Question
Hello,

My husband and his brother would like to attempt to put up a privacy fence (the wooden dog ears fence that are sold at homedepot in 6x8 panels).  He wanted me to ask you if this job would be too big for two people or if this job is fairly easy with directions?  He wanted to attempt this project this weekend.

Thanks

Answer
Well this depends on a couple of things:
1. Do your husband and brother enjoy being sore and tired?
2. Do you have the proper tools? Nail Gun, compressor and post hole digger or auger.
3. How much fence are we talking about? less than 300lf or a lot more?

I literally just had a fence put up at my  own house two months ago and it took three guys 12 hours to do about 320 lf. But these guys were experts and had all the right equipment including air compressors, nail guns etc. They do this type of work every day. They did not use pre built panels. They set the posts in fast setting concrete first then came back and two guys installed rails while a third started adding pickets after they got ahead a few feet.

In general I would say that putting up a fence is a fairly reasonable project for two or three handy people, but unless you have less than 200 lf of fence, its probably going to take you two weekends having never done this. Plus You'll spend half the day just getting your lumber and fence panels to the house. And you'll need a big trailer for a bunch of panels.
I would buy one of those cheap patio and garden books to review pictures and instructions on how to install the fence. There are lots of tricks and considerations if your lot is not level.
Pre-built panel fences are especially difficult because post have to be set just right and you kind of have to build it as you go instead of setting posts first.
You can set the posts first but then if you set them a little short you have to cut the panel to fit which waste wood and if you make the gap too big..then you really have problems. So they must be dead on center with very little tolerance for error. Its always safer to err on the smaller side.

Unless you use fast setting concrete you will have to let the post cure in concrete before adding the panels because you can't go pounding on the post with nails and a hammer if the concrete hasn't had at least 48hours to cure. A hint is to use nail gun which will not put stress on the post when being nailed.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, its going to be a lot of hard work but you can do it.

Best of Luck

Sean J Murphy, LA,ISA, LEED AP
Please check out my blogs and articles on landscape topics like this on my websites.
http://www.seanjmurphy.com
http://amenityarchitects.com