The trick that saved my back on a 300 foot cedar job

I was setting posts for a long cedar fence in a yard with crazy hard clay. My usual method of digging, setting, and bracing each one was killing me, and the line kept drifting. On day two, I tried something different. I dug all the holes first, about 40 of them, and set a temporary 2x4 stake at the exact height of my finished post top at each end of the run. Then I ran a tight nylon string line between those two stakes. Instead of measuring each hole depth with a tape, I just lowered my post into the hole until its top touched the string line. It gave me perfect height and a dead straight line in one move. I saved maybe three hours of fiddling and my back didn't feel like it was done for the week. Has anyone else used a string line as a height guide instead of just for alignment?

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3 Comments

nathan_moore125mo ago

That's a genius level hack (which I definitely didn't learn the hard way after a week of sore muscles).

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evah406mo ago

That's actually a solid trick lol. Did you run into any issues with the string sagging in the middle over that long of a run?

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the_eric6mo ago

Yeah the sagging thing is real! I actually had to think about the weight of the string itself, not just the lights. That long run of paracord can get heavy in the middle and pull down. I ended up adding a few clear plastic hooks along the fence line for extra support, just to take the strain off.

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