Just bought land with lots of “welded wire mesh” fencing that is in terrible shape and needs to come down. Any suggestions on how in the world I begin to take this down and get it rolled up?
Rolling welded wire fencing
- Thread starter Arkansasdawg
- Start date
Depends on your equipment, how much time you have, what kind of post, and how much of a mess can you make.
If you have to do it by hand, it's like eating an elephant....one bite at a time! Remove staples/or other post attachments, pull post, roll wire, take to scrapper.
If you have a machine with a loader and don't want the post, just pull them up and make a mess of a pile out of the way. Solve that pile problem later!
If you have to do it by hand, it's like eating an elephant....one bite at a time! Remove staples/or other post attachments, pull post, roll wire, take to scrapper.
If you have a machine with a loader and don't want the post, just pull them up and make a mess of a pile out of the way. Solve that pile problem later!
Been there, did that. Pulled the posts along with the woven wire, put it in a big pile, burned the posts out and scrapped the rest. It's a mess, big time.
Depending on what you intend to do with the property once the fence is down, the slow and steady approach has some advantages. If you intend to have horses on that property afterwards, not leaving a trail of rusty nails and staples is important. Welded wire fencing tends to fall apart and is unlikely to be useful for anything. If it won't roll nicely, you can fold sections of it into manageable chunks 6 to 8 feet long by standing on it to make the creases. The flattened rolls were easy to stack and handle. I put some out by the road for the recycling collection, but they miraculously disappeared within a day. In some cases it is easier to cut the wire off the posts, leaving the staples in the posts. The fence posts may be salvageable.
Russell King
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L185F, Modern Ag Competitor 4’ shredder, Rhino tiller, rear dirt scoop
You could just cut it into sections and stack them up depending on how heavy gauge wire it is. Is it the heavy gauge panels or the lighter gauge rolled wire?
If I was doing it I would try to get the wire in stapled except for the top every other post, the start taking it down from one end and laying it down on the ground. Stake the end to the ground so it will stay in place. Then take it down at the far end and stake it in place also. Then you can work down the line, letting it lay on the ground. Rolling it would be difficult but you may be able to fold it into manageable length creasing it bu walking on the fold. Fold it until you think it will be almost as much as you want to lift, cut off bundle, repeat.
If I was doing it I would try to get the wire in stapled except for the top every other post, the start taking it down from one end and laying it down on the ground. Stake the end to the ground so it will stay in place. Then take it down at the far end and stake it in place also. Then you can work down the line, letting it lay on the ground. Rolling it would be difficult but you may be able to fold it into manageable length creasing it bu walking on the fold. Fold it until you think it will be almost as much as you want to lift, cut off bundle, repeat.
armylifer
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BX1860, FEL, RCK54P MMM, BB1548 Box Scraper, Quick Hitch, Piranha Bar, BX6315
When I was growing up in Wisconsin, a neighbor hired me to help take out a long stretch of fence one section at a time. We cut off each section at the post and piled the sections of fencing on top of each other. We then used some of the wire to tie the sections together in a bundle and dragged each bundle away one at a time. IIRC we tied 10 sections at a time together for each bundle. Since I am talking about 50 years ago, there were no problems with burning the posts. We left the staples in the posts so that the animals would not accidentally eat them. Metal in a cow's stomach is not a good thing.
Thanks for all of the advice. This forum is a great place for getting solutions. This mesh wire is attached to T-Posts so I think that I will clip the wire that holds the wire to the post, cut the wire in sections and stack the sections. Maybe I can take to the metal recycling place.
GreensvilleJay
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BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
'lots' ... 100' or 10,000 feet ?
I just did 100'+-, cut from posts,so 10' 'sections', then stacked into trailer, had zero value as scrap is 5 cents a pound up here...
I just did 100'+-, cut from posts,so 10' 'sections', then stacked into trailer, had zero value as scrap is 5 cents a pound up here...
But it is cheaper than hauling it to the dump and you don't have a pile of scrap sitting on your land either.
Why even think about it, if it will be easier to contact a company that will do everything for you and do not have to spend extra money and precious time. I was faced with the same similar situation and I had to put up a fence, although before that I wanted to do it according to the instructions and did not suffer, but simply turned to walshlandscaping.co.uk which in itself solved my problem. Again, you create this problem yourself, which takes a long time, because you can just pay less and keep your health in all plans. When I applied there, I didn't regret anything, solving my problem the easy way.
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