By Tony Carrick and Bob Vera | Updated 1:10 PM, September 28, 2020

Although few do-it-yourselfers like the prospect of spending hundreds of pounds of concrete and digging countless post holes on weekends, most people can handle the installation of vinyl fences. In fact, according to data collected by HomeAdvisor and its network of service professionals, these convenient homeowners can save up to one-third of the cost of a new fence by replacing professional labor costs with a little elbow grease.

Before delving into the project unpreparedly, consider the most common pitfalls. Ignoring building codes, improperly installed pillars, and insufficient preparations can create problems that quickly consume these savings and shorten the life of the fence. If you want your vinyl fence project to prove your DIY ability in the long term, you need to make sure to follow some important precautions.

Schedule a visit by the utility company by dialing 811 (or visit call811.com) and start preparing your yard for installation. They often embed threads around your home, so you need a representative of everyone to mark the location of these threads. This process takes about a week, but don’t skip it. It is dangerous to dig without knowing what is below. Hitting a utility line with a shovel can cause serious injury or even death.

If you plan to erect a fence on the edge of the yard, verify the property line by checking your deed or visiting the local assessor's office. Although this step may seem inconvenient, it is best to dig out the fence that you accidentally built on your neighbor's property!

Once you have found the utility line and established your property line, mark the perimeter of your fence with a can of brightly colored spray paint. Finally, remove any rocks, plants, or debris that might be blocking the road.

Vinyl fences can be bent without breaking, allowing them to withstand strong winds and slight impacts. This flexibility depends on the correct vinyl fence installation. Install the posts too close, and the vinyl fence panels will fit so tightly that they become stiff. This limits the ability of the vinyl to bend and increases the possibility of high winds or wrong objects damaging the fence. You can avoid this problem by spacing the columns the entire width of the panel, and avoid cutting the panel into smaller sizes as much as possible.

Also, keep in mind that like wood, vinyl fences will expand and contract. Although wood swells when it gets wet, vinyl swells in hot weather. If you install the fence panel too tightly between the pillars, there will be no room to accommodate this expansion, which may cause warping or bending. In order to prevent this from happening, each panel should have a few millimeters of swing space during installation.

Your fence is only as strong as the pillars that support it, so fix each pillar firmly to the ground-especially if you are in an area with strong winds or soft soil. Pillars with shallow holes are more likely to end up tilting under the weight of the fence, or even completely blown down in extreme weather.

So, how deep should the fence post be? Although the depth requirements vary with soil conditions and climate, you usually want one-third of the pile length to be underground. You also need to consider the extra 6 inches of gravel, which provides a bottom to help drain water from the column. Therefore, if you plan to set up a 3 foot deep column, you need to dig a 3 foot 6 inch deep hole to cover the gravel layer.

Accurate arrangement of the pillars is critical to the successful installation of vinyl fences. Considering how difficult the process of installing a pillar is, you don't want to have to dig out a pillar and reinstall it because it is not properly aligned with other pillars. Install the end posts and corner posts first to eliminate guesswork. Once in place, pull a rope between the pillars to make sure the rope is tight. Then use the string line as a guide for all posts in between.

Although you may want to save time by observing whether your posts are level, don't do it. The only accurate way to determine whether each column is straight on the ground, or even the height of the other columns, is to use the quality level.

After installing the column, before the concrete solidifies, check whether it is vertical by placing a level on the adjacent sides or using a column level. To ensure the height of the uprights is even, please lay a tight rope between the corner uprights and the end uprights. Use a string level or workbench level to ensure that the line is level, and then check whether each column in the middle intersects with the string, and adjust the height of the column where necessary.

Compared to the laborious process of setting up a column, installing vinyl panels is very easy: it usually involves snapping the parts together by hand, with minimal tooling. Although this process may bring back memories of the modular model kits you made when you were a child, don't assume that you can quickly complete this part of the vinyl fence installation.

Install one panel at a time to make your trustworthy level at your fingertips. Check to make sure that each panel is level after installation. If your vinyl fence panels are separate, check them when connecting the top and bottom rails to make sure they are level. Before the cement is completely solidified, lower the high column by hammering and level the slab as needed. Fixing the fence while walking is much easier than trying to level the entire fence after the concrete has cured for an afternoon.

In many ways, vinyl is more durable than traditional wooden fences. Even so, it cannot resist blunt impact well. Although marking a vinyl fence as fragile is inaccurate, a miscalculated hammer swing can easily crack the vinyl or even punch holes in it. You can limit the use of one when installing vinyl fences, but you can't completely avoid it. You need a hammer to lower pillars that are not aligned correctly with other pillars.

However, there is a safe way to do this. Don't hit the pillar directly, but use 1×4 or 2×4 blocks as a buffer. Place the stopper on the top of the column, and then hit the stopper to push the column deeper. This block will weaken the impact force, and at the same time distribute the impact force more evenly on the vinyl, preventing it from breaking.

There is nothing worse than completing a major fence construction project, and a letter a few weeks later asks you to remove it because you violated the local zoning law or the contract of the homeowners association. (For example, many municipalities limit the height of the fence in the front yard to 4 feet and the fence in the back yard to 6 feet.) Do yourself a favor and check all local regulations before proceeding with your project. This may mean submitting your plan to HOA for approval or checking local zoning laws to ensure that the new fence complies with city regulations-this can save you a lot of trouble and money in the long run.

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