How To Set Fence Posts

There are a lot of things you can do around the home with fence posts. The most obvious thing you can do, of course, is to stretch prefab fencing sections between the posts. Other reasons setting fence posts: making a grape arbor, a rose arbor, or even as posts to string an outdoor clothesline. If you live in the country and are trying to make a vegetable garden, it's a good idea to fence it in around a frame made of fence posts set in a rectangular pattern. That will save your vegetables and flowers from the deer. These are simple but common reasons you'll have to set fence posts.

Things you’ll need:

Ready-mixed bags of concrete. The least expensive is the one with aggregate, a combination of cement and gravel. Quik-Crete is a well-known brand. It comes in 40, 60, and 80 pound bags. Get the lighter one—that’s all you’ll need for a single fencepost. If you can handle the heavier bags, you can set two posts with a single bag.

Four by fours are the most economical for setting posts. They're strong enough and they come in convenient eight foot lengths. You can use thicker posts and longer posts (those used in upper level decks, for example, may be sixteen feet), but they are much more expensive.

You’ll need a post-hole digger. You can rent a motorized digger from a rental company if you’ve got a long run of fence posts to set. For a smaller job, you can use a manual digger though, in hard soils, this requires some man-handling. For an eight-foot post, you’ll have to dig down at least two feet. That’ll leave six feet sticking out of the ground, high enough for a privacy fence but not so high that the city building inspector will pay a visit. Six feet above ground elevation is a standard set by many town building codes for fences in suburban areas.



Dig a hole two feet deep and set the post into it. Get a long mason's level and level the post vertically in the hole. Support it in position with rocks and outside with bracing. Check the level continuously as bumps are likely to put it out of kilter. When you're sure the post is perfectly plumb (vertically leveled), and stable, you can begin putting the dry concrete in the hole. Check the level again. You can wet and stir concrete in a wheelbarrow and pour it into the hole already wet, but you don't have to. It's much easier to put it in dry and begin to tamp it down until it's hard. As you're tamping, continue to check vertical level to insure the posts are straight up vertical.

If you're having a problem with leveling, you can nail support sticks made of 2 x 2 or 2 x 4 for bracing. The bracing will be removed when the concrete hardens. Hardening of the concrete will begin when you pour water into the hole filled with dry concrete. Do it slowly so that its seeps in. Be sure the concrete is soaked. Make a last level check before the concrete begins to harden. Let the concrete cure for several days before removing the braces.

Whether you're setting a single fence post for a bird feeder or one hundred fence posts for a long fence, the procedure is the same. Buy the materials. Get the right tools. Dig the holes at least two feet deep. Stabilize and level the posts. Pour in the concrete and wait for it to cure.