How to use an AUGER to dig fence posts
Hey, this is Sandy. This is Andy. And today we’re going to talk about how to use an auger to dig your fence hole posts. One man, one man. One man auger- there you go. We provide budget-friendly home improvement advice where we help you to save more so that you can do more. Subscribe below. And let’s get started. For addition backyard DIY projects, CLICK HERE
How to use an Auger to save you time and sanity
We have a pretty sizable backyard and at the time it was pretty open and we had kids so we wanted to put in a fence. Now what I did not know was the variety of fences, the types of styles, offenses, and how much they cost to install. So after some research we kind of came down to the conclusion that we were going to do this as a DIY project. We had a contractor quote 6,000 and another one quoted 7,000. We said, how a DIY project? If we knew how to use an auger, then it would save us time and sanity for the amount of work we needed to do.
We did this project for less than $2000. Now we are not going to lie. This took multiple weekends and it took the coordination of rental equipment, but that was kind of the fun part. So we’re going to talk to you about what, what goes into renting an auger and why you want to rent an auger.
There are a couple of things that Andy did in order to make the process more systematic. I’d have to go back and count how many holes there were, but we’ve dug a few by hand. I think we did two at three feet deep then we did, originally we dug three by hand and realized that we were going to need some help. How to use an auger to make this project more manageable was key.
How to use an AUGER to dig multiple holes for a project
If you want the workout or you have kids and they’re young teenagers and you need to get their energy out, yes, do this, let, let them dig the hole.
But we found that renting an auger was much more practical for this experience. You measured by a tape measure. We did a square, or sorry, an X with X marks the spot we did with spray paint. And we did it every, how many feet apart every eight feet. We used a four by four by eight feet or six feet by eight feet. Okay. And as we went around where we had already pre-measured how big of the yard we wanted to fence.
It opens in two places. And then we also wanted to install lattice in one area, but we’ll do that as a different video. We did fencing in one area and lattice into the other area. So after we, we had to call and rent an auger and it’s a one man auger. We assume that wherever you are living that there is, where there is equipment rental that they will most likely have this machine and the way
It is gasoline powered. Yeah. It’s a one man auger and a rather big machine, but it’s set up really well. Kind of like a Teeter totter. The way you get at home is you, it hooks into a hitch. So you need a vehicle with a trailer hitch, right and it’s not an extremely heavy machine, but that’s, it has wheels on it as you hook it on. Dragging behind the vehicle.
It was so much fun. For inspiration to get your backyard projects or ideas, CLICK HERE
Using an auger to dig multiple holes
It’s a pretty loud machine, like a lawnmower. I thought it was maybe a little bit more than a lawn mower, but I have to admit that the neighbors stopped and enjoyed watching us. So that was kind of fun.
You do have to use your weight to push it down and mine is meager so you might see me struggle a little bit. I mean, you really, you did have to work it down. Now what I thought was neat was that Andy built or made a real quick wooden T almost out of wood of how far we needed to drill it down so that you weren’t guessing. It was like, and you weren’t always having to get your tape measure out and putting it in the hole. You made the stick and then that also served as putting the gravel and then the cement when we went to do it. So that was really easy.
The second thing that we did after we put the holes is we did do gravel first and then cement.
The bottom of the hole before you put cement in, you need to put a couple inches of gravel, kind of big gravel, you know at least golf ball size. And we bought fast drying cement which is a great thing. , I think it costs a little bit more, but it enables you to pour Saturday and Sunday. You take all the supports off and you can start mounting your fence panels the next day.
Mounting Fence posts and panels
As far as mounting the fence panels, we bought several so we actually had to rent a truck for that as well. We just did a daily rental and after we loaded it up and brought it home and unloaded it, uh, it was just the two of us. So you would carry it over and then you actually made a support at the bottom. We were on an incline, but the support allowed it to be off the ground because you don’t want it to be, that’s the mistake that a lot of people make is that they put the fence right on the ground and then it kind of dry rods that are,
You don’t want the fence touching the ground ground is wet, dirt is wet, it’ll rot that wood. You want to take it up off the ground a little bit. I just took a two by four and I cut it into a long wedge shape, like a shim. So you know, you’d set the fence there in place and approximately in line with the posts, but then if you need a little bit higher on one side, you take that wedge and you just slide it in and you know, it lifts, since it’s a wedge, it just lives a little bit at a time. It meant that I wasn’t doing it, which is like straining on the other side.
So that was really awesome. It’s not getting a little bit, it comes up and then you throw a screw and then you also use, so depending on if you have to do the nice side out or nice side in, depending on your neighborhood codes so make sure to check, I know each neighborhood has their own little thing. We put the nice side out so we have the side that you can see the support structure, but with that you put your level and then you wind it down
Tips and Tricks to mounting fence
I kept putting the level on the stringer and you know, you bump it and the whole level falls off and you don’t want it to break. So I just took a quick clamp and clamp the level right to one of the stringers so it never fell off. That was brilliant because then I could see when he was on the other side, because you drilled from the other side.
You drilled pilot holes and then you put the screws in and we literally just like an assembly line went down the road. And I think we have maybe 14 panels or something on that side. It was just a very systematic way of putting it up. Again. We said, uh, overall I think it maybe took us two to three weekends, I think two weeks, two weekends, two weekends sounds right. What we did find out was you do need to, we did it in the fall and so you need to let the wood weather for a year before you paint it or at least a season before you paint it. So that it just, it looks nice.
Maintaining Your Fence
So it looked brilliant there for the first couple of months and then it does fade. So you do want to upkeep that if you use wood fencing instead of some of the other, you know, and that’s why it was $2,000 versus six, seven, $8,000 that we got the pricing on.
There is some maintenance that is involved, but a can of paint and some teaching of how how to paint is nothing compared to the four or $5,000 savings that we did. This was our tutorial on how to use an auger. We highly recommend it if you have more than three to four holes that you need to drill for your fencing, you will appreciate it. It’s inexpensive to rent and easy to use.
Let us know in the comments if you ever have rented an auger.
We went with the one man auger and I have used the two man auger and I found the one man to be way easier. Um, cause the two men, you’re actually supporting the weight of it and pulling it out of the hole. The two of you and the way this is counterbalanced it, it just kind of pulls itself out of the hole. It doesn’t take much effort. So if I had to choose again, I would never do a two man auger.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed how to use an auger to dig your fence posts. Trust us. You want to rent one, but stay tuned as we talk about more budget friendly home improvements that you can do. And we’ll talk to you soon.
