I used to think string lines were a waste of time for a simple chain link run, but after my post holes were off by 3 inches on a 50 foot job in July, I finally tried one.

Now I won't even start a dig without setting a line first, because that one mistake cost me half a day of rework, so what's your go-to method for keeping a long fence straight?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan8512mo ago

My old foreman swore by a transit for anything over 100 feet. You ever try that method?

the_piper1mo ago

Hold up on that for a second, Nathan. In my experience, a transit is solid for long distances, but I've seen guys mess up the setup and throw things off by more than a couple inches, same as @stone.thomas mentioned with that barn door story. The tripod legs need to be dead level, and if your rod isn't plumb, you're chasing bad numbers from the start. For anything past 100 feet, I'd still double check with a string line and a 4-foot level on the first couple stakes before trusting the transit completely. The tool is only as good as the person running it, and I've learned that the hard way a few times.

stone.thomas2mo ago

Yeah, the transit thing... that reminds me of a story @nathan851 would get a kick out of. We had a guy who used one to level a barn door and somehow ended up three inches off.