Vent: been measuring my fence posts from the top of the hole for 2 years
Put up a 40 foot section of cedar privacy fence in my backyard over the weekend and it came out wavy as hell. Stood back to look at it and my neighbor Dave walked over and asked why the middle posts were sagging about 2 inches lower than the corners. Turns out I have been measuring from the top of the dirt instead of from a string line, so every hole depth varied depending on how rocky the dig went. Dave used to do fencing in Bakersfield and he showed me his string line trick in about 5 minutes. I have probably set 30 posts this way across two houses and never caught it because the old fence hid the mess. How are you guys keeping the tops level when the ground slopes, string line or laser or something else?
The "measuring from the top of the dirt" bit got me because I did the same thing on a mailbox post last summer. Hole filled up with rainwater overnight and I didn't think to check, so I set that post 3 inches proud of the others and it stayed that way until my wife made me dig it out. Now I keep a cheap torpedo level zip tied to a 2x4 cut to post height and just slide it around the hole. Not fancy but it beats getting the laser out for one or two posts.