Help with locating fence.

I am going to build a fenc and had a few questions. The most important is how to locate the property line. We have metal pins capped with yellow rubber on the four corners of the lot. We want to fence the back yard. It will come off the house and go to the property line(minus 6") and follow it to the back of the property turning andgoin back to the other side of the house. The problem is it is a walkout and the front pin is about 10' higher than the back pin. The question is how can I transfer that point to the base of the slopewher the corner posts will be. I have drawn it on a jpeg here:

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The slope is the same on each side of the house. The only thing I can come up with is to tie string from the front to the back pin using a tall board in the back. I would then need to use a plumb bob attached to the string in the spot I want the fence post. This would probably work, but I am afraid wind and the plumb of the back story stick could throw it off. Is there a better way? I think that it would be inaccurate to string pin to pin and have the string run along the ground of the front yard. Or am I making too much of a fuss and this easier way is the proper way?

Also, I have dug a few plants in lately by hand and a 2 ft. deep hole takes me about 10 minutes with sharpshooter and hand post hole digger. I was originally going to rent an auger and have friends help me to hold it and such. With this 10 minute dig in mind, I am considering just doing the 25-30 posts by hand. I would do them across a week or so. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but then that's nothing new. Am I crazy? (I mean about this)

Finally, I have never built a fence before, but have seen it done where they set the four corners and then use string to locate the posts in between. Is that the best way for a first timer? Thanks for all your help.

Reply to
jfalken
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  1. First thing you do is get permission from your neighbors to build the fence on the property line. ONLY IF THEY REFUSE PERMISSION, do you consider building it 6 inches inside your property line. I'd be happy to let you build on the line if you didn't ask me to pay for half of it.
  2. Everything else you are doing is fine. Your property line runs from the center of the earth to the top of the sky, so plumb bobs are fine if necessary as they tend to point to the center of the earth.
Reply to
JimL

About 15 years ago I built a board fence with 12 posts nominally 8 feet apart. One hard part was hitting large boulders which New England has lots of. This forced several posts to be relocated slightly with a segment becoming 9 feet long. The appearance was not affected.

I was using a hand-operated posthole digger and that was hard. I only went down 18" to 24" inspite of people telling me to go down 36". I figured that a "plate" of concrete on the surface would provide additional bearing surface to keep the posts upright. The posts that I liked were not available in 10' or 12' lengths so I was stuck with 8'. The fence is a bit rickety but it is still up all these years later.

Surprisingly, the major expense was the stain, not the wood! I used 1" rough-sawn pine from a local sawmill. During installation, each board was cut to length and dipped in stain so it could soak for awhile. The dipping "tank" was made out of polyethylene sheet in a form made from bricks. That worked well. Subsequent stain updates were done with a garden sprayer. Be sure you use trellises to grow plants on so you can pull them away from the fence for staining.

Good luck.

Reply to
William W. Plummer

You are worrying too much. It appears you have checked with the local authorities about the placement of the fence, if you have not done so do it now. Rules are not the same everywhere. Also jml's ideas were good. Consider that possibility, but run it past the local authorities before doing it. It is always a good idea to check with the neighbors before putting in a fence.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

The simplest method to stay on the line would be to use a transit. I assume you do not have one or know how to run one. Can you drive a heavy stake in the ground at the property pins and tie a tight line between them? (use builders' line and really crank this stuff tight, have someone grab it in the middle and help pull it as you tighten it.) Plumb bobs are inexpensive or use a chalk box or even a heavy nut. Tie a surveyor's knot ( a simple slip knot tied back onto the line that allows you to raise and lower the plumb bob so it can hang where you need it) in the line and suspend your plumb bob from the taught line. You can plumb the post line down to your back yard elevation, for that matter you can use this method to establish all the posts. You should be able to slide the plumbing line along the property line without a ladder. YMMV.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

I haven't tried it myself, but has anybody used a laser pointer to locate lot lines? I had a surveyor locate the corners (five of them) and would like to add some stakes along the long edges. There are many trees and small hills.

Reply to
William W. Plummer

I have used a laser level dot mode only to do exactly that. You need a clean line of sight (level doesn't matter) from known pin to pin. And then for the middle points work toward the laser. We used a 2 x 4 with a line drawn down the middle and a small bubble level to achieve true plumb with the 2 x 4. When the dot stuck the line and the board was plumb we marked the spot.

Only disadvantage is you have to work at dusk or night to be able to see the dot more than 50 feet.

Colbyt

Reply to
Colbyt

"1. First thing you do is get permission from your neighbors to build the fence on the property line. ONLY IF THEY REFUSE PERMISSION, do you consider building it 6 inches inside your property line. I'd be happy to let you build on the line if you didn't ask me to pay for half of it. "

I would definitely seek legal advice before I built a fence I was paying for exactly on the property line. As I understand it, generally a fence on the property line becomes the responsibility of both parties. Should you later want to change it, fix it, replace it, remove it, you now have to negotiate with the neighbor which might not even be the same person anymore. Personally, unless the neighbor were going to pay for half of the fence, I'd make sure it's on my own property.

Reply to
trader4

I heartily agree with this. It is standard practice to build on the property line when the cost is shared. Otherwise, build six inches into your property. Then it's yours and you choose type (within local codes) and maintain as you see fit.

Incidentally, as a once-upon-a-time surveyor, there are a number of ways to establish a line between two points with simple tools. One you might be able to use is --

  1. Set a short pole behind each lot monument. Use a level (vertical position) or a plumb bob (any weight on a string) to assure that it they are vertical.
  2. With your eye behind one pole, sight on the other.
  3. Your helper can then move a vertically held pole or plumb bob string onto your sight line as you direct to mark a spot on the line. This will be the property line, set the fence line six inches over.

SJF

Reply to
SJF

Fifteen years ago my neighbor worked for a high-tech company that used lasers. He had a couple of them in his garage. When we built a common fence between our property, he drug one out and we used it to sight the line. Was bright enough to see in full sun even 100 feet away. Fence was scary straight when we were done, and he also gave me the laser.

Now I use it to torment my wife's cat.

-Frank

Reply to
Frank J Warner

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