Help! Woven wire fence question

[Illiniwek]

I'm gettin ready to put up a woven wire fence (about 400') along one edge of my property. I'm planning to sink about 40-50 treated wooden fence posts and use a woven wire fence.

Here's my question: when I attach the fencing to the posts, am I supposed to use any kind of wire stretcher-thingy for this kind of fence? I know that straight-line/barbed wire fence are supposed to be pulled ultra-taut, but I don't know how to handle this kind of fencing.

Also, when I attach the fence to the posts with the fence clips, do I attach the clips to a vertical part of the fence (which would allow for no give) or a horizontal part of the fence (which would allow for some give)?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

We put up a stretch of goat wire fence 400 feet long. Goat wire is the fencing with the four inch by four inch blocks. I'm not quite sure what you're referring to when you say woven wire, but the principal should be the same. At about two hundred feet we sank two posts about four feet across and put in two braces like this IXI.

The corner posts and the center posts were four inch rather than three inch. The rest of the posts in the fenceline were set at about fifteen feet apart. Then the tightening was done with a homemade stretcher (a length of two by four with hooks all along it to hook into the fence) and a come-a-long that we hooked to the tractor. We stapled the fence in the corner first. Then we just cranked the come-a-long down until the fence material was tight and stapled it to the braces. Then we worked our way back to the corner stapling the fence wire to the posts in between. Basically we did half the fence at a time. Plus we used staples. When you set a staple in a wood post it sinks into the wood and snugs the fence down real good and tight.

 

[cowboydoc]

Yes you will need to get the fence tight. The way Cindi mentioned will work but I wouldn't suggest it if you don't have any experience doing it. They make commercial stretchers that you can put on your tractor and just use your tractor to pull the fence tight. Then just go down the fence and staple it on. Depending on how straight this fence is, dips, etc. will make a difference as well. If you are going one straight row with four hundred feet you will need three posts and two corner braces. Your braces will have to be set out to prevent the fence from collapsing in on itself from the pull of the wire.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Good point Richard. I forgot about the dipping. How could I forget that, didn't we do this fence just yesterday? It feels that way even though it was a good year ago. Hate fencing. Shudder.

Also, we used the bumper on the pickup to hook the come-a-long to when it was handier. Just in case you don't have a tractor.

 

[JTD]

The ground conditions throughout the year may impact the size and number of posts. Wet and/or sandy soils will mean shorter distances between the posts and deeper posts. Otherwise 8 to 10 feet between the posts should be fine for 4 ft woven wire with 8 ft posts. I use pressure treated 4 to 5's for line posts and 5 to 6's or 6 to 7's for corner/gate posts. I use H braces with diagonal crosswire and wire tightners for line and corner braces. Sometimes I use double braces at the corners of long straight runs. Line braces are approximately 100 to 140 ft apart. Shorter when there are dips/rises. Using 4 to 6 staples per post should be good although the wire manufactures want you to use a staple at each horizontal wire. Doesn't much matter if the staple is holding the vertical or horizontal wires since they'll be pulled tight. The top and botton horizontal wires should be stapled since they are a larger gauge (typically 9 ga for 2x4 horse wire).

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hey Illiniwek! Where are you in Central Illinois? I'm near Danville.

Couldn't pass this one up. I've been putting up fence in my clay soil for a couple years. I recently tried a new technique that saved me alot of tamping. Previously I would tamp the heck out of each post trying to get it to tighten up in my clay soil. The next spring the posts would be loose after all the rain. The last time I put fence up I put a little pea gravel in the bottom of each hole, put the post in, and filled around the post with pea gravel instead of putting the clay back in. It worked like a charm! Just wiggle the post a little until the pea gravel sets. They get tighter the longer they're in! The water doesn't stay around the post as long either.

I learned to build fence from a fella thats been fence building for 40 yrs. His techniques may or may not be the best but here's how he taught me to staple.

On the corner post, double staple each horizontal wire. (crossing the staples over each other)

Stretch the fence to the next braced post (with your kubota /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)and double staple each horizontal wire.

Then single staple each horizontal wire on your unbraced posts. I've been told and I've also read, to leave the staples on unbraced posts slightly loose for expansion and contraction of the wire.

Take it for what its worth.
I'm attaching a few pictures of how I splice fence rolls and brace corners.

Good Luck!
Kevin

 

[Anonymous Poster]

attaching splice picture.

My posts are 15ft. apart. My brace posts are about 7ft from the corner post and 7ft. from each other. I stretched with 2 boards using 3 bolts and a chain in the center of the boards. Pulled like heck with my L3710 Kubota bucket. It's so tight you could bounce an elephant off of it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

attaching end post picture

 

[Anonymous Poster]

To stretch the wire I use two 2X4s slightly longer than the fence. The 2X4 are used to sandwich the fence in between; a hole is drilled in the top, middle and bottom of each and bolts used (eyebolts on top & bottom) to clamp the pieces together. Make sure the bolts are long enough to allow the fence to fit in between and leave some threads to get a hold of. The two eyebolts, on top & bottom, are used to provide anchor points for a short chain between them. The chain should be long enough so when you pull it creates a “V” – you’re basically making a triangle between the wood as one side and the chain as the other two. Attach your come-a-long to a tree, tractor or truck and the other end to the middle of the chain. As a kid I used one that looked like it had been manufactured, it used two “U” brackets on top and bottom but still the same principle of sandwiching the fence between two pieces of wood. The wood is soft and clamps the wire well.


Dog

 

[Bird]

Kevin, a neighbor told me he'd heard about putting that pea gravel around fence posts to keep them tight, so I got a load of pea gravel and we used it for the posts for the fence around the garden. Now it sounded like a good logical thing to do, and I'm sure it is in some soil conditions, but not in the black clay I had. When the hot dry summer arrived, the ground cracked the pea gravel went down the cracks, all my posts were loose, and I hauled dirt to tamp around all of them. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif