Dude. Being a craftsman myself, it is a pleasure to hear a fellow craftsman just share experience and practical evidence - from completed projects - . Period. The channel sheetmetalisfun has another expert doing things the same way. Sharing experience and accomplishments. And not like a cocky fellow. People who have real skill and experience don’t typically act like they know everything. In fact, they typically are the first to admit they DON’T know everything. Well done. If I lived in Florida, your crew would build my fence.
Thanks so much for this video. I'm into fencing, and since I subscribed to your channel, I've learnt a lot. You explained in a manner that everyone understand exactly what you're doing. Keep up the good work.
Love your 9’ postmaster posts , drove them 3’ here even though frostcan be 4’ , love your system,no concrete, strong horizontal fence ,thanks ,your tips saved this ol Canuck Senior, many thanks guys
It depends on the soil. Where I live in Alabama it's all clay. I don't do vinyl fencing but I drive a lot of t-posts. Anything over 2' in the ground better get the tractor if you want it pulled out.
I have driven top rail cable fence in a low water crossing I drove them 11 feet to 16 feet the ones driven less than 16 feet sunk when the top rail set on post.
I’m impressed, even the pole 2 ft deep didn’t really come out very easily! Driven a lot of T posts and pulled out quite a few too! Tell you the hardest T post that I ended up just cutting off at ground level and that was posts that had thick roots growing around the posts and those wings on the post were under the roots! Now that would of took a act of God to remove! 😂 notice your post don’t have those wings either! That should help removing them if roots are growing around them too I would think? Btw, yes I like to see you break off the regular post you mentioned.
Consider letting go of the pounder just before impact to save yourself some numb hands and arms. When I was cutting the holes at the golf course with a similar implement that metal-on-metal shock really kicked my ass. Maybe I'm just soft though, seems I was playing Super Nintendo when this fella was wrestling gators or something. I suspect it's loud as hell too, I'm gonna try and stuff a rag into the pounder to deaden the sound a bit. Last thing, I basically copied your post-pulling machine after seeing it in action. Went and bought a 5' length of chain (1/4" I think?) with a couple grabhooks, then pretty much anything can work as a lever+fulcrum. Great vid as usual, very helpful.
Good experiment. However, the lever arm for each were different. Drive them to these depths, then cut them all to the same height. Then pull. That will test the embedment strength in an "apples to apples" comparison. As you performed the tests, the ones that were driven deeper into the ground had a smaller lever arm, this you were actually imparting less moment to the post.
Florida is good, always below the frost line or the posts will come up over time and that’s why almost every fence in the Midwest installed has walls leaning.
As someone that lives in an area where the frost depth is 42 in by the time you get up here, that's a bit of a silly way to think about it imo. Just do your fence in a way that the frost has a difficult time catching them I.e driven or soil packed fencing. My privacy fence is approximately 2 ft in the ground and I've lived in this house for 5 years. The only issue I've had was from putting too heavy of a gate on one post.
We had this driven post type vinyl fence installed last spring. It is beautiful, but every once in a while a post will either sink inches or go up too high. Is this because the screws didn't hit the donut right or the donut itself is loose on the pole? The fence guy comes back to fix them everytime, but I am curious if this is a common issue.
"We're not worried about reverse gravity" is the sentence that most identified this as a pre-2024 video. I don't think any of us would be cavalier enough to say that today 😅
good video. Have you hade any trouble driving post in hard pan ? Up in Jacksonville Fl. we have a lot of hard pan especially on the westside of town . Thanks for a great demonstration on post strength .
Depends on individual conditions. You can drive anywhere if you've got enough driving power. Some situations would call for upgrading past a gas-powered driver.
We got an 8 foot high Vinyl fence in our back yard, about 65 feet long, would you suggest a couple alum inserts to strengthen this 65 foot stretch?? If yes, how long should those inserts be considering the vinyl posts are 4 feet in the gound?
Just did 300’ 48” aluminum using these 2 men first time using no dig 11hrs start to finish. This would have easily been a 3-4 day job digging and setting posts. Only complaint I have is why did we wait so long to try it
Hey, I love the channel so much good information. Just recently ordered bunch of post master posts for a big job. Focusing more on chasing fence jobs lately and your channel has answered lots of questions. Your aluminum posts look great! Are they available in western Canada? Cheers
Quite possibly! You'll want to call the shop and talk to Steve Rakness--he's our shipping guy. He can tell you what it would take to get them up there. 👍🏻 (307) 587-8040
Have you learned anything since your post? I'm looking at various metal posts for a retaining wall as well. I have casted several dozen concrete beams 6ft x 9in x 4in thick. I have dense clay soil & freeze thaw cycles. Galvanize H beam is way too expensive for as much as I need. With something like this it is the yield strength that I see being the most important. Seeing as the majority of my walls will be less than 2ft tall I am thinking telespar or u-channel will be plenty good... they won't bend or shear under that load. I have a few sections that will need to be 30-44" though & that is my big worry. Especially since that will be holding part of the patio & we get enough rain/snow to saturate the clay & make it really heavy (of course I've planned for drainage). I found a local reseller that has postmaster posts for cheap & that is what lead me to this video. I am thinking I will use the postmaster posts for anything under 30"... 1 to hold the ends of the concrete bam & 1 in the middle... the thought being the middle will be where the beam will experience the most tensile stress. Alternatively I could use equidistant from the middle for more shear/bend strength... but budget is a concern. For the tall sections I am looking for an H beam or even thinking of casting my own posts from concrete. But those would have to be dug & set instead of driven (prestressed posts like one can buy in Australia can be driven).
I live in eastern Oregon and the top soil is soft sand 2ft down and after that it's sand stone with highly compacted 3 to 4 inch river rock. I have a pre-existing 4ft picket fence that I need to replace a number of posts on. I'm wondering if I could use your idea of using Sodium Bentonite to solve the sand cave in problem when digging the post hole? Also what kind of supply co. sells Sodium Bentonite? Jim
I would just use water for dealing with the sand. Drill the hole, throw some water in--should form a nice hole to set your post in. We use the bentonite when it's nothing but river rock, so we add the bentonite and water to create the paste.
I live in Washington state and my house was recently built on a farm land. They used sand to trellis the lots, so my whole yard is basically all sand. Will driving post masters into the sand work for a 6 foot cedar fence? I'm thinking i'll need to go down at least 3 feet?
Here's a test we did driving posts in pure Florida sand and building cedar fence on it. We then tested it against hurricane-force winds: th-cam.com/video/Ocr73Lmo9O8/w-d-xo.html
Please help. I have a 18ft 8" space with a sagging wooden fence hung on 4 ft galvanized fence post. Can I add a extension to 6 ft and build a large gate with chainlink and no center post a gate that extends that area... I have a 10ft gate and 6 8 foot gate section currently
How would these work for a privacy fence? Most posts i see like these are about 7ft max but if you’re driving these posts 2-3ft down you only have 5-4ft showing. How would you install a 7-8ft privacy fence with only a 4-5ft post. Seems like at best you have 2ft ground, 5ft showing with a vertical fence 2-3ft(7-8ft fence)above the top rail.
For something like cedar than you're using longer posts so you can get more in the ground and still have enough sticking out. th-cam.com/video/PnM7g24yWe8/w-d-xo.html For something like vinyl you don't have to reach the full height of the fence since you're sleeving over. th-cam.com/video/ONA15hJym-k/w-d-xo.html
Hi. I love your videos! I want to place a vinyl fence with either driven Galvanized or I-beam style posts. Our lot is at the coast and is sand. Can these posts be placed by the no dig/driven down method and still be hurricane strength rated? If so, i’m assuming a 3.5’ depth. Thank you!
Here's a hurricane test on vinyl fence set in concrete: th-cam.com/video/_iQnheVwAI4/w-d-xo.html And here's a hurricane test on no-dig vinyl fence: th-cam.com/video/8jWcT17PFME/w-d-xo.html
@@SWiFence Thank you for your response. I have previously seen those videos. My question is: Will the posts hold as well when driven into sand only or will some other substrate be required for strength in a sand installation? Thank you in advance!
I live in MN and have a picket fence that has posts that are coming out of the ground. Do you have a no dig product that I can use to replace the posts?
If you live up north. Cold weather. Need 4 feet deep. Minimum. All depends cold temperature. South I don't know. How deep. Only I am familiar with cold weather construction.
Pretty much guaranteed that I can't drive these 2' into my ground as most of the underside is large river boulders. I truly need a no dig/no pound fence idea.
Speaking of the whacking yourself in the chin, Have you ever gotten the post down where you come up with the pounder and the blink of an eye you come off the post, land on the top with the bottom of the pounder and have the pounder come right back onto your head? I have, split my head open 😂😂
That's been the subject of conversation around here and we need to do a video to test it. I think if you're pulling out a diy concrete job it'll probably do the trick. If you're pulling out contractor-built concrete then probably not.
I take a sledge hammer and hit them around the sides usually helps bust the concrete loose then I take my tamp rod and try to separate the post from the concrete and then shake and pull. It's work.
I guess I was rong, aluminum posts CAN be regularly konked down👋 sad thing is, I just bought some 7’r’s which come adjusted for 1.2’, I was guesscing 1.5 to 2’ minimal as well. but guud grEEf - ✋
Dude. Being a craftsman myself, it is a pleasure to hear a fellow craftsman just share experience and practical evidence - from completed projects - . Period.
The channel sheetmetalisfun has another expert doing things the same way. Sharing experience and accomplishments. And not like a cocky fellow. People who have real skill and experience don’t typically act like they know everything. In fact, they typically are the first to admit they DON’T know everything. Well done. If I lived in Florida, your crew would build my fence.
Hey thanks for the compliment. 👍🏻
Thanks so much for this video. I'm into fencing, and since I subscribed to your channel, I've learnt a lot. You explained in a manner that everyone understand exactly what you're doing. Keep up the good work.
Awesome, thank you!
Love your 9’ postmaster posts , drove them 3’ here even though frostcan be 4’ , love your system,no concrete, strong horizontal fence ,thanks ,your tips saved this ol Canuck Senior, many thanks guys
6’ posts spacing….
It depends on the soil. Where I live in Alabama it's all clay. I don't do vinyl fencing but I drive a lot of t-posts. Anything over 2' in the ground better get the tractor if you want it pulled out.
A rule of thumb I’ve followed for depth is 1/3 post length. Good info!!
Appreciate the video. I am using round post in Oregon and using a hand driver. But what you showed is very applicable. Well done.
A post will pull upward when fencing in gulleys which is why we drive a post diagonally to keep downward force.
How does a fence post get driven diagonally???
I have driven top rail cable fence in a low water crossing I drove them 11 feet to 16 feet the ones driven less than 16 feet sunk when the top rail set on post.
I’m impressed, even the pole 2 ft deep didn’t really come out very easily! Driven a lot of T posts and pulled out quite a few too! Tell you the hardest T post that I ended up just cutting off at ground level and that was posts that had thick roots growing around the posts and those wings on the post were under the roots! Now that would of took a act of God to remove! 😂 notice your post don’t have those wings either! That should help removing them if roots are growing around them too I would think?
Btw, yes I like to see you break off the regular post you mentioned.
Consider letting go of the pounder just before impact to save yourself some numb hands and arms. When I was cutting the holes at the golf course with a similar implement that metal-on-metal shock really kicked my ass. Maybe I'm just soft though, seems I was playing Super Nintendo when this fella was wrestling gators or something.
I suspect it's loud as hell too, I'm gonna try and stuff a rag into the pounder to deaden the sound a bit.
Last thing, I basically copied your post-pulling machine after seeing it in action. Went and bought a 5' length of chain (1/4" I think?) with a couple grabhooks, then pretty much anything can work as a lever+fulcrum.
Great vid as usual, very helpful.
When you guys going to do a vid on post protector?
Good experiment. However, the lever arm for each were different. Drive them to these depths, then cut them all to the same height. Then pull. That will test the embedment strength in an "apples to apples" comparison. As you performed the tests, the ones that were driven deeper into the ground had a smaller lever arm, this you were actually imparting less moment to the post.
so, with a 6ft picket fence I'm going to assume you'll need a 10ft postmaster post. dang it they are hard to come by!
Florida is good, always below the frost line or the posts will come up over time and that’s why almost every fence in the Midwest installed has walls leaning.
My T-fence posts in upper Michigan sank as time went on. They were mounted in water or wet soil types.
As someone that lives in an area where the frost depth is 42 in by the time you get up here, that's a bit of a silly way to think about it imo. Just do your fence in a way that the frost has a difficult time catching them I.e driven or soil packed fencing. My privacy fence is approximately 2 ft in the ground and I've lived in this house for 5 years. The only issue I've had was from putting too heavy of a gate on one post.
I would love to see how this works in Utah. This ground is like concrete and believe it or not he ground keeps settling. It is awful.
thank you for the video. does this also work for woven wire mesh fence with wooden poles? any guidelines for that?
We had this driven post type vinyl fence installed last spring. It is beautiful, but every once in a while a post will either sink inches or go up too high. Is this because the screws didn't hit the donut right or the donut itself is loose on the pole? The fence guy comes back to fix them everytime, but I am curious if this is a common issue.
No, that should not be happening. Something's not connected somewhere.
Great system until I saw the price. Worth every penny, for sure, just can't afford it. Can you do a vid about spikes?
Driving your post into that saturated area early in the morning is the best way to start your day!
Nothing like a little mud to start your day. 😆
"We're not worried about reverse gravity" is the sentence that most identified this as a pre-2024 video. I don't think any of us would be cavalier enough to say that today 😅
good video. Have you hade any trouble driving post in hard pan ? Up in Jacksonville Fl. we have a lot of hard pan especially on the westside of town . Thanks for a great demonstration on post strength .
Depends on individual conditions. You can drive anywhere if you've got enough driving power. Some situations would call for upgrading past a gas-powered driver.
We got an 8 foot high Vinyl fence in our back yard, about 65 feet long, would you suggest a couple alum inserts to strengthen this 65 foot stretch??
If yes, how long should those inserts be considering the vinyl posts are 4 feet in the gound?
Just did 300’ 48” aluminum using these 2 men first time using no dig 11hrs start to finish. This would have easily been a 3-4 day job digging and setting posts. Only complaint I have is why did we wait so long to try it
Love it! 💪🏻💪🏻
Hey, I love the channel so much good information. Just recently ordered bunch of post master posts for a big job. Focusing more on chasing fence jobs lately and your channel has answered lots of questions. Your aluminum posts look great! Are they available in western Canada?
Cheers
Quite possibly! You'll want to call the shop and talk to Steve Rakness--he's our shipping guy. He can tell you what it would take to get them up there. 👍🏻 (307) 587-8040
Do you make posts for retaining walls? And how deep do you have to put them in the ground?
Have you learned anything since your post?
I'm looking at various metal posts for a retaining wall as well. I have casted several dozen concrete beams 6ft x 9in x 4in thick. I have dense clay soil & freeze thaw cycles. Galvanize H beam is way too expensive for as much as I need. With something like this it is the yield strength that I see being the most important. Seeing as the majority of my walls will be less than 2ft tall I am thinking telespar or u-channel will be plenty good... they won't bend or shear under that load.
I have a few sections that will need to be 30-44" though & that is my big worry. Especially since that will be holding part of the patio & we get enough rain/snow to saturate the clay & make it really heavy (of course I've planned for drainage). I found a local reseller that has postmaster posts for cheap & that is what lead me to this video. I am thinking I will use the postmaster posts for anything under 30"... 1 to hold the ends of the concrete bam & 1 in the middle... the thought being the middle will be where the beam will experience the most tensile stress. Alternatively I could use equidistant from the middle for more shear/bend strength... but budget is a concern. For the tall sections I am looking for an H beam or even thinking of casting my own posts from concrete. But those would have to be dug & set instead of driven (prestressed posts like one can buy in Australia can be driven).
Are those grooves for horizontal boards to slide through.
I live in eastern Oregon and the top soil is soft sand 2ft down and after that it's sand stone with highly compacted 3 to 4 inch river rock. I have a pre-existing 4ft picket fence that I need to replace a number of posts on. I'm wondering if I could use your idea of using Sodium Bentonite to solve the sand cave in problem when digging the post hole? Also what kind of supply co. sells Sodium Bentonite?
Jim
I would just use water for dealing with the sand. Drill the hole, throw some water in--should form a nice hole to set your post in. We use the bentonite when it's nothing but river rock, so we add the bentonite and water to create the paste.
Should have been bending them at the same height above ground, way easier to loosen it with the increased leverage
I live in Washington state and my house was recently built on a farm land. They used sand to trellis the lots, so my whole yard is basically all sand. Will driving post masters into the sand work for a 6 foot cedar fence? I'm thinking i'll need to go down at least 3 feet?
Here's a test we did driving posts in pure Florida sand and building cedar fence on it. We then tested it against hurricane-force winds: th-cam.com/video/Ocr73Lmo9O8/w-d-xo.html
Please help. I have a 18ft 8" space with a sagging wooden fence hung on 4 ft galvanized fence post. Can I add a extension to 6 ft and build a large gate with chainlink and no center post a gate that extends that area... I have a 10ft gate and 6
8 foot gate section currently
How would these work for a privacy fence? Most posts i see like these are about 7ft max but if you’re driving these posts 2-3ft down you only have 5-4ft showing. How would you install a 7-8ft privacy fence with only a 4-5ft post. Seems like at best you have 2ft ground, 5ft showing with a vertical fence 2-3ft(7-8ft fence)above the top rail.
For something like cedar than you're using longer posts so you can get more in the ground and still have enough sticking out. th-cam.com/video/PnM7g24yWe8/w-d-xo.html
For something like vinyl you don't have to reach the full height of the fence since you're sleeving over. th-cam.com/video/ONA15hJym-k/w-d-xo.html
Hi. I love your videos! I want to place a vinyl fence with either driven Galvanized or I-beam style posts. Our lot is at the coast and is sand. Can these posts be placed by the no dig/driven down method and still be hurricane strength rated? If so, i’m assuming a 3.5’ depth. Thank you!
Here's a hurricane test on vinyl fence set in concrete: th-cam.com/video/_iQnheVwAI4/w-d-xo.html
And here's a hurricane test on no-dig vinyl fence: th-cam.com/video/8jWcT17PFME/w-d-xo.html
@@SWiFence Thank you for your response. I have previously seen those videos. My question is: Will the posts hold as well when driven into sand only or will some other substrate be required for strength in a sand installation? Thank you in advance!
Sorry if I'm not being clear. The two videos listed above were done in Florida sand.
I live in MN and have a picket fence that has posts that are coming out of the ground. Do you have a no dig product that I can use to replace the posts?
This is what we use and love: th-cam.com/video/a1BwCOX0XhM/w-d-xo.html
Probably shouldn't plan on going back in the same spots, though.
If you live up north. Cold weather. Need 4 feet deep. Minimum. All depends cold temperature. South I don't know. How deep. Only I am familiar with cold weather construction.
How deep for 6’ tall cedar privacy with postmaster posts in Cody? Horizontal boards and posts 6’ on center"
About 36"
@@SWiFence thank you. Wasn’t sure if the frost line in Wyoming called for deeper.
Can you do this same test with the MasterHalco 9ft post?
You now understand how to replicate the test in your environment with the posts of your choice. That's the whole point of this video. 👍🏻
Pretty much guaranteed that I can't drive these 2' into my ground as most of the underside is large river boulders. I truly need a no dig/no pound fence idea.
I don't think one exists. You may have to look at drilling. th-cam.com/video/bkInomu9PaM/w-d-xo.html
@@SWiFenceyep, a rock drill truck which is expensive and typically used to install guardrail posts.
~ Former DOT engineer
Thank you for another deep video.
🤣🤣
So is the fencemaster U post style no longer favored?
We still love Postmasters. 👍🏻 These are just posts for our Aluminum no-dig system that we're demonstrating with.
Do you do no-dig on the gate post?
Yes
Was waiting for the Fart sound effect while you were pulling the posts out!!!
Missed opportunity!
Speaking of the whacking yourself in the chin, Have you ever gotten the post down where you come up with the pounder and the blink of an eye you come off the post, land on the top with the bottom of the pounder and have the pounder come right back onto your head? I have, split my head open 😂😂
Guess I'm not alone. Cracked my forehead open yesterday doing exactly that 😅
Drive them until you can't pull them out?❤😂🎉😢😮😅😊
How do you pull a wood post cemented in? Will that tool you used in this video work?
That's been the subject of conversation around here and we need to do a video to test it. I think if you're pulling out a diy concrete job it'll probably do the trick. If you're pulling out contractor-built concrete then probably not.
I take a sledge hammer and hit them around the sides usually helps bust the concrete loose then I take my tamp rod and try to separate the post from the concrete and then shake and pull. It's work.
break off an aluminum post!
Will Dan take as many years to move south? 😝
For he's pretending to like Wyoming.
Hernia?
I guess I was rong, aluminum posts CAN be regularly konked down👋 sad thing is, I just bought some 7’r’s which come adjusted for 1.2’, I was guesscing 1.5 to 2’ minimal as well. but guud grEEf - ✋
Digging is dead
That should be our next shirt design. 👍🏻
@SWI Fence or at minimum life suport and the plug is loose