Building fence can be a challenge in rocky terrain. Some parts of the country have minor problems with putting in fencing due to rocks, and other parts of the country are nearly impossible to fence with standard posts. Here are some solutions for when you are forced to "fence on the rocks."

Chuck Druin of Penrod Lumber and Fence Company in Simpsonville, Ky., says there are only a few regions in Kentucky where rocks are an issue. South of Lexington, for instance, rocky areas are occasionally encountered and he might try to move the fence a little. But sometimes this is not possible–as when building boundary fence or constructing horse pens. "Most horsemen in this part of the country want board fence or diamond mesh, which means posts must be a certain distance apart; you don’t have options for where you put the posts," says Druin.

Most fence contractors use post hole diggers or post pounders if there are only a few rocks. There are several types of diggers and pounders that can be mounted on a tractor, front-end loader, or Bobcat. The digger uses an auger or drill to go down through the soil and create the proper size hole for a post. The pounder drops a heavy weight every few seconds on top of a wood post–the bottom of which is sharpened to easily penetrate the ground.

In dirt or sandy soil, an auger or post hole digger works fine, but for setting wood posts many contractors use a mechanical post pounder mounted on a tractor. It can pound posts into fairly rocky ground if rocks are small, and it eliminates the task of filling and tamping a post hole. In rocky ground, however, a wood post might be forced out of line by the rocks, or it might be shattered by the post pounder