Concrete

NewCorkLad

I have 2 dogs who have decided to start digging under a panel and post fence. I have decided to dig a small trench along the base of the panels and fill it in with concrete to stop the chance of them digging through. Would it be possible to mix the cement and sand dry, fill the trench and then wet after to save me a lot of hassle or would I need to wet while mixing and pour in wet? Thanks

eoinzy2000

After digging the trench, mixing the sand and cement, I would've suggest that folding in a bit of water would be not much extra work to ensure a good job. If you are looking for a lot less hassle, I would recommend getting rid of your 2 dogs!! :P

NewCorkLad

eoinzy2000 wrote: »

After digging the trench, mixing the sand and cement, I would've suggest that folding in a bit of water would be not much extra work to ensure a good job. If you are looking for a lot less hassle, I would recommend getting rid of your 2 dogs!! :P

Getting home from work 2 night ago I would have definitly agreed with you re the dogs.

I will be hand mixing the concrete, so would be a lot easier just doing it dry and distributing it dry. But if it wouldnt work will just have to mix as i go.

eoinzy2000

To get your concrete to set properly and hydration to occur evenly throughout the concrete, it would be better to evenly mix throughout. Pouring water on top will not ensure even distribution of water. Some sections may harden, some may not, some may absorb water from the ground and hydrate after adjacent sections harden leaving inconsistent form. It just has potential to be a bad job in my opinion. Ask your local construction hire firm how much it is to hire a petrol driven mixer for a day, including delivery and collection. Be a bit handier than hand mixing. Are you sure they're not just going to dig the near side of the poured concrete anyway? Might be something you could train out of them with the same effort as pouring concrete?

NewCorkLad

Cant take the risk with the training luckily the neighbours caught them as they came through or they would be gone.

Thanks was just hoping my lazy option would work will just have to go with the wet hand mixing. Plan on going down a bit with the concrete, which should stop them from digging through and can then work on stopping the digging.

Thanks

eoinzy2000

ah, no bother. I had a pot belly pig once, and what I did to combat the digging under the post & wire fence was to bury the wire a foot into the ground. It may be possible to dig a trench, and stretch chicken wire between the fence posts and nail to the posts and fence over , and then backfill. Might be a handier option. Need to be well fixed though. Plywood would be a better job maybe? still a good bit of work either way.....

223vmax

Rent a mixer for the evening.....

Right2Write

NewCorkLad wrote: »

I have 2 dogs who have decided to start digging under a panel and post fence. I have decided to dig a small trench along the base of the panels and fill it in with concrete to stop the chance of them digging through. Would it be possible to mix the cement and sand dry, fill the trench and then wet after to save me a lot of hassle or would I need to wet while mixing and pour in wet? Thanks

How long is your fence and what dimensions do you propose to concrete. Re latter, you need a bit of substance in it - no point in a thin strip as it'll just break up. I'd be thinking you'd need at least 30cm wide and same depth. For a fence 11 metres long, that's about 1 cubic metre of concrete. Which is a fair bit to mix by hand, not impossible but will be good exercise

Wire as suggested above might be as practical or one of those electric fence solutions sold to keep dogs on their properties. Some dogs learn to cross these and just take the hit. But there's no way they'd dig close to one! Our dog got a nip off an electric fence recently and no way is she going near it again!

But maybe the dogs are just bored if there's no one there all day??

ShiverinEskimo

Perimiter fence with a shock collar is the job. Took our puppy about 2 days to learn the boundary and he won't go near it now. Took me a day to bury the cable but I just used a spade to cut a slit and then pushed the wire into the slit and stamped it closed again.

Job done - just keep the batteries in the collars charged.

CJhaughey

You can get weldmesh and fold it in a 90 degree bend and then bury it so one leg is under the grass and 1 leg is nailed to the fence.
this discourages digging as they can't get through the mesh.

foxy farmer

If you want to avoid hard work get some hard material in sheet form something at least 1ft wide eg paving slabs plywood or the weldmesh mentioned above. Just lay it on the ground against the fence and weigh it down with something heavy or pin it down with pegs. Wont stop them digging but at least they have to start farther back from the fence.

NewCorkLad

Thanks folks got my concrete trenches done Saturday, back breaking work but at least it was sunny for the day.