Old Fence Removal & Line Clearing in Topeka, KS
Topeka Farm Fence removes old fence and clears fence lines for landowners across Topeka and the counties around it. We pull wire, posts, and corner assemblies and cut brush back to a workable line in Shawnee, Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, and Wabaunsee counties, Kansas, from Rossville and Hoyt to Berryton and Auburn.
Clearing is the first cost on most rebuilds and the cheapest one on the job. A crew with a clear, staked line stretches wire straight and sets posts on grade. A crew fighting cedar, hedge sprouts, and downed limbs sets crooked posts and charges you for the time. We pull posts with a machine rather than snapping them off at the ground, roll the old wire and take it with us, cut trees and brush back far enough that a tractor can drive the line for the next twenty years, and stake the alignment before anything new goes in. Old wire left on the ground and brush pushed into a windrow along the line is what turns a fence rebuild into two jobs.
Hedgerows and Cedar
Kansas planted Osage orange in living fence rows for decades, and when barbed wire took over, those rows stayed as windbreaks and field borders. Some of them are still doing useful work. Plenty of others have gone to brush and volunteer cedar and now sit fifteen feet wide where a fence needs three. We take out what has to go, leave a shelterbelt that is worth keeping, and tell you honestly which one you have before the saws come out.
Staking the Line
Know where the boundary is before the first post goes in. We locate corner pins where they exist and run a string line between them so the fence sits on the line and not eighteen inches inside it. Where pins are missing or the neighbors disagree, that is a surveyor's job and we will say so. Kansas splits a boundary fence between adjoining owners in equal shares, and that conversation goes much better when both parties have seen the same stakes.
Timing the Work
Clearing runs well in late fall and winter when the leaves are off and the ground is firm, which is one job we can often do in the cold months. Post pulling and new fence wait for the frost to come out. Call (785) 555-0184 and we will price the clearing and the new fence build as separate lines.
Do you haul the old fence away?
Yes. Rolled wire, broken posts, staples, and brush all leave the property on our trailer. Loose barbed wire buried in the grass is a hazard to a tractor tire and worse to a cow that gets a leg in it, so we pick the line clean rather than piling it at the corner. Salvage steel goes to a scrap yard and we handle that end of it.
Can you build a new fence on the same line as the old one?
Usually, and it is often the right call, since an existing line is where both neighbors have agreed the boundary sits. We pull the old fence, clear the growth, and rebuild on the same alignment. If there is any doubt about where the line actually runs, get a survey before we start. Moving a fence after it is built costs far more than knowing the corner pin first.
Why is cedar such a problem on fence lines?
Eastern red cedar seeds into an old fence row and nobody notices until the trees are twenty feet tall. The roots lift posts, the branches lay wire over, and the trunks make it impossible to stretch a new run. Cedar also spreads out from that fence line into the pasture and takes grass with it. Clearing it once and staying after the seedlings is the cheapest grass you will ever buy.
How much does fence line clearing cost?
It is priced by the foot and by how thick the growth is. A grass line with a few volunteer trees is quick. An old hedgerow grown into a wall of brush and cedar takes machine time, and that is the number that moves. We walk the line and quote the clearing separately from the fence, so you see exactly what the brush is costing you.