Fence Stretching

[babsbag]

@Bruce What is a brace pin? If the deal on the property comes through I will have to fence some areas without my beloved trees that I use for corners. I have a post hole auger and I understand the H brace and will probably use that and not a floating one. I have never built either, my one and only corner that isn't a tree is made from T-posts, functional but not pretty.

 

[Latestarter]

I believe the brace pin is a pin that extends through the vertical post and into the end of the horizontal post to help hold it in place. You want to leave about 1/2" of the pin sticking out on the non-brace side of the fence vertical so you have a handy place to wrap your "X" wires to add support to the fence.

 

[babsbag]

Hmmm. They make a special pin for this? Guess I need to do some research.

 

[Latestarter]

Or you can use a chunk of rebar, or one of those really long like landscaping nails that are 12" long or some such. really any metal item to tie it all together would work. Or skip it and notch the vertical post to hold the horizontal up then drive some long nails down through at an angle through the horizontal into the vertical to hold it in place.

 

[greybeard]

I believe the brace pin is a pin that extends through the vertical post and into the end of the horizontal post to help hold it in place. You want to leave about 1/2" of the pin sticking out on the non-brace side of the fence vertical so you have a handy place to wrap your "X" wires to add support to the fence.

Ideally, the tension of the diagonal wire will hold the 2 vertical posts firmly against the horizontal brace enough that it is secure, but with cattle, I've seen that horizontal member get knocked out of it's position, so the brace pin or a large nail on each end is usually enough to hold it in place if it gets hit by an animal r some crazy old guy on a tractor.

Drawing shows nail holding the horiz brace into a cut on the left--and how a brace pin is used on the right.
I have never used a brace pin, but have seen it done, and no cut is made into the vertical post.

 

[Bruce]

What they said TSC is currently selling the box of five 10" brace pins for $2.44. Website says "was $4.89" and I think that is what I paid. Maybe it is a 'not fencing season' thing. They also have 5" pins. Depends on what size posts you are using. Can't use a 5" pin if you are using a 6" post and either want to drill through into the horizontal member like I suggested earlier or want to leave 1/2" or so out as @Latestarter said to 'anchor' the brace wire to keep it from sliding down the post. The pins don't pull the posts together, they just keep the horizontal from slipping down, same as the notch and BIG nail on the left side of @greybeard's drawing above.

If you don't have a pin sticking out, you use fence staples as is commonly done at the bottom. That is shown in a number of videos but as I mentioned earlier, trying to hit a hole that you can't see in post with the pin sticking out of a heavy long horizontal member isn't much fun. I found it much easier to just anchor the horizontal where I want it with ratchet straps and drill through the post into the horizontal then pound in the pin whether I needed to have a brace wire there or not. Having the horizontal cranked tight during the pin pounding process makes that easier as well since there will be less "bounce". It isn't until the brace wire is in place that the H-brace is really solid but the ratchet straps keep it stiff while pounding the pins. Oh, and I misstated the drilling process before. I don't need a level for that, I can eyeball it. I use the level to drill the holes for the bolt hooks to hang the gates on.

If you are going to hang a gate on one side or the other, you need to use an H-brace. In the drawing above, it is braced for a gate or stretched fence on the left. To put a gate or fence on the right, you would need brace wire in the opposite direction. If you have both stretched fence and a gate on the H-brace, you need brace wire in both directions.

With all the @#$%^ rocks and ledge here, I did use floating braces where I could. One less post and brace pin to buy, 1 less pin hole (or notch) to make but more importantly one less 3' deep hole to dig. On the other hand, if you have easy digging ground and a power auger, you can avoid figuring out and buying/finding what you are going to use for the ground pad and cutting on both ends of the angle brace part. As noted above I set the posts for my H-braces with the horizontal member on the ground as a spacer so I didn't have to cut it to length.

You can learn a lot by watching fencing videos by RedBrand and others. But they never have rocks or heavy soil and always have helpers when necessary You will find a lot that use "twitch sticks" to tighten the brace wire. Personally, while inline fence strainers are much more expensive than a stick, I used them. Much more control and you aren't relying on a 'stick' (could be a metal rod) twisted in the wire to hold it.

 

[babsbag]

Thanks for all the info and tips. I will definitely use H braces and I also have gates. I have seen some bracing on fences where they make an "h" type brace but the horizontal post is actually diagonal. Any advantage to that? I could easily notch out the posts too but I would use either my chain saw or my reciprocal saw as a "grinder" and skip the chisel. I cheat...

DH will help with this fencing but I better know what I want and the way I want it or there will be some long drawn out debate and I would prefer to avoid that. I will try and set the corners during the week while he is at work so no debating possible. This fence is on the main road that all the neighbors travel so I really want it to be straight, neat, and tidy.

 

[Bruce]

@greybeard will have to answer that one.

MAYBE they aren't using brace wire and the angled wood is serving that purpose with the 'free' post acting as the anchor point? If so the bracing will be opposite what you would do with brace wire on a H-brace. If that brace was used in place of the brace wire in the diagram, the fence would run FROM the left post off to the right. That angled post provides support via compression, brace wire supports with tension. In the diagram, the brace wire both pulls the top of the left post to the right and forces the horizontal against the right post giving it strength against the fence pulling from the left. Thus BOTH posts are structural in that they support the pull of the tensioned fence. With that 'free' post, there is nothing other than the part of it that is in the ground to keep it from being pulled to the right by the fence so you wouldn't use it other than for holding the fence up vertically.

I think the structural difference between that and a floating brace is that the brace is pushing against the bottom of the 'free' post which keeps the brace from moving away from the end post as the fence pulls and from sinking into the ground. With a floating brace, the bottom of the brace is tension wired back to the bottom of the end post and a 'pad' of the proper size is used to keep the brace from being forced into the ground by the fence tension. Thus the net is you don't have brace wire, pad and a tensioner but you still need 2 posts and 2 holes. I suppose there could be some value to that angled wood brace but I would likely do the H-brace. Yes more 'hardware' but if you decide you want a gate there in the future, you already have a hinge side built, it would only need a brace wire in the opposite direction. Plus, BOTH posts can take fence tension.