- Today, we are going to
install a six foot white vinyl privacy fence here at this beautiful home. The way that we would do
that is we would dig a hole, fill it full of concrete,
stab the vinyl post into the concrete. The next day, we would
then go erecting the fence and hang the gates and be done. That's not how we're going to do it today. Today, we are going to drive these posts. Then take a donut. Not the kind of donut you're thinking of. This kind of a donut. It's a 2 3/8 by 5/8 post adapter. It's going to slide over these posts and slide up into the vital
post, adapt into that. It's going to be how this all works. (rhino pounder hammering) - All of these posts, they are 2 3/8. So they're all the exact same size. You should see the exact same
amount of post on each side of the post that you're siting in. When I look this way, I
should be able to see just a tiny sliver of nothing. I wouldn't see something. I would see just enough of
the, of the posts behind me and all on a nice straight line. I'm looking from this one
to this one, to that one, to that one, to that one, to that one to make sure that my line is continually straight. The rest of your line is your reassurance that you're headed straight. (rhino pounder hammering) - So, our posts are 2 3/8 SS40. There are six feet long. There is three feet going in the ground. Three feet coming out of the ground. This ground is pretty good. It's not known for a lot of rocks. So we knew that we'd be able
to achieve our driving depth on this particular piece of land. So this one particular post right here, we left taller. It's actually not left taller. It's a longer post. This was an eight foot post
instead of a six foot post. We want a little bit more
post sticking up top. So that way our gate has something, has some meat to hang on to because this is going
to be our hinge post. Why is it going to be our hinge post? Because it's on the low side. The land is supposed to be
sloped away from the house. So that way, when you
have water on the ground, it doesn't drain back to the house. It drains away from the house. In that sense of saying that,
this would make our low side. We definitely want to
hinge on our low side. Like we always talk about. (drilling) We got some of our
donuts put on over here. We got them put halfway up here then the one under the bottom. So what we're going to do is we have our post here. There you go. I got it on there. So we're going to slide our vinyl post, our vinyl five by five over the donut and then we're going to receive into the bottom and it slides just right over that. And once we set it to height Which we're not ready
to set it to height yet because we still have
to cut our bottom rail. We can screw down here and screw down here into our donut, and then cover it back with
our dirt or their vinyl post And back behind me, you can see that they already kind of got that going on back here. So they got three of them ready. What we're going to do
is we're going to measure from metal post from face to face. So that rail sits tight from
inside a post to inside a post. And it can't come out
one way or the other. We can still lift our
vinyl post up so we can get our rail set in there. And it's going to lock in
between the two, 2 3/8 post so it can't slide out of
the post and go anywhere. As soon as we get all the rails cut for this whole entire side, then we can start setting
this fence to height. As soon as it's set to
height, we can start building. (rhino pounder hammering) Whatever it is that you may
be putting your fence around you still have those primary
utilities that are going to go through your area of work that have to get into the building of
residents being a home or the business that
you're fencing around. When you do your layout what we've found that
helps us is make sure and do your layout so that you can work
around those utilities and you're not having to hand dig or pound right next to them. Especially in this scenario,
since we did our layout, we made sure to give
ourselves adequate room between the gas line
that is shown right here and our post spacing. So in this particular part of
the yard, we're in the back. We're in the alleyway. The utilities are right
on the edge of the alley. In this particular subdivision, the utilities are just barely
within, inside the property. So to keep the fence looking
nice, slick, and clean, instead of doing a utility
bump-out where you do a little, a U kind of to block all this out. I have talked with my
customer and what we're actually going to do is we're
going to keep everything in a nice straight line. We're going to go to right here. So from point a to point B, so we still have a nice straight line, and this can stay all on
the outside of the fence, All that we're losing of the property is just a little piece of the pie. Not very much at all. As far as our post spacing, this is going to be our corner, and they have some utility marks in here because it's so congested
in these two holes. Now we could pound them because, I mean, that's obviously utility right there. Is there more? Nothing's marked coming out of this box. So unfortunately for this area right here the best thing for us
to do to get this post in the ground is to hand dig it to make sure that we
safely get it in there. and we don't risk killing the utility. We're going to go ahead
and these rails in. Earlier I was telling you about
how we were going to do it. Now we have some of the bottom rail cut and the top rail cut. If you are familiar
with vinyl fence at all, traditionally you're used
to the post being hollow so you can slide all the
way inside one blank post and then pull back out and
go into your receiving post. And then you're going to, you
just keep on Daisy chaining that effect down your fence line. Since we have that 2 3/8 post in there that now becomes an issue. So we can't go all the way
in one side and in the other because we don't have "insertion". So now we're going to
show you how to do it. (drilling) We're lifting up this post. And what we're going to do
is we're also going to rotate at the same time to
get this rail in there. Like so. Now we're going to put that
post back over that donut. That bottom rail is inserted. Now, just like I was saying,
you probably notice how there is no crimps on the rail, right? Of course you were because
you were just looking at that. I know you were. The rail can't come out because it's locked in by the two posts. Oh yeah. This is where it's going to get tricky. I'm going to go in this post now because you remember last time I started in this post. I'm going to start on the
other side of the post because I need the blank post over here. Don't trip. So we've got the rail inserted. Now we're just trying to get that post over that donut. There it goes. So now of course, this post can still turn because we're not done with it yet. After we get all this bottom rail in, we can see how the fence is going to flow and we're either going
to pound the post down just a little bit or raise it up, screwed into place and call it good. Look at that. We got all
the way to the corner. No we can set our height. We are actually going
to establish our height. So I have chosen this
post because this is where it all started and we're
going to go that direction. So I'm going to set this one kind of where I think it needs to be. So I'm looking for the elevation not to be a whole lot higher
than the elevation of the dirt but I do have some hardscape
here that I can pull off of. I want these two elevations, the bottom of the rail to be pretty close to the top of the
concrete, which it is now. So we're going to go ahead
and screw this post in. And what we're going to do
is we have a donut down here at the bottom of the post. We're going to screw in
from the post to the donut. Then we're going to screw
back into the donut. Really? - You kept talking about them. - Really? Donut break? Is that where you've been
this whole entire time? - Yeah. - Yeah. So we're going to go ahead and attach through the side down here. So right now we're just going to go ahead and put this screw in. (drilling) (hammering) - Whoa (drilling) (power saw) - So that middle donut we obviously screwed
into the bottom donut. We showed you that kind of
just here a few minutes ago and now we need to attach
into that middle donut. How are we going to find it? We're going to show you. So I'm sticking my tape
down inside my post and landing on top of that donut. And I'm coming up to the top
of that is 36 and a half. So I'm going to add, I'm just
going to add a half an inch or a little bit over to get
to the center of that donut. So I'm going to, I'm
going to go for 37 and 1/8 and on the inside of my U-channel, marker, pencil, it doesn't matter. As long as you don't mark the outside. So if you're not very
careful with the marker maybe use a pencil. So I'm going to mark 37 and 1/8. And I'm going to go ahead
and put a screw in that. (drilling) I can tell I'm getting my
donut because you can see that my U-channel is
pushing out from my post. So I, I am in my adapter bracket. (drilling) Going back through, we
have all of our U-channels on now going this direction
and we're going to go back through and put
all those middle screws in. (drilling) I mean, if you're going to use donuts you got to eat donuts. I mean, it goes hand in hand. (music) (hammering) We told you we were going
to show you the next step. Here's the next step. The last thing that we showed
you was how to find that donut and to screw put your last screw through the U-channel into the donut. And now it's all about building
a section of vinyl fence, Privacy, vinyl white privacy fence is what we're working on right here. And what we're going
to do is we're going to take our measurement for our rip picket. So down here, we like to
measure from the bottom because that's where you
can control the post. You got flex at the top of the post. Your measurement's going to
be accurate at the bottom. - Make sure that your pickets are pulled all the way against each other. Let's take your tape inside the U-channel and get that dimension. It looks like we're about 2 3/4. They've already got the picket rip for us. So we're going to take this
case, which is our rip. We're going to install it right here. - Now, with our leftover piece, it's going to go to the
next side of the post. There is absolutely zero waste. Oh, you're not packing around
a whole bunch of scrap pickets filling a dumpster with
a whole bunch of scrap. You're able to use 100% of that picket. That is how you build and assemble a section
of vinyl privacy fence. Now that we have the
pickets ripped to the width of the section and the section
fit between the two posts, all we need to do now
is insert the top rail. Now, the top rail has
already been pre-cut for us. What we did was we measured from post to post and I got 75 and a half. What we're going to do is we're
going to add three inches, one an inch and a half
insertion for each side of, each side of the section. Theoretically, an inch
and a half of the rail goes into this post and an inch and a half of
rail goes into this post. So now what we're going to do
since it's already pre-cut, We're going to slide it on one side We're going to slide it on the side. We are going to insert on the
side that is an open post. What I mean by that is
this one already has a rail in it so that we can get the rail slid all the way back into that post. So we can go back on top of this section and slide into that post. Now on the corner, you're going to, I'm going to contradict what I just said but I don't have to worry about that because this rail right here misses and still between my full gap so I can slide my rail all
the way back to the back side of that post. Once we got the rail in there
and slid all the way back, pull it back and feel for,
that we've got enough rail on each side so we can put a rail lock on. Now, as soon as we put
our rail locks on there, we can glue our caps on, these two sections of fence are done. Now that our section is built we have our pickets installed. We have our top rail on. We're going to do one of
the two ways that you can do to fasten this rail in place. One way that you can do is you
can use a vinyl rail notcher. What it is is you put
this on your vinyl rail and you can press it. And it pops a little tab out of the rail. So that way when the rail gets
inserted into the vinyl post that tab grabs back behind
the hole on each side so that way the rail can't come out. So that is not the
method we're going to do on this particular job. We're going to use what
they call the rail lock. So what it does is this
goes inside the post and for any rail, for your rail, for the rail that comes in this direction, we have a screw hole and the rail that comes in this direction, we have a screw hole. We can then lock those rails
into place with a couple of fasteners and we'll go through and we'll do that on the
top of every single post. It just fits nice and snug in there. I don't have to finesse it or nothing. (drilling) Now I just screwed the
screw into this rail. That is how we're keeping these rails on this particular fence from coming out. So should you ever want
to take a section out, it's pretty easy. All you'd have to do is pop your cap off remove your rail lock,
pull your top rail out, pull your pickets out, twist your post, pull out that bottom rail, And then you have, you have a
section that you can take out within, within a matter of minutes. So now that we got our rail on,
we've got our sections done, we're still not done. We got one minor, small
little, itty bitty little thing we got do. Put the cap on. This is probably the hardest
part of the whole job. And the reason I say that it's because you're going to use glue. If you have some guys that
are like, well, how much how much glue do you use? You know, it's kind of like
wrapping a Christmas present. How much tape should you
use on the wrapping paper to wrap a Christmas present? The same concept. How much glue do you use? You don't need that much, honestly. So we just picked two sides,
about right in the center we're going to go about the size of a pea. I mean really small. You don't have to do all four sides. You don't have to do a
four or five inch line. You just need a couple of
dots and we'll put it on. Give it a firm tap down, make sure it's sitting nice and level. Once that's done, you can
move on to your next one. Okay. (drilling) There it goes. Well I guess it was
quickly just flipped over, (sawing) (drilling) - Four screws, take it off,
flip it over, put it back on. - But that one's going to
have a big spring in it. And then it's going to come
out and hit you in the face. - We should get that on video. (laughing) Yeah. (drilling) - Nope. It'll come in right here. (drilling) - You want to know one more
cool thing about those hinges? Did I tell you that they're self-closing? Yeah, that's right. There's self-closing. So we just wanted to do a overview of this install of this particular fence. We wanted to compare it to
the, the standard method of what we typically do of digging a hole and then filling it full of
concrete and setting that post in the concrete. Let's compare the equipment needed for this method versus
our standard method. For this particular
method, the biggest piece of equipment that we
needed was a rhino pounder. And that was just to drive
the post in the ground. We didn't need a skid steer on this job to be able to drill a hole and or multiple holes and then
fill them full of concrete. So the less equipment was nice. Another comparison is if you're working on a job where your customer or whoever you may be working
for is really concerned about destruction to their landscape, this method I would say would
probably be a lot safer. Also, if you have limited job access. So if you have no job
access to get a piece of equipment back there, such as an MT85, you know just a little walk behind, I would definitely say this is the, this is what I would recommend. This is the way I would do that. I have done that before. I've had to bucket concrete, back to posts and it's not very much fun. Speed on, on install is still
debatable because, I mean, this is our first one. So we can't really say that, "Oh, we're, we're super fast at this and this is the only way to go." We're optimistic. And as far as I go, I'm still gonna choose whatever
way may be best for me. Not one is better than the other. I would say they're both the same. They're both structurally sound. They both have structural integrity. Another comparison is cost. You may think that this
method may be cheaper versus the concrete method. It's not, I'm going to say
it's a wash across the board. And the reason being, even though you're not
buying that concrete whatever you're going rate for concrete is in your local area, that steel post is
cheaper than that concrete but the labor to get
that post in the ground that's where the reflection comes. And that's where your costs
are going to completely wash. One other comparison is for repairs. So if this post ever failed or somebody, somehow this post broke now
for repair in this fence it's going to be a lot
easier than a repair than one that was set in concrete because you're actually
going to have to dig around the base and anchor into that base and pull that post out and then hand mix and set another post. Whereas this, you just got
to undo a couple of sections, few screws, flip it off,
slip another one on. This, this particular method is, I wouldn't try it in a
rocky ground condition. So if you know that you're dealing with a lot of rock, I
wouldn't even try this. And I would go straight to going to the other method that I
would definitely do dig and set because it's just going
to be way too hard to try to bypass those rocks when you're driving
that post in the ground. I think it's going to
take you a lot more time and it's just not going to be worth it. In the end, you still
have to do the method that is the fastest for you. Last thing that I can think
of as far as the comparison, I'm sure there's many more. As far as the work time, you have infinite work
time on this method. Now, the concrete method, you
only have so much work time from when you pour the
concrete in the hole to the time that you go to put that post in the concrete. If you let too much time lapse and it's a nice hot summer's day you're not going to be able
to get that post in there because that concrete
is going to be too hard. This is a lot more forgiving in time. You can alow let more time go
by versus the other method. You have a good dang day. So what you're going to do is
you're going to take the glue. Then you're going to put a
little dab of glue right there. Ta-da. Hi, we're rolling again. Just kidding. Don't use that. What's up. Can I get you anything? Lens cleaner, bottle of Windex? No? All right. Ready? Ready? Action. I got my own clapperboard. See, clap. Clap. Just kidding. So we're going to go ahead
and put these rails in. You can edit that out.
