As of January 1, 2023, we at Freedom Fencing of Ga made the move to "no-dig" fence installations. This was a large leap into the unknown... for our region. No other company in Ga offered these services, rumor was a company in Savannah was looking into the process but had not made the move.
A quick trip to St Augustine, Florida to purchase the appropriate equipment and the commitment was made. Freedom Fencing of Ga was on a path to never dig another hole and set with concrete again.
Why the move?
We at Freedom fencing of Ga are always taking classes working to better our trade. During our journey, we have come to build relationships with some of the tycoons of the fence industry who are always working to better the trade and the products we provide to our clients.
Late 2022 an announcement was made that three of these tycoons had joined together and were introducing the final piece to the no-dig puzzle. A solution for aluminum fence in the way of the "I-Post".
Driving posts, another way to describe no-dig fence, has been performed in the Northern region of the United States and Canada for decades. This is a very common practice in the agricultural world but had typically required heavy duty machinery that took up a lot of space and would destroy our local, suburban yards and landscapes.
We immediately got in contact with 2 of the three introducing this patented system to learn more about the no-dig process, the pros and cons that it provides, and the feasibility of this being applied in our area.
The resulting research was clear that no-dig was an extremely superior product and process. The next hurdle was the added cost and investment.
Will no-dig even work in our rocky conditions?
What is the added cost of No-Dig fence?
The research is complete, the systems are far superior, but what about the added costs?
We essentially look at 3 different types of fence for no-dig in our area. Wood, aluminum, and vinyl. In our region, chain-link is not a common request however no-dig definitely works.
With wood, the costs are less restrictive as we are actually replacing the posts and concrete with the Post Master Post. This helps to offset the added cost of the galvanized posts.
Vinyl and Aluminum are more of a challenge. The same posts that would be traditionally be set in concrete are still utilized in the no-dig fence installation. No cost savings there... where we have found the savings to be have been in labor. The added costs of material for aluminum and vinyl are fortunately offset with lower labor costs of install. The most labor intensive portion of installing fence is by far wrapped up in digging and setting posts.
With this, we have been able to essentially keep the costs within a very close range of traditional installation methods while providing a much more superior product and value to our clients.
Does no-dig work in with our rocky soil?
The final piece to the puzzle for Freedom Fencing of Ga was will no-dig fence practices work in our "rocky" soil.
If you have lived in the North Metro Atlanta area for any time and had the joy of digging in our red clay soil, you likely know that there are regions where you will find more rock formations than others.
The number one statement and concern we here from prospective "no-diggers" from around the country sounds like "We can't drive posts in our area! We have too much rock!" Can't say we didn't have the same mindset the first time no-dig was brought to our attention. "Well that's cool, but we have too much rock here."
The more we considered the idea and the challenge that underground rock formations already were creating for us, we decided that whether digging or driving, we are going to hit the same rock either way.
The challenge for us then was that no one else in our region was driving posts. We reached out to the local team at Master Halco, the producers of the Post Master Posts, and they had not even heard of such a concept. Mark Olson from SWI Wyoming had just moved to Florida and brought the idea of no-dig with him. But he was in Florida, with nice sandy soft soil. There was no one in our area to speak with, no one to take to lunch to discuss the unique attributes that our region provides. It was either go, or keep digging...
Let's take a trip!
We made the decision to move forward. The next step was to get the proper equipment. Remember that fella Mark Olson that had just migrated to Florida? How hard do you think it was to convince the wife to take a quick trip to the beach?
A few days later we were heading home from Florida after a whirlwind trip with the driver in hand and a few of the elusive, new to the market, I-posts for aluminum fence. At this time, the system was so new that these posts could not even be ordered...
Months later and multiple jobs of every type fence under our belts, we have come to find that no-dig was by far the right move for both our company and our clients.
In that time we have started the Facebook Group "No-Dig Fence" and have worked with multiple companies both near and far in assisting with dispelling many of the misconceptions that no-dig comes with while also introducing and working through new and developing methods for installation.
We continue to move forward with the no-dig movement and working to bring the industry with us. We have worked through the nuances and challenges of no-dig with each varying type of fence design. We are working to continually develop new tools to assist with installation and find new solutions to some of the final missing pieces of the varying processes.
We are loving the no-dig fence system and so are our clients.
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