New fence: Finished!!

The fence is done! My brother John helped me install the final boards this morning.

It's a relief. Two photos from my neighbor's side below. More photos from my side coming later.

New fence project, work day III (evening only)

Tuesday night, finally, a stretch of work that went quickly! Fence boards going up. Bad Lowes math on the lumber order. Somehow "48 feet" of board went only about 40 feet.

Still, it's getting close. From my side:

From the neighbor's side, the master fence builder and his work:

New fence project, work day II

The second major work day arrived today to build the new fence at the rear of my property in the Avenues of Salt Lake City.

I took the day off work and wrangled some friends to help. Bryan, aka Cujo, is the engineer/designer of this fence. We began by setting the five middle posts in concrete. To the left in the photo below is Bryan2 (from my gym) and Jeff (leaning down). That's me on the right tipping the concrete.

The posts were set, and due to Bryan's commitment to precision, the line of seven 10-feet tall cedar posts was straight and square (7.5 feet of the posts are above ground).

The entire fence is made of quality cedar. There are six cedar 2 x 4's supporting each of the six sections. 

The fence is a monster. It stands 8 plus feet high from my side. On the uphill/neighbor's side it's six feet above the level of their back yard/parking lot. Bryan, below, is installing the 36th and final supporting 2 x 4. 

We began to get the fence boards up. It was getting late, we were getting tired, and Bryan struck blood, his blood, in a minor accident which made us call it a wrap. I was bummed at first (to be stopping) but I was tired too, so all was good. 

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, we hope to keep putting the boards up. 

Fence project, removing the old

The fence at the rear of my property in Salt Lake City's Avenues was old and decrepit. When I bought my house I propped part of it up with two new 4x4's. I also installed a "temporary" wire fence in front of the old fence to keep my dog in the yard.

This was an OK short term solution. Even after doing this, on windy days, the panels kept flopping over. With some rope attached, I got them to stay up for a couple of years now, enhancing the privacy of my yard. On the other end of the fence, one of the three panels was permanently down and had been for some years.

Both of these next two photos (as well as the previous one) were taken this past week, before I removed the old fence. The three panels below, behind the tree and to it's right, are only standing because of the temporary 4x4's I installed. Only one of the original four fence posts for these panels provided any support. 

Below is the scene after the removal of the old fence. My yard, already large for the neighborhood, is suddenly much bigger! (I wish). Note that I've already had to mow, in March! I was robbed last year (two bikes) and I am 90% certain the thieves accessed my backyard from the rear of the neighbor's lot to the north and through the fallen down fence. My temporary wire fence (visible below, at least if you click on the photo and look at the larger version) was smashed down, something I noticed as soon as the bikes were stolen. 

Here are two of three piles of wood from the old fence. I wasn't sure how I would get rid of it but I posted it on KSL (Utah's version of Craigslist) and people were practically fighting to come and get it. It was gone within two hours of being posted--rusty nails, broken bits of wood, and all. Crazy. 

After the Demolition

New construction is underway. Digging these holes was a bitch. Even after renting and using an auger, they required a lot of hand digging. We got them done, however, we ran out of daylight after setting only the first two (of seven) posts. The remainder of the project will have to wait for another eight days due to being so busy at work. 

This is my friend Bryan helping me out (I did my fair share of digging too). He's a retired fighter pilot and his meticulous nature and engineering sensibilities are going to make the new fence stronger and better than I could have done alone. I moved the new fence in to my lot a bit (12-18 inches). Initially I wanted to move it so the tenants didn't bump it with their cars (on the neighbor's side it's a parking lot), but they have plenty of space. This became the best line to set the fence. The whole project is on a slope which made working there difficult as we fought gravity while stumbling over rocks and a multitude of little metal poles. Well, at least I was stumbling, Bryan is a lot more coordinated than me. 

March 30 is the next scheduled work day! Can't wait to see it finished.