How to Construct a Wooden Fence
Building a wood fence is a simple method to demarcate your property boundaries, improve backyard seclusion, and keep young children and pets inside. An increasing number of homeowners are learning that they may construct their own wood fence rather than hiring someone to install it for them and paying extra for labor on top of the supplies.
Read More: Wood Fence Company Illinois
If you’re thinking of installing a new wood fence, you’ve certainly done some research on the expenses of doing it yourself vs hiring someone to install it as part of a home improvement project.
Even though there is a learning curve if you have never worked on this kind of project before, the majority of individuals can figure out how to complete it on their own.
But, you’ll need to budget money for the supplies and tools, as well as time to study about the components and procedure of building a fence. A step-by-step tutorial on making a DIY wood fence may be found below!
Items You’ll Require
Selecting the sort of wood to use for your fence is one of the first phases in the constructing process. After deciding on the kind of wood to use, you must choose the style of fence you want to construct and purchase the wood posts and pickets to begin going.
You’ll also require other supplies. Continue reading to find out what additional kinds of materials are required to construct a wood fence.
Organizing Your Wooden Fence
Even though you may be eager to install your new wood fence, it’s always a good idea to carefully review your fence designs before you get started in order to prevent issues later on. Prior to creating a fence design, you must choose the style and height that you want.
Step 1: Select the Height and Style of the Fence
Whether you’re fencing your front yard or backyard will generally have a big impact on the height of the fence. There are municipal laws that restrict the height of front yard fences in several places. For this reason, a three- or four-foot-tall picket fence is a popular choice for front yard fences.
Fences for the backyard are often higher. This is due to the fact that this is often the greatest option if you live in a city and desire seclusion from your neighbors. The standard height for a backyard fence is six feet. Wood privacy fences, horizontal wood fences, shadowbox fences, and side by side dog ear fence pickets are common designs to select from. A range of color options for wood fences may also be found to accommodate your own style preferences.
Step 2: Establish the Fence Configuration
You may really begin construction when you’ve determined the kind of wood you want to use, the height, and the design of your fence!
Marking the edge of your land is the first step in laying out the design for your fence. If you haven’t already, now is a good time to let your neighbors know what you’re planning so there won’t be any disputes about property borders. You may find out whether there are by contacting a land registry agency.
Once the boundaries of your property are defined, you may use stakes to clearly designate the fence line. Make care to draw a straight line in this area and mark the plot’s corners. After the corners are staked, use a square to tie a thread around each stake to make sure the corners are 90 degrees and the stakes are level.
Here’s where taking your time and making sure your marks and measurements are accurate pays off when creating a wood fence. It will be considerably more difficult to fix anything that is incorrect today.
Step 3: Verify Local Laws and Obtain Required Permits
A crucial aspect of laying the foundation for a fruitful fence construction endeavor is confirming that you have permission to construct the fence in the desired location. Make sure you are in compliance with local building rules and planning laws before proceeding with the project to avoid requiring any further licenses.
This is the time to confirm that the fence heights you have planned are acceptable where they have been staked out.
To create the fence of your dreams, find out if a building permit is required. Next, make sure that no gas, water, or electrical lines are in the way of your fence installation by calling your local “Call Before You Dig” hotline. Building a fence will need you to dig, so you need to be sure you won’t encounter any obstacles.
How to Install a Wooden Fence
You may really start working on the building of your new fence now that you have established the foundation, so to speak!
Step 4: Collect the Required Equipment and Supplies
We listed all of the supplies you’ll need for your wood fence project earlier in this post. Apart from the items mentioned above, you will also require certain tools.
You will need to decide if you want to fasten your pickets and fence rails to the fence posts using screws or nails. Therefore, you will require a screwdriver and screws or a hammer and nails. The procedure may always be sped up with a nail gun or nailer.
Step 5: Make the fence posts’ holes.
You have previously designated the locations of your corner fence posts as part of your fence’s perimeter stakeout. The locations of the remaining posts must now be marked.
The primary guideline in this case is to ensure that there are no more than eight feet between any two post sites. If your fence is forty feet long, you should split it in half, which means you will need five posts set equally apart.
Now that the post sites have been determined, the holes need to be made using the post hole digger. The general guideline in this situation is that the hole has to be sufficiently deep to submerge around one-third of the post.
6. Position the Fence Posts
It’s time to get the holes ready for the posts once you’ve dug out your post holes. To aid with drainage and stability, fill the hole with a few inches of gravel. When the posts are in their post holes, you may use your level to ensure that the angles are equal and the posts are level.
To cement the posts into place, you may now pour in the concrete. At minimum, this is a two-person task. To hold the post in place while you pour in the dry concrete mix, you will need one person. After filling it to approximately two thirds full, top it off with water to reach ground level and stir.
Before the cement cures, it is a good idea to double-check with your level that your post is straight. You may support the post with your stakes after you are certain it is proper. After that, go with the remaining posts and continue until all of them are set up.
Step 7: Fasten the fence panels
Your fence’s actual structure, the panels, may now be added once your posts are sturdy and in place. At this stage, you need to fasten your top rail, middle rail, and bottom rail to the posts if you’re using pickets in instead of panels. Verify that these are level and spaced equally!
Screw or nail the boards into position. Just like you would when installing posts in the ground, you should take your time to ensure that every fence panel has a level top and that they are all precisely the same height.
Step 8: Set Up a Barrier
Whether you are building a fence in your front or backyard, you will almost always need a gate to allow access and departure.
Fence gate kits are readily available and include all the hardware required to install the gate.
Step Nine: Sealing and Sealing
After installing your fence, you should want to give it the final touches. This can extend the life of your fence by many years, and with the correct stain, you may even completely alter its appearance.
For your fence to last as long as possible, you should do this process again throughout the years. It’s crucial to maintain your fence by painting or staining it when it begins to deteriorate.