That time my foreman swore 6-foot spacing was fine for a chain link fence in high wind

He told me to save time and skip the extra posts on a 150-foot run near the coast. After the first big storm, three sections buckled and I had to redo them solo. Anyone else have a boss push bad advice that backfired hard?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaronlee22d ago

150 feet with 6 foot spacing on a coastal chain link fence is actually only 25 posts. Standard spacing for chain link in high wind areas is usually 8 to 10 feet max, so your foreman telling you to skip posts would have put you at like 18 or 20 posts at best. That's a huge difference in how the fabric stretches and the whole framework handles lateral pressure. I've seen wind blow right through chain link if it doesn't have enough pickets to break the force, and the posts themselves need to be set deeper in sand or loose soil near the coast. Your foreman probably figured the savings in materials was worth the risk, but that math never works when you're the one wrestling with bowed rails and popped ties after a storm.

lindaw1222d ago

Read a report from the Coastal Engineering Research Center a while back that said chain link fences in coastal zones lose about 40% of their structural strength when post spacing goes past 8 feet. Your foreman probably thought he could get away with it because the fabric is flexible, but that flexibility actually works against you in high winds. The posts start rocking in the sand and the whole thing turns into a sail instead of a windbreak. My neighbor had a similar setup on his beach property and after one nor'easter the fence looked like a Slinky. Setting posts deeper only helps so much when the spacing is too wide, the leverage gets wild. Seems like saving a few bucks on posts just costs you triple in repairs later.