Skip to main content
Stesso

Understanding and Ensuring Proper Silt Fence Orientation

0:40
3:14
84.4K views

At 0:40 in

Erosion Control and Silt Fence

Watch on YouTube

What happens here

This step focuses on the critical aspect of silt fence orientation. The presenter demonstrates an existing standard silt fence with wood stakes, pointing out that the stakes are positioned on the downward side of the slope. This is crucial because when runoff comes down the hill, it will push against the fabric of the fence, forcing it into the stakes, thereby enhancing its stability. If the stakes were on the upward side, a heavy flow could cause the fabric to blow out and separate from the stakes, rendering the fence ineffective. The buried portion of the fence acts as an anchor.

Goal: Correctly orient the silt fence with stakes on the downhill side to maximize erosion control effectiveness.

Tools and materials

  • Standard Silt Fence — For demonstration of orientation
  • Wood Stakes — Supporting the standard silt fence

What they say

Hide

for a while now, you can see that it's actually buried right there. And that's a key element. The other thing is there which way you orient the silt fence. Fence will have wood stakes. A reinforced silt fence looks like this. It actually has wire mesh. It's more of a permanent structure. And then we use posts to frame those in. Let me show you the orientation on this site. So you can kind of get a feel for it. You can see that the posts are on the downward side. So what that means is as the runoff comes down the hill, it'll hit hit the fence and if you get a blowout, the stake remains in place and the fabric will tear in between it. fence. If we had flipped this around, fabric was oriented on this side of the stake, then the mud could go all the way down and through. So, it's important that you orient the silk fence the right way. So, what Jake's doing

Auto-generated from the video audio.