Terminating End Posts and Posts with Gates:You should read the
Posts and Post Holes section of this web-site so that you'll understand how to plant the posts properly. These particular posts are the most critical along your fence and skimping or doing something wrong might get you into trouble down the road. You might need to re-do your work or be stuck looking at something your not totally happy with. I recommend you sink these posts in concrete, deep, and allow them to dry for a minimum of two full days before putting any tension on them (a week to cure would be better yet).
For each end of a terminating fence line (shown at the right) it requires three posts. Two posts are cemented into the ground and are spaced approx 6 - 7 feet apart. After the cement is cured, they can be notched near the top to hold the third horizontal beam. Notching can be done using a hand saw and a wide sharp chisel and hammer, or, you can use good hatchet to take out the waste. Once you mount the horizontal beam you have the option of adding nails or just trusting the notches to hold in the horizontal beam; both will work.
A diagonal tension wire is installed to hold the thing together and to resist the strain of the fence. Starting from the bottom of the outside post, attach a wire to this post using
barbed staples and string it up to the top of the adjacent post. This wire is equipped with a
wire strainer (See picture on right) in the middle so that tension can be increased to counter the tension of the fence pulling against it. The wires being strained should wrap around the posts like a noose. The diagram at the right demonstrates the forces countering the fence tension.
The diagonal tension line should be a 10 - 12 gage wire or thicker. A thick wire is needed because the strainer wire tension (force) of this wire is somewhere between 15 - 50% greater than the entire force of the fence (depending on its angle). The greater the distance of th etwo verticle posts, the less force that's required on the strainer wire. In essence, this is the wire that keeps your fence up. If it's weakened over time (rust for example), then it will snap and your posts will break, bend, or be yanked out of the ground if you didn't overengineer the materials needed for this.
In additional to what's described, I also add an extra piece of protection for this wire by stringing a plastic tubing over the exposed wire. This will also help if you try to string up electrical wire over it because it insulates the wire from grounding but mainlythis will help reduce corrosion and protect it from accidental nicks cause by things like gates, trees, or animals rubbing or hitting it.
When stringing up the fence, staple the end securely to your starting point and roll out the fence, laying the bottom fence wire closest to where the fence will be standing. Do this because the first wire to be strained is the bottom of the fence, and, laying out like this will place the bottom wire closest to where it first needs to be. (T-posts are placed AFTER the face is up)
Open the
fence strainer and attach it to the bottom wire of the fence. . . . . And place the other open claw around the terminating post.
Ratchet the strainer until the fence is at the desired tension and staple it to the terminating post (where the claw is). You'll notice that on the
crimped fence style of fence that the crimps will begin to straighten themselves; this is the proper tension.
Secure the fence to the post using the barbed staples and using your fence pliers; trim the excess fence leaving 4 - 6 inches of extra fence beyond the staples. The extra fence is needed to wrap around the pole and add a second set of staples to secure it once the tension is applied and you're satisfied with the results. The barbed staples should be placed diagonally across an intersecting set of wires so that the wire doesn't slip through the staple and lose tension once you remove the fence strainer. If that's not possible, use two staples on opposite diagonals and pound them in so deep that it bends the wire slightly.
Repeat the process moving up the fence from bottom to top, each time securing the wire to the post. If you apply the same tension throughout the process you should have perfect squares, not tilted or leaning, in your fence openings. You should also be looking (or measuring) the vertical posts and tightening the wire strainer as more and more force is applied to the terminating post as you tighten the fence.
Fence Turns and Corners:The principle for corners or turns in the fence is exactly the same as a terminating post except that you'll be adding an additional post in the ground and horizontal beam. The middle post will serve as the terminating post for both directions of the fence.
You'll need this kind of support when the fence turns more that 3 feet in a stretch of 8 feet long. This is easy to figure out. From the spot where you plan to end the straight part of your fence, lay an 8-ft post in the new direction you're going to continue with the fence. Then measure the distance from the tip of this beam back toward where the fence WOULD have been if it hadn't turned (See the diagram). If it's 3 ft or greater than you'll need to do this dprcisl type of brace. Otherwise, on a nice wet rainy day, the soil will give way and the tension from your fence will pull the post onto its side.
The corner support needs three posts sunk into concrete, the middle post is considered the same as a terminal end in the above example, and the diagonal tension wires both attached to the bottom of the terminal (middle) post.
Unlike the fence that terminates (example at the top of the page), you will need to nail the horizontal beams into the vertical posts. If you don't, the heat and cold of the day will eventually cause the horizontal beams to slip out of place and once again, the whole thing will fall over.