of storms came through. Using the old fencing sections means there are a few minor cosmetic issues, but who really cares. Those are easy to fix a few at a time to keep the extra work to a minimum. After placing about a million screws, nails and the tops of several of our knuckles, we had a fence again.
It was a great feeling to have that privacy back. Not that we were doing anything that required it, you just feel really exposed when two sides of your fence are down and you can stare into your neighbors houses, and they into yours. The best part is that counting the auger rental, cement, brackets, and posts, the total cost came in at just under $300. That my friends is what we call a $3000 savings. Now, the cost is offset a little bit by having spent two weekends of hard labor, but in the end was well worth it.
Enjoy the finished product. And yes, a couple of the poles didn't quite settle as deep as they should have. I like to think that just shows it was homemade with love lol.
And what an amazing fence it is! :) (let's not do that again...lol)
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