Pipe & Tie Fence

Fence building is not easy...its labor intensive no matter what type of fence you decide to install.  

The next logical conclusion when looking at the overwhelming project is to call a professional company to get a price.  For us, the estimate we got back motivated us to reconsider tackling the 2384 feet around the circumference of our eight acre lot.

We have some experience with designing and installing creative fencing. 

 (Watch for a blog article about the gridwall fence we came up with and installed around our backyard and horse arena at our house.)  Its unique design was born out of necessity; we needed a decorative yet functional and, most importantly, affordable replacement for the dilapidated original fence.  The largest expense we realized after was the fasteners..boxes and boxes of joist hangers and rail holders really added up.  Since the linear feet on this new project is tremendous we began brainstorming ideas that utilize less "extras".

Omit the screws and brackets by welding. 

 Not a terrible option as the local rancher has installed along his highway frontage a painted five rail pipe continuous fence that can make even city slickers feel pangs of fence envy.  Miles of white flowing ribbons of fence undulating on both sides of the highway sets a pretty high standard.  So how to achieve that level with a 2-3 person weekend team and 1/264th the budget?

We could weld it...have the skills and the tools but the hours required are far more than we can spend.  Dig, concrete post, weld, weld. weld, weld, weld and repeat.  (Not mentioning the measure, measure, level, level every step.)  There is also the additional step of  machining a saddle cut on the top of every post to accept the top rail.  

There is one more major factor that kept us from welding...fire.

This area is a delicate and fairly dry environment of pinon pine, scrub oak and manzanita brush.  It has seen two large devastating fires in the past ...the last one in 2013 caused the tragic loss of 19 firefighters of the Granite Mountain Hotshot team.  

There were some remnants of old cow fence on the property...rusted barb wire snarled around aged tree branch "posts" and railroad ties.  In fact, laying out in the field was the original gate made from split water pipe and still hinged to an ancient railroad tie that we drug up and reinstalled as the road gate.  It sort of became the inspiration for the look.  

First we had to find the ties at a reasonable cost or the whole thing wouldn't make sense.  Retail stores and landscaping supply were way too expensive ($19+ each).   There is a rr tie salvage yard in our state so there inexpensive ties available...just had to find them, and we did in the online classifeds.    Our first couple loads we had to haul three hours to the property but the 8' long decent ties were running only $6 per pole.  

Oil field pipe is commonly used in our area for horse facilities and our neighbor happens to be a fence builder.  He offered to sell us full lengths (approx 38-40' ) and drop them in our driveway driving them from his house on his skid steer.  

And there are the two ingredients...

Next, how to make it interconnect.

The initial attempts were ok but a bit inefficient.  Oil field pipe flares to the joints where it is threaded together.  We planned on drilling holes in the ties to hold the pipe rails but with the flaring and joint we need three different hole saw bits...it was luck of the draw as to what diameter would meet up at the post.  We were also wasting some pipe to cuts.  

Epiphany- spin the lengths back together and then make uniform lengths leaving the joints in the middle of the rails.  Now we only needed one hole saw bit size and there was zero wasted ends.

The final nightmare situation that almost shut us down and made us reconsider writing that enormous check to the fence company was the hole digging.  The ground is decomposed granite with rocks and roots.  We rented two different one-man augers.  The first one managed 3 holes way shy of the 2' depth we were hoping for and the second got one hole done and then spun on the hard surface for 20 minutes resulting in a 4'deep "hole"on the second hole that day...  we gave up.

We found a hand held auger with three bit sizes on ebay and ordered it.  The listing read like a Chinese seller but the product was shipping out of California so we chanced it.  This auger was the only one t ooffer three specialty bits with reinforced drilling tips with double helix of steel and cutting edge with replaceable/resharpen-able blades.  Of course it showed up with three flimsy lightweight drilling bits.  I was pretty bummed because we were on the verge of abandoning the project already and then this set back.  So I researched ebays "money back guarantee".  I followed the steps and waited patiently and next thing a refund for the full purchase price of the augers shows up in our account.  When I called to see when the return shipping label would be showing up ebay let me know the vendor had their chance and chose not to get the product back...we had ourselves a free auger and bits due to misrepresentation and false advertising.  So we welded rebar spikes to the drilling ends of the bits to reinforce them and hauled it up to the property.

During the time it took to work out the ebay auger situation we caught another helpful break...it started to rain.  The summer monsoon season had been lackluster and being that we had just purchased the property in July we were not familiar yet with the soils ever-changing consistency based on season and weather.  So when we brought up our newly won auger and the first hole dug like a dream we knew we were back in the game.  

As of today the entire 520' of south fenceline going thru the roughest and rockiest part of the lot is completed...and looks amazing.  Its late spring and the ground has dried again so we will be starting the east line in the north corner down in the meadow.  That area has a long history of being irrigated pasture so the digging should go smoothly.  We will save the last hard rocky section till it rains again.  

Here is a photo description of the step by step process we have developed to create this custom Pipe & Tie fence... 

Makeshift rail manufacturing station

 Most of the prep work happens at the house.  The delivered pipe sections are too long to haul without a semi truck trailer.  We set up the chop saw on the driveway apron to cut the rails to a standard length.

Measuring each rail cut at 13'5"

For our layout we chose to make it a three rail fence with 13' between posts.  Several factors resulted in this configuration.  First we wanted wildlife to freely and safely continue to pass thru the acreage.  By eliminating one rail (sticking with a three rail opposed to four rail) we would save a bundle on materials.  When we mocked up a section in the driveway we could see that scale of  the bulky posts and thick fence rails made the fourth rail unnecessary.  We played with the lengths of the rails in the mock up also.  15' long rails would've reduced the number of posts however we thought we could see a bit of sag in the middle of the rail at that length...at 13' the rail was straight and strong. 

Ready to spin the sections together

WD-40 on the rusted threads

Dual pipe wrenches and the sections go right back together

Steel cutting blade on chop saw

Trailer load ready to go up to property

Auger first...

finish and shape by hand.

The fence is installed similar to split rail.  A post is set, rails are put in place then next post is set, squeezing the rails in place.  This style of fence works well when you are dealing with hills rather than flat as the fence can contour to the rises and falls of the ground.

The hardness of the rr ties required use of a corded drill so we picked up an inexpensive one at Harbor Freight.  We made sure it had a good second grip for when it would eventually catch and kick back while drilling.  To power the drill we drug out a generator.

Decide the average height off the ground you want (this will vary over rapidly changing terrain but to keep the fence flowing smoothly you should have a "home" measurement)  

then decide on your overall height. Now you can establish the measurement between the rails...the space between the rails should never vary.  If you are dealing with undulating ground you need to think ahead.  Our first couple posts followed the ground exactly which was a mistake...the fence jogged up and down randomly making it look haphazard.  We ended up having to lower a post and raise another to achieve a smooth flow.  Be aware of the average increase or decrease of elevation and plan to follow that.

  Mark your rail positions on the set post and prepare to drill.  We tried a few hole bits and found one made by Spyder to work the best.  It helps it is somewhat resharpenable.  

Fire up the generator, plug in the drill and hold on!

Our pipe rails were cut taking into consideration the amount of pipe that would recess into the posts on both ends.  Measure out from set post and drill your next post hole.  Place the post in the hole but don't set it yet.  Place the bottom rail in its hole on the set post.  Hold it up at whatever angle is necessary to have the fence follow terrain OR if flat ground use level and press second post against it to mark it for corresponding rail holes.  Insert your rails between the set post and the loose post and hammer/squeeze them together.  The loose post can now be set and becomes the set post for the next section.