Making Sure Your Fences Foundations are Solid
Uneven ground is one of the most frustrating problems you can encounter when installing your aluminum fencing. Aluminum Fences Direct is here to help you navigate this tricky territory and to make sure you feel confident installing your fence this season.
What Causes The Ground to Be Uneven?
Before you even purchase your aluminum fence, you’re going to want to evaluate the land that you’re planning to install it on. With any major fundamental problems, uneven ground especially, it’s best to plan ahead. Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of uneven ground that you should be aware of.
The Composition of Your Soil
You should have a certain level of awareness about what the soil underneath your property is like. By no means do you need to be a “soil expert” or anything along those lines, but you do need to understand how well things that you put into the ground are going to stay. You don’t want soil that’s too stiff and you also don’t want soil that’s too loose. Too much stiffness or looseness will make your ground essentially unworkable for your fence posts, and you might find that you have to make some changes for installation of your aluminum fence to be possible.
For example, red dirt is extremely dense. The problem with this is that rainwater can build up over time because the water has nowhere to go, which will make your posts rot much more quickly than they otherwise would.
By that same token, sand is far too loose. It won’t give your fence posts a solid foundation and they’ll become wobbly and unstable, which will obviously make installation a total and complete nightmare.
A standard solution to problems like these are to replace the problem areas in your soil with a different material, such as additional top soil. This makes for an excellent balance of density and looseness, which will allow you to install your fence posts firmly and securely.
Look Out For Rocks
As you likely already know, rocks complicate almost anything that involves digging into the ground, and it’s no different with fencing. Smaller rocks are much less of a problem than bigger rocks, and you might want to make sure that you do a full evaluation of the ground that you plan to install your fence on before you purchase it and get to work.
If you can find a way to remove the rocks yourself, this is obviously going to be your cheapest option, but you’ll need to be extremely careful. If that’s not an option for you (or if you don’t want to risk any injuries), then you may want to contact a landscaper with rock-removal services to take care of the issue for you.
If this is an issue for you, here’s an excellent directory for finding services nearby that can help you out.
Problems With Plant Roots
Landscapers and gardeners alike can attest to this: sometimes plants just can’t help but get in the way. That’s why roots are often the bane of many would-be fence installers.
Now it’s true that much of the time roots can simply be cut through, but this isn’t always the case. You really don’t want to be sloppy with roots as they could come back to cause damage later on, so it’s best to do a full removal every time that you come across one. If you find that they’re too tough for you or that it’s impossible to do on your own with a few extra helping hands, then your best decision might be to, once again, hire a professional to deal with it for you.
Regardless of what you choose to do, it’s important to make sure that roots are officially dealt with before you move on to installing your fence.
But What If My Fence Is On A Slope?
As we just discussed, there are plenty of ways to work around the normal problems that fence installers run into. But what if there are problems that you can’t fix by digging into the ground and doing some work? Sometimes you need to build a fence on a slope, and no amount of root pulling or gravel or rock picking is going to change that. There are a few options to consider when you’re in a situation like this.
Raking (or Racking)
When doing this, your pickets and your posts will remain vertical and only your rails will go along with the slopes. Just give us a call before you commit to racking/raking with your aluminum fence and we’ll help to explain it.
Stepping
Another option for dealing with slopes and installing your aluminum fence is to do what is called ‘stepping’. This is a bit tougher than racking/raking. It involves installing your fence exactly how you would normally, but with longer End Posts at each of the ‘stepped’ locations. Then lower each panel to follow along with the slope of your property. Use wall/post mounts to connect to the lower side of that ‘stepped’ End Post.
Stepping may be more visually pleasing, and is even sometimes done simply for aesthetic purposes, but it does tend to leave larger gaps under the fence on the lower end. Many fence-owners will often take this opportunity to do some clever landscaping by adding shrubbery or installing rocks in the parts where the gaps are most prevalent.
For more information on raking/racking, stepping, and sloped ground in general, take a look at our blog post fully dedicated to the subject.
In Conclusion
A lot of fence owners tend to panic when obstacles like uneven ground pop-up, but as you can see, these problems are quite workable.
At Aluminum Fences Direct, we don’t just get you the fencing you need and send you on your way, we support you the entire way, from planning to shipping to installation, we’re there for you the entire time. And if you’re ready to protect your yard in the most efficient and aesthetically pleasing way possible, then we’ve got good news… You’re already in the right place.
