Thursday - hog panels

So what fresh hell awaits us today? I’m painting those pillars so I expect the next entry will be written by Dean, detailing exactly which bones I broke falling off the ladder. But I got them painted without incident and it’s starting to look pretty good.

So, hog panels. We experienced some sticker shock when we were looking for deck railings. “We’ll just get those sections at Home Depot you can slap right up – holy crap, anywhere from $60 to over $100 for a six-foot section?” It’s a big deck. We need about 60 feet. Well, that stuff’s not in the budget.

So instead of ridiculously expensive picket-type railings, we’re putting in hog panels. A galvanized steel grid. The local feed and seed store was out of them so we had to order them. Sixteen feet long, 32 inches high, just $22 a panel. Four panels should do it, so just $88 for the whole thing. They look clean and contemporary and they’re cheap and should be easy to install since we’re having the construction guys put a bottom rail 32 inches down from the top one so they’ll fit perfectly.

Thursday afternoon Dean and a friend borrowed a trailer and picked up the hog panels. Which are 34 inches high. We ordered 32 inches. We were told by our hog-panel consultant, AKA “dude working in the feed store that day,” that 32 inches is the standard height. “They’re all 32 inches.” We had the deck railing built to accommodate 32 inch panels. But they’re 34 freakin' inches. “I don’t know who told you that. They’re all 34 inches. That’s the standard height.” Says our new and unfortunately correct hog-panel consultant.

So, we’ll have to cut them off. But we still have running water.