A Start

This afternoon I made a start on the pool fencing which had been delivered earlier in the week.  Not all of it can be installed at this time because the Bobcat and excavator will need room for the excavations.

The longest part of the process was getting the two end posts plumb.  The concrete pad isn’t level and I needed to insert washers under the corners of some of the post baseplates in order to ensure the posts were correctly vertically aligned.  I decided to use plugs and screws to fix the posts to the pad rather than dynabolts.  I think the former give me slightly more “wriggle room”.

First I marking the fence line on the concrete pad using a chalk line.  Then I measured and marked the position of each post.  I also made a small baseplate template with a scrap of plywood.  This was used to ensure the anchor holes were correctly aligned.

Four holes for each post.  Two 80mm long plugs about to be hammered home.  You can see the small plywood template I used to mark the position of the holes. 

With the end posts correctly installed I ran a high and low string line between them to align the intermediate posts.  This is when I came upon my next snag.  I’d got too clever for my own good and instead of purchasing the anchor plugs and bolts in a blister pack of two ($4.86 ea) I’d  found a box of 10 on the shelf in the hardware store ($15).  It wasn’t until I opened the box I discovered that unlike the two packs  the screws in the box didn’t have a bolt head.

 

The box contained large cross head screws and I didn’t have a bit that would fit.  After visiting four tool shops the final salesman suggested I try CLI Fasteners.  Fortunately CLI had a bit that would fit.  The salesman told me he hadn’t sold one that size in years.  Well I was able to insert the screws using the impact driver (another good purchase). 

With all the posts installed I started fitting the fence panels.

Intermediate panel.  The gate will be in the foreground

End panel also fitted.

This evening I’ve been reading the installation instructions for the gate hinges and latch (I must be getting old).  The gate will be installed tomorrow….. No rest for the wicked!