Surface Mounted Posts
People often ask “Can I install a fence over my driveway?” While most fences that Thrive Fencing installs are set directly in the ground (in concrete or driven by a post-pounder), occasionally a fence must cross a sidewalk, a driveway, or even a deck/patio. Or a fence may be installed indoors on a concrete slab to separate warehouse tenants, to direct human traffic in a store, or protect sensitive equipment such as fire suppression controls (Thrive Fencing installed multiple fences inside Costco in Ankeny, IA ... see if you can find all four!) When this is the case, we install a “surface mount” where instead of digging a hole and setting the post in concrete or pounding the post into dirt, we will drill holes and use specific concrete anchors to securely mount the post to the surface.
A surface-mount post is similar to other posts, except the bottom has a plate welded to it that looks like this:
The process for installing a surface-mounted post using a concrete wedge anchor is as follows:
Lay out where the post needs to go
Make marks on the concrete for each of the 4 holes
Drill about 3.5-4 inches into the concrete using a hammer drill (or deeper if a commercial fence application)
Tap in our anchors to depth
Put the post back in place so each hole lines up with an anchor
Adjust for level and add galvanized or stainless steel washers where needed
Tighten down the nuts on top of the anchors to hold everything in place
Unfortunately, even high quality concrete flatwork is rarely level, in which case we use washers, hidden underneath the baseplate, to adjust the height and angle of the plate to make the post level. If the concrete is excessively sloped there are other options available as well. For example, welding a custom-angled baseplate to match the slope of the concrete, or shaving uneven spots with a grinder to make the concrete more level.
In some cases we may be required to core drill a larger hole through concrete so we may dig into the ground and install a post normally. Core drilling is generally more time consuming, expensive, and reserved for specific situations such as tennis or pickleball court fencing, hinge posts for heavy gates, bollards, and heavier-duty commercial applications. Core-drilling may also be required if the concrete is old or poor quality, and won’t support the surface-mount concrete anchors.
Thrive Fencing uses surface-mounts for steel, chain link, and sometimes wood fence Postmasters posts. However, there are also options available for surface mounting other types of posts. Don’t let a driveway or a sidewalk discourage you from fulfilling your fence dreams….rest assured we have the capability to create a solution…standard or custom!
