Fence Posts - Cement or No Cement??

[WW]

I believe deer can go even higher. But my experience says they won't.

I've had that 6 foot fence up since 2009 and so far, not one deer has come in the yard.

However, deer can see right through chain link. I think it's important for the view to be blocked. Deer aren't likely to jump something when they can't see where they are going to land.

I don't think 5 feet of chain link will work and I don't think you'd be able to stretch the link onto the fence if you don't use cement. You could try cementing only the end posts but if I was doing chain link, I'd use cement on all the posts.

This last year, about 7 sections of my fence were destroyed by Sandy. After the trees were removed, we had deer tracks in the yard the next day. I just finished repairs so the deer will have to eat somewhere else.

Oh, yeah, raccoons. Nothing short of land mines or electricity will keep them out. I don't grow vegetables.

[dadiOH]

I'm not a fence type person but my next neighbor to the east has a 1200' fence along our mutual property line; wood posts and barbed wire. Been there for 17 years.

[dadiOH]

Meant to say, there is no concrete, just PT posts in the ground by about

24".

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Frank:

Has anybody tried an electric fence? Seems like the cheapest.

[Robert]

A 4 foot fence is perfectly adequate if it has a dog on the inside of it. Especially a terrier or a shepherd..... It is sufficient to keep out deer, raccoons, and Mexicans....

[DD_BobK]

-1

[clare]

Tell the urban deer here in Kitchener that. a six foot fence is an invitation. An 8 foot fence a challenge. An 8 foot board fence they cannot see through is quite effective, but not foolprof. Every year you get a couple jumping blind into swimming pools.

[clare]

Barbed wire and chain link are too completely different situations.

[clare]

4X4 wood posts (or something close) with a low tension single or 2 strand fence is very commonly done without concrete. But that's not "chain link" or steel tubular posts.

[clare]

Back on the farm they (the deer) cleared the electric fences if they found them in daylight. They were effective if they found them at night. Might work if you kept them turned off during daylight hours to maximize the chance of them finding them live by feel. They usually don't try the second time if they are anything like horses.

[clare]

Unarmed mexicans, perhaps.

[Dean Hoffman]

A bunch cut.

One thought would be plastic snow fence. Amazon link:

It's only four foot high but highly visible. Put in several T posts to hold it: Someone already referenced a post pounder:

[bob haller]

My minature poodle had no problem getting over a 4 foot high fence:(

Puddle would run along the fence and LEAP over it.....

This led to many police visits and neighbor issues. :(

Finally solved with a 6 foot chainlink fence. That cost thousands.

We also tried a electric fence, she found that easy to defeat:(

She died several years ago at near 15 years old, and I still miss her. Her ashes are here to to buried with me when I die......

[HerHusband]

I would use concrete around corner posts and gate posts, and just soil around posts in the middle of a run. Put gravel in the bottom of the hole for drainage, and stop the concrete a few inches below ground level. Try to taper the top of the concrete so water will run away from the post.

We have an ongoing love/hate relationship with deer. We really enjoy having them visit and watching the babies grow up. We don't like that they eat everything we stick in the ground. I try new "deer resistant" plants every year to see what works best, and so far they have chomped down every single "deer proof" plant except for Hellebores. They haven't so much as sniffed at those.

Anyway, deer usually won't jump into a confined area if they don't think they can get back out. I have heard that two 4' high fences spaced about

5' apart works better than a single 8' high fence.

I've never used anything more than a single 4' high fence around our vegetable gardens. Our current garden is a small 8x8 raised garden, so they're not likely to jump in there, especially with the different levels inside. Even when we had a large 30x30 garden they never jumped in to eat anything. The only time they jumped in was when they were on the run from a dog or something, but they were in and out and didn't eat anything. There's enough easier pickings around our yard for them to bother going into the garden.

Our raccoons have never expressed an interest in our garden, but we do have to keep the rabbits out.

Anthony Watson

[willshak]

My 6' PT wooden fence along my property line around my inground pool were installed by a local fence company (permit required). Due to the frost line in my area, they were installed 4' into the ground. The only concrete they used was on the corner posts and the posts that supported gates. That was about 20 years ago. A few years ago I replaced the 'fabric' (the actual wooden fencing between the posts). I didn't have to move any of the posts. This was good for me because the setback for the fencing went from 6" in from the property line when it was first installed to 3' from the property line in the new building code, so I was 'grandfathered'.

[Harry K]

I wonder about a 5' wooden fence though? I vaguely recall that a deer or other animals won't jump a fench they can't see through.

Harry K

[Frank]

I had a chuckle one day watching a Mexican soccer player zoom over an 8 ft chain link fence to retrieve a ball. It was like the fence was not even there. I figured practice makes perfect.

As for protecting from deer, a lot depends on the time of the year. During the growing season the whole world is just one big salad bar for deer. A vegetable garden has no big attraction for them. If not easy to access, bumping into a small fence or electrified fence will tend to keep them away. Certain foods they really like such as acorns, chestnuts and apples. They expend more effort to get them. In the dead of the winter they even eat the ivy along side my house but let it grow freely in summer. When they are eating your evergreens in the winter they are starving.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Robert:

This brings to mind something I've been obsessing about on-and-off for a couple of years: "YardBa"....

Everybody's heard of "RoomBa", right? i.e. the robotic vacuum cleaners that can clean a room unattended.

I'm thinking there's a market for something that would live at a charging station in the yard, sense body heat or movement or something... and spontaneously navigate towards it. Once contact was made, it would just keep on bumping up against whatever it was if it didn't move or keep following it if it did move - constrained by something like those invisible fences they use with dogs/collars.

Personally, I'd shell out a few hundred bucks for such a device... maybe more...

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Paul Drahn:

Are you in a suburban or rural area?

You have me thinking about doing this - but I'm in Suburbia and wonder about unintended consequences.

Seems like putting it on a timer that turns it off during daylight hours would pretty much defuse the kid issue.

[clare]

And if you replaced the posts one at a time you would still be grandfathered. Just don't make the mistake of removing the whole fence at once.