How to Install a Woven-Wire Fence

Miniature donkeys, we are ready for you.

fence in place

I can’t even explain in words the number of hours we spent contemplating this fence. What type of posts to use, how far apart to put supports, what type of fencing, and where to get everything.

The length of time it took us to make these decisions is likely responsible for the fact that we were installing the fence in 35-degree weather, 24 hours before we were blessed with our first inch of snow.

To spare any future fence-installers up here in the northern climates those frozen fingers, let me share with you what I learned.

Types of Fence (particularly for pastures)

I’m pretty insistent on a split rail fence, strictly for looks, and will have it on two sides of this pasture. Eventually. The other two sides of the pasture and the back of the property will be T-posts with woven-wire or “horse fence” as MysteryMan’s grandpa calls it.

Options:

  • Post and board fencing- You see this around horse pastures a lot. It reminds me of Kentucky. My grandparents post and board fence lasted a good 30 years, so it’s worth the money, but I think it’s safe to say, once it’s in, it’s in. So plan ahead.
  • Split-rail fencing– Like the post and board, it’s not ultra flexible and it costs some, but it’s quicker to install than a post and board. For a pasture, or to keep the dogs in, you’ll need to attach welded or woven wire to it as well.
  • Electric fencing – Benefits: You may be able to zap unsuspecting neighbors with it. Practically, it seems pretty easy to string a couple of the hot wires up to some posts. Quick, easy, lots of flexibility, but it does require electricity (ok, duh) and that can cost, also, repairs are probably something to think about. And whether or not you’re clumsy enough to accidentally bang into one of these.
  • Woven wire fencing – (aka field or horse fence) Has larger spacing between wires than a welded wire fence, and can take more of a beating. It also comes in longer lengths, but you can’t find it a your regular big-box store (You can order it from Tractor Supply though)
  • Welded wire fencing – A light-duty version of the woven wire/ horse fence, this one can be strung with lightweight T-posts as well.

If you’re looking for materials or tools, Tractor Supply is the place to go, unless you have a local fence company. We did a lot of price shopping and didn’t find significant savings anywhere, but TSC had the most options to choose from. Check out their selection of fencing products here. Unfortunately you can’t order online, but you can call in or order through a store.

Installing the Fence: Basics

A woven wire fence installed with T-posts would consist of 6 basic materials

  • T-posts
  • Wood “anchor” posts (4×4 is probably adequate, we use 6×6 because we had some)
  • Concrete for anchor posts
  • Wire fencing
  • Clips to attach fencing to T-posts
  • U staples or nails to attach fencing to anchor posts

Spacing:

  • Anchor posts should be at the corners or ends of the fence, and every 30- 50 feet throughout the length of it.
  • T-posts should be every 10 feet.

Depth:

  • Anchor posts should be treated like any wood post and go down at least 2.5 feet for a 5 foot tall fence. (The bigger the post, the deeper you want to set it.)
  • T-posts have “blades” on them that should be buried, again, at least 2 feet for a 5 foot fence I would think.

Tools:

  • Post-hole digger for the anchor posts
  • A good tape to measure everything out
  • String line & level to keep you straight
  • T-post “banger” – or “post driver” as they are more appropriately referred to. Like this.
  • Heavy-duty pliers to attach the clips
  • Hammer for the U nails
  • pulleys and a board to stretch the fence

How We Did It

1.) We set the corner posts and marked the T-post and anchor post locations, then put the anchors in first since it took the most time. (String line, dig hole, level post, concrete in place, rinse and repeat til finished.) The anchor posts were set on the “inside” of the fence, so the wire would go on the outside and around the corners.
2.) T-posts  were installed by banging them into the ground with the banger. Post driver. Whatever. We aligned them so the fencing would be on the “inside” of the pasture and the T-posts on the outside. (Opposite of the anchor posts.)

donkey_fence_east

3.) The fencing gets rolled out. If you happen to be the person holding the other end of the wire, don’t let go. Or you’ll be chasing a rapidly re-rolling bit of fence for then next 150 feet. Not that I’d know from experience, but I suspect it could happen.

roll_fence

4.) Once the “frame” of posts was up (the T-posts being significantly faster to install than the anchor posts, but also significantly harder to keep level) we stretched the fence. Conventional wisdom says to attach the fence to one corner/anchor post with U staples/nails, and then put a temporary post in the ground beyond the other corner or anchor post, which you will attach the pulleys to in order to stretch the fence.

We thought that seemed like a lot of extra effort, so we decided to use the truck as our stretching post instead.

stretching_fence

What? It worked.

Note: We didn’t stretch the fence by backing the truck up or anything, we used the winch on the pulley for that. We basically just stuck a 2×3 through the holes of the fence, which is probably the less-than-appropriate way to do that, then wrapped a chain around it and attached it to the pulley (which was attached to the cable hook on the front of the truck.)

I hear the fence should be stretched until the little V shaped crimps in it become about 1/3 straighter. I have no idea how a person would eyeball that, so we went with the “straight, taught, looks good” method.

5.) Once the wire was stretched we started at one end and began attaching the clips. For a 32″ fence, we used 3 clips per T-post. 5 clips per post is recommended for a higher fence. The clips work like this (to the best of my knowledge)

clip1

Don’t knock the gloves. I lost my work pair somewhere and this was what was available to me to keep my fingers from freezing and breaking into a thousand pieces.

Okay. They are ridiculous.

In any case, these clips baffled me for about 3 minutes, and thank god I decided to own donkeys with an engineer or I might still be out there with my blue-tipped-blue gloves.

Wrap…

clip2

One side has a longer end, and if you bend at the kink everything with tighten up nicely.

clip3

Finish it off with another wrap and tighten down the other side of the clip.

clip4

Looks easy. Gets to be a pain in the ass after you do it seven hundred times.  Also, unlike some people who were too busy taking pictures to pay attention to what they were doing, make sure the top of the fence is over one of those handy notches on the post. (MysteryMan rolled his eyes so hard he almost fell over. Don’t worry, I redid it.)

6.) Get donkeys. Enjoy life.

finito

Now I just have to build the donkey shelter sometime before spring.

More Info from People Who’ve Done It:

  • Constructing Wire Fences – From the University of Missouri.
  • Build a Fence for your Homestead– For barbed wire, which looks significantly harder and more painful to install
  • A “Put-Up Guide for Field Fence – More info-by-exprerience from a website with the longest URL ever. They call the post driver a “rammer” which is awesome, and makes me feel better for using the term “banger” repeatedly in this post.  (Also, they have a “Like this? Buy us a beer!” link at the bottom of their page. Our kind of people.)

73 Responses

  1. I love your photos! I can almost see those little donkeys now…..btw, the 3k mattress is not really impressing me too much right now. But it’s still early, and could take awhile ot ‘break in’ so jury is still out. The man loves it, though!

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  3. your instructions for putting up a fence are great!!! thanks! We are excited to be planning for our baby mini donkey. the mom was just bred last wed. so hopefully our baby will be born next march. then weaning time we get to bring him or her to our house.. Did you happen to build your mini donkey enclosure yet?? would love to see how you did that.. 🙂 We are new to having outdoor animals. chickens are coming soon. then our donkeys are next.

  4. This was a great help! Three intelligent (?) adults could not figure out how those clips worked. Thanks for the photos.

  5. This is very great post about fencing products.
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  6. Awesome post, thanks for the good explanation of the process and the pictures. I used your post to install a fence to keep our boxer safe.

    Thanks again!

  7. thank you so much for the article. i have been struggling with fence construction for a few months now. your article gives me the last little bit of encouragement i need to give it a try.

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  13. When I was trying to remember how to build a fence, I knew I had to come here. We’ve been talking about a fence for about 10 years now (right after we took out the scary old one) but this year I’m doing it even if I have to dig and pound in every post myself! Thanks for the great info.

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  15. Love this! I laughed while reading it, thinking about myself helping my husband put our fence up very soon.

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  17. great ideas! i remember after moving into my new home in North Palm Beach, the last item on my list of projects was the fence. I got six different quotes and chose Fence Crafters not just because they were affordable but also I got a good vibe from them during the bids process. My gut feeling paid off. Their team completed my fence professionally, efficiently and affordably. I would highly recommend this company for any fence job, large or small.

  18. Nice fence, just be sure to put end caps on top of the T posts so the donkeys don’t get skewered on one of them.

  19. Such great info in your blog and I literally laughed out loud several times. I definitely things we were cut from the same cloth!….. I wanted to give you and others who may be reading this a tip on the fence ties…. On the end with the J hook, wrap it around the wire exactly like you have it… But the other end, (the one with the A-shaped bend), place it around the post & set it on top of the horizontal strand you’re tying, grab a beefy screwdriver (Phillips head works best) and place the tip through the hole the wire tie makes with the fencing strand from underneath on the back side of the horizontal wire, and pull up on your handle. The tip of the screwdriver will wrap the tie around the wire without a problem. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll have a tie on in less than 3 seconds and without the headache of fighting a pair of needle nose or linesman pliers. It will literally take longer to get the tie out of the jumbled up bad of ties than it will to install it.

  20. Answered all my thinking. Great viedo that explained the clips an the stretching. I’m getting ready for only 700 ft. But walking it seemed forever.thanks again

  21. when building a fence on the property line does the post go on the property or does the wire

  22. I agree- post and board fencing nearly lasts forever. My parents moved into an old house with one that seemed to be old already. That was fifteen years ago, and the fence is still intact! Also, it doesn’t require as much maintenance as you would think and is good at keeping animals contained.

  23. Great article….Troy, I wish you had pics with your description of the “screw driver easy way”! Maybe it will make more sense when I am standing there with wire and tools in hand than it does trying to visualise it at 3am on my couch..lol

  24. You wrote this almost 8 years ago and it’s benefit lives on to the public. Now I know how to approach a fence I need to build on a property I’m brand new to. Thanks for this helpful post.

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  26. I’m in the process of taking out a woven wire corral fence put in 60 years ago. There is a clip on almost every wire and the end wrap is stapled 4 time per wire! I can hear some old man saying ” That how they build fence at the stock yards in Omaha.” Yeah, but they don’t plan on ever taking it down.

  27. I need to fence in one donkey and 25 chickens. How big an area is needed and what type of wire fence is needed. I intend to use t-post, I don’t intend to make corner post as this is temporary till my daughter & son$in$law find a place of their own.

    Any suggestions you have are valued as i’ve never built a fenced in area before. Keeping cost to a minimum is important.

    Thank you!

    John

  28. Thanks for sharing your experience. I am a DIYer woman who just purchased an unfenced 1/2 acre. I have 2 BLM burros and ducks. After the sticker shock from quotes I received from local fence installation companies, I decided this was a project I needed to do myself. Your straight forward approach and story have given me the basics I need to get started and complete this with just a little help. Thanks so much!

  29. THANK YOU! We have fretted over this same issue and this post answered many questions. We’re headed for tractor supply and our minis (Ava and Arlo) can’t wait.

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