How come?

Wood fences in Venice seem to fail at the post to ground connection. It only makes sense -- that's where water and bugs (our enemy, the savage termite) comes from, so that's what breaks first. I've used douglas fir posts, redwood posts (better, but they still rot), pressure treated 4x4 posts. All of them eventually succumb to dry rot and termite damage.

Chain link on the other hand seems to stay put for hundreds of years. And each year, it looks just as ugly as the year before, providing zero shade and privacy. So, the best of both worlds is a hybrid fence made of wood boards and rails on steel posts.

Materials

• quickcrete fast setting post concrete. No mixing, just add water and walk away.
• 2 3/8" galvanized steel posts (16ga wall)
• 8' x 6' Redwood fence panels
• 2 2/8" wood to pipe adapter
• 2" x 1/4" lag bolts

First, demolish the previously existing fence. Might be a good idea to take pictures of existing fence just in case the neighbors turn into dicks. Establish the correct property boundaries with your neighbors

Run a string line from one end of the property to the other in line with where you want the fence to go. Run the string about a foot off the ground.Customarily, you build the fence with the finish face out.

Lay out post holes on 8' centers from one end to the other. The first hole should be 4' from the end of the string, the second 12', the 3rd 20', the 4th 28', etc. I used stakes to mark the positions.

Using a posthole digger and digging bar, dig the postholes in the positions where you put the stakes. Digging postholes is traditionally a real bummer, but with 2 people, it goes pretty good. Dig the holes about 24 inches (2 feet) deep.

One person holds the post inline with the string while the other person pours quick-set post concrete into the hole. The post won't move after the concrete is in there, so make sure to hold the post down tight while the concrete is being poured in. The post should be held perfectly plumb in both directions, but since this is nearly impossible, just make sure its plumb to the string. Meaning, don't move the string, but get the vertical post as close to it as possible with out touching and thereby moving it. Then hold it to the ground real tight while the other guy pours in the dry concrete mix. That is what is so bichen about the fast setting concrete -- you don't mix it. You put it in hte hole, dry, then pour a half gallon of water on it and it does the rest.

Let the posts set up. I let mine go over night.
Next day, put your brackets (the wood-to-steel adapters) on the posts. Take your panels (heavy bastards) and lay them out near the posts. Bolt the first one on so the center of the panel is on the post. Make it level. You'll need a 7/16 socket to drive your 1/4" lags, and a 9/16" socket to adjust the bolts on the brackets.

Determine how far off the ground you want your fence to sit. I let mine be up to 6" away from the dirt. My lot has a slope to it, so I had to step down a couple times. The above picture should show a little step. You can also see that the fence panel has 3 parallel rails (2x4's) on it, and that I connect the 2 panels with a pair of additional 2x4's running between, by nailing the panel boards to the new rails with 8 penny galvanized nails.
So a panel looks like this:


And 2 panels connected look like this: