Article by Philip Woodrow
When it comes to building a fence, you can almost put up anything between you and your next door neighbour. As long as it looks attractive. Many people who live in residential areas have gardens, and choose to have wooden fence panels on the boundaries, which are usually six feet high, and come in varying widths.
You can have a solid wood fence and place wooden posts at various intervals apart, then link them together by lengths of wood. If you visit your local garden centre or timber merchants, you will see there is enough choice to suit everyone. Prices vary according to what you want. The more wood you use, the more costly the fence becomes.
If you have never attempted to build a fence yourself before, as I had not, rather than follow my own instincts and just go ahead and build, I asked my neighbour for directions on how to build a fence. The neighbour I asked has better woodworking skills than I have, so I valued his straightforward advice on how to get started. He even offered to help me if I got stuck at any stage.
If you are just replacing a fence, as I was, there should be no need to check any building regulations, providing you are not constructing something radically different from the original.
Whatever design of fence you select, there are a few fundamentals of fence building that need to be followed if the finished job is going to look good. The wooden posts need to be vertically placed, and the distance between the supporting posts should be the same distance apart. That way you have the symmetry which makes the fence look pleasing to the eye.
Before you start placing the posts, you need to be sure they are in a straight line. This might not always be possible in some situations, but where it is, start with the end posts first, then run a line between them, and you have a straight line to locate the remaining fence posts. As I wanted a strong fence, I positioned the posts every six feet apart. It looked good to the eye.
For this project, following my neighbour’s advice, I chose concrete support posts, and he helped me put them in place. They were too heavy to manage on my own anyway.
When the posts were properly set in concrete, we slotted the wood in between them until the fence was finished. No screws or nails needed to keep them in place. The wood was pre treated so it will last a while before I need to apply more preservative.
Now that the fence is completed, I can stand back and admire me and my neighbour’s handiwork. For this project especially, I appreciated the directions on how to build a fence.
About the Author
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