Hi,

I'm trying to erect a fence over the site of my house's previous back yard wall.

it's a victorian terrace and most of the walls on the row have been removed so people can park their cars in their back gardens. However due to having dogs and no car, I need a fence.

The fence is being erected between two brick walls (about 11ft distance), and I've already fixed two 3" thick fence posts to the brick walls at either side. Now I need to insert two fence posts into the ground which will be ~ 4.5 feet apart.

Two issues:

1) Getting through the brick foundation is proving extremely challenging using a cold chisel and standard hammer drill. I've managed to remove two bricks from one of the holes, and have produced a ~7inch hole. I'm trying to get at least an 18" hole, so the posts can be rock solid.

2) Gas, electric, cable lines come in at the front of the house, but there's still sewars and water lines probably entering at the back (water meter is in back yard outhouse and there's a man hole in the back yard). I'm wary of hitting anything. How can I find out where these services reside and how deep they are?

There's going to be 4 fence posts and two of those are firmly affixed to the brick walls at either side, so only two posts need to be stuck into the ground. I'm planning to use arris rails and vertical feather edge boards, and I'm wondering if fence posts postcreted into shallow 8" holes could be strong enough given the posts are close together and close to wall anchored posts. Or is this asking for trouble?

Cheers,
imanc