On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:19:08 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

Hearing that I was planning to put up a fence, a friend who owns a small
farm (but does not work it herself) offered to lend me a post-hole digger.

She called to say that the guy who works for her is even willing to come
dig the holes and set the posts for me, but his standard method is:

for 4" posts, use a 3" post-hole digger, then drive the posts in and
throw the dirt back in. No concrete necessary.

Please tell me that, while this may work for chain-link or barbed-wire
fencing out on the farm, this isn't going to work for posts to support
fence panels in a residential environment. I see two problems: (a) how
do you ensure that the posts are plumb? (b) the tops of the posts are
going to get wrecked in the course of driving them in.


So? Get the posts a little bit long, and trim the tops to height
after they're in place. It won't matter if they mushroom, because
you're cutting that part off.

And if the holes are drilled straight, the posts should go in
straight. Make minor adustments by pulling them just through vertical
away from the direction of lean, and pounding the ground on the
leanward side with a sledgehammer.