Shoutout to the guy who told me to use a string line and a 4-foot level for setting posts on a slope in Portland

I was fighting a 15-degree grade on a cedar fence job yesterday and his trick of running a tight line from the top of the first set post to a stake at the bottom run, then plumbing each post to that line, got all 20 posts perfectly aligned in under an hour.

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_wells591d ago

and honestly I read something the other day about how that string line trick is basically just applying the same logic they use for laying out foundations but scaled down for fence work lol. The key is getting that line super tight and checking it every few posts because Portland soil will shift on you real quick if you're not careful. I swear half the battle on a grade like that is just having a consistent reference point, once you lock in that line everything else falls into place way faster than trying to level each post individually. I've heard guys say you can get away with a shorter level on flat ground but on a 15 degree slope you're asking for trouble without the string line as a guide.

faith_thomas1mo ago

Was it really that hard to just use a level?

lane.mason1mo ago

That 15-degree Portland grade is no joke. I've seen guys spend half a day trying to eyeball that with a torpedo level and a prayer. Using a string line is basically cheating, but the kind of cheating that gets you home before dark. I bet the guy who told you that trick saved you from throwing at least three posts into the neighbor's yard.