Old neighbor's corner post trick saved my fence from the wind

My neighbor Bob, who built fences for 30 years, told me to set corner posts 6 inches deeper than the rest and backfill with gravel instead of dirt. I thought he was being old school, but after that storm last April in Wichita, every straight run post leaned except the corners. He also said to brace the corners with a 2x4 angled into the ground, which took me an extra hour but held up perfect when the wind hit 60 mph. Anyone else got a similar trick that sounds dumb but actually works for their builds?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

kaigibson19d ago

and that's kinda how it goes with a lot of stuff honestly. it's always the boring, extra step people skip that ends up saving the whole project, like taking the time to level a shelf or actually reading the instructions. i've noticed that whenever i rush the part that seems unnecessary, that's exactly the part that comes back to bite me later. Bob sounds like he knew the secret, and that's just good experience talking.

3