hey guys I'm Megan I'm a carpenter and a
remodeler today we're going to talk
about fences if you want to add a little
bit of privacy to your yard
you can build a shadowbox fence we've
already gone and checked our local codes
and regulations and had our lot surveyed
to find our property line make sure your
fence is within your property line the
last thing to remember is to call your
local utility companies and have them
lay out all of your underground lines
our wood fences component built this
means the pickets and boards are put on
piece by piece this will allow the fence
to follow the contour of the land
shadowbox fences alternate pickets on
each side so that you're able to see
through at an angle for complete privacy
however attach the pickets tight
together on just one side no matter what
fence style you pick make sure you start
your layout with string and a batter
board I'm just kind of eyeballing where
this goes batter boards are just made
out of furring strips and then this
allows you to move your string line back
and forth this one again I'm just
eyeballing off the house there after you
do that you want to make sure your
string line is six inches off of your
property line so I'm just going to pull
some extra around and cut it off
and kind of eyeball six inches off of
our stake right there and if I need to I
can move it around after I measure so
let's take your tape
[Applause]
there you go six inches so now I'm in a
pool the other string from that side to
this batter board give it a little knot
kind of adjust it so it's close to your
line you can go back and do some
fine-tuning later then just like before
when they give a little slack here cut
off the excess and tie it tight then
continue running the strings around the
whole fence layout for tips on squaring
the corners you can watch our fence
planning video when you're laying out
the size to get the best appearance try
to get full pickets at the corners and
also useful pickets on the gate adjust
the post spacing so the boards will be
flush to the inside of the entryway for
our five and a half inch boards they
will overlap one inch so the boards will
be spaced three and a half inches
between once we have our fence line
established we can start marking out our
spacing for our post holes we have an
eight-foot gate going in here so I'm
gonna pull eight feet off of my stake
and make sure that your tape measure is
level don't follow the slope of the
ground when you're setting your stake
you want to make sure you're half the
width of the posts away from your string
line that way when the post goes in
it'll be flush with your string now you
can just continue on down the line
typical post spacing is between six and
eight feet once you're done setting your
stakes you can mark the lines on your
batter boards then remove your lines so
it makes it easier to dig your holes
I'm gonna transfer my layout line mark
to the wall here just in case I need to
remove my batter board when I'm digging
my hole
when you're setting your posts make sure
they're just below the frost line and
your hole should be three times the
thickness of your posts and it helps to
have a little bit of help to dig these
holes here yep that works and we're
gonna just outline where our holes going
to go and we're using a shovel and a
post hole digger
since we're near the house
[Applause]
yeah so we've got our first hole dug and
I'm gonna use marking paint on the rest
of my stakes just so I'm sure I can find
the hole and to make quick work of a lot
of holes a power auger is perfect for
the job try not to push down on the
auger let the weight of the machine do
the work when the holes are dug we can
start setting our posts we're gonna
first string up our line to make sure
our posts are straight now we'll tie the
strings on their batter boards right
over the marks we made we'll start with
about six inches of dry concrete in the
bottom of the hole set the posts in the
hole and make sure it's plumb will hold
it in place with braces make sure you
mix the concrete according to the
manufacturers directions after we've
done that we'll fill around the post
with the concrete we'll keep it a couple
inches below ground level and make sure
we slope it away from the post then let
it cure following the directions follow
the same steps to install the rest of
your posts this process might take a
couple of days
once all of your posts are set and the
concrete is cleared we can start taking
off our batter boards and our bracing
our pickets are six foot so we're gonna
go just under that at five foot eight
for the top of our rail so you measure
from the ground up five foot eight make
a mark and so we remember where our 2x4
is gonna go we're gonna put an X
underneath our line and then we'll
measure up from the ground nine and a
half inches and an X down that way the
bottom of our rail will be at five or at
six inches and remember it has to go on
an angle to follow your land and we're
going to cut it long we're gonna cut it
at forty three inches and we'll come
back later and trim up the edge so I'm
just gonna measure this at 43 keep going
a little bit more yeah and I'm going to
cut it using a circular saw
[Applause]
this is when having an extra hand really
helps good now we'll attach our
bottomless screws all right now we can
mark out where our middle rail goes
we're just gonna find the height in
between which is fifty five and a half
so half of that is twenty seven and
three quarters that's the center of our
two-by-four so we want to go up another
inch and three quarters to find this
half of our two-by-four ancient three
quarter from this mark yes
recorder up just make a mark and we're
doing our rails on the outside of our
posts instead of in between this will
add a lot of stability to the fence
I'm gonna cut the ends of my rails off
with a reciprocating saw and as long as
you have your guard close and tight with
your 4x4 you'll be able to cut your 2x4
off it's flush to your 4x4 as possible
all right now we can just continue
installing our rails now that we've
finished our short sections of fence we
can move on to our longer ones this
first section is a little bit more
sloped than the rest so we're gonna use
shorter boards just to kind of match the
slope a little better and he's just
gonna match where that 2x4 is already up
there and we're gonna overhang that 2x4
so we just cut it off to match our angle
[Applause]
and be sure to split your 4x4 cuz this
right here is where you'll screw your
other 2x4 into
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since our slope is a little bit more
gradual here we can start installing
longer rails and instead of measuring
every single post we'll just take our
measurement here and transfer it down
three or four posts and run a string
line from the bottom of our top rail to
the bottom of our top rail down there
where he's gonna measure in this way
once he has it up all I have to do is
Mark where the string is versus
measuring every single post
I remember X above because we're marking
the bottom so we can see it and then you
just do the same thing with the bottom
and the middle
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now that the ground has leveled off some
we can install this section of rails in
one continuous run we're using our
string line again so we don't have to
measure every single post now though we
have the top smart we can mark the
middles moving on to the bottom after
all of your posts are marked you can
start installing all of your rails here
where the ground is more level will span
three posts staggering the boards for
added strength
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after the rails are installed we'll cut
the post tops all right our rails are
installed and our posts are cut so now
we can start installing our pickets and
then I'm using just a 2x4 on the bottom
this is because we're supposed to have
an inch to two inches of space a 2x4 is
an inch and a half when it's on its side
like this so it's flush just gonna nail
it in once this board is installed we
can move on to the other side we're
actually going to put the board on the
adjacent side on first and this is going
to be flush with our two-by-four our
next board here is going to go flush
with the outside of our picket so it's
going to overlap this picket
now this run is so short that we're just
going to make sure we have three full
pickets here so the middle one we're
just going to split the difference
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all right we've rounded the corner so
now we can start installing our pickets
on the long-run offense here I have this
fancy little spacer which is just a
two-by-four with a little two-by-four
block on the back and that allows us to
sit on the top rail and have equal
spacing between our pickets so that's
gonna stay in place Nick's gonna hold it
there just nail it in don't forget to
use a spacer at the bottom
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now we're using nails but you can use
staples or screws as long as they're
rated for pressure-treated material and
use a level frequently to make sure the
pickets are plump now that we've hit a
level part of our yard we can string a
string line for the tops of our pickets
we've attached a picket at the very
corner of our run here and Nick's gonna
put a nail in it and he's gonna tie the
string and I'll tie the string on to my
nail and that way when we attach the
pickets the tops will be aligned so you
just put the board on your rails there
and just touch it lightly and then drop
slightly below it that way you know
you're not pushing it up
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now we can install our pickets on the
inside of our fence so I'm just gonna
pull up my first picket here and I'm
just looking to cover the hole here once
I get it plumbed up then I can shoot it
in but first if you see at the bottom I
have a little shim of scrap material
there and all that is doing is lifting
my pick it up so it's not any higher or
lower than these outside pickets because
of this corner post I had to rip this
board down to fit
and you see I added a little dog ear to
match I'm going to start installing this
first picot tied up against my post here
and nick is holding a 2x4 at the top so
I can align the tops of our pickets so
we're using this top 2x4 because the
slope of the yard on this side of the
fence makes it a little difficult for
the bottom spacer now when you come to a
post like this all you have to do is not
to pick it out so it fits around it now
we've reached the point in the yard
where our slope is pretty gradual and we
can do our string line trick again to
align the tops of our pickets
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the board's might be a little bit green
from the weather-resistant treatment but
don't worry that green will fade over
time
so now we can install our last run of
pickets what we're doing is installing a
temporary picket we're just screwing it
in this is to hold our string line to
align our tops and we're overlapping and
keeping it flush we've already attached
one at the other end here with a nail in
it so we'll just run our string line
across like we did before well next time
the string off we can address where the
gate goes the big thing about the gate
is at the hinges you want them to go
into a solid piece of wood so we're
gonna infill from this 2x4 to this
two-by-four with another 2x4 you don't
want your screws going into the end
grain of the wood so I'm just gonna hold
this 2x4 here and Mark the back angle so
we get a nice tight fit
[Music]
so then we'll just cut that and install
it we'll start with a full picket at our
gate post we'll install it just like we
have been aligning the top of the picket
with the string line and flushing it out
with the post oh good yep because of the
contour of the land we didn't use our
bottom spacer we'll cut this last picket
after we infill the rest that way we
keep our string line intact so on this
side you'll see that the pickets a
little tall that's just because the
ground slopes up a lot right at the
house here so a little trick what we're
gonna do let's flip it around set it on
our spacer and we're gonna mark the low
side of our line and you're just gonna
cut a 90 degree cut across there
[Music]
now we added this temporary board at the
end to hold our string line but it's too
big for the space and our gap is too
small so we have to rip it down and what
we'll do is we'll just measure our
spacing which is three and a half inches
and we'll transfer that mark over to our
board three and a half inches what's
left here is what we're gonna rip down
[Music]
now we'll finish the inside pickets
[Music]
once the pickets are installed we can
start building our gates like any gate
we're gonna build a square frame out of
two by fours using a gate building kit
what we're gonna do is install the frame
first and then put the pickets on
following the contour of the land one
thing to remember is to take into
account your hinge spacing and your
latch spacing so this hinge is about a
half an inch and then we're gonna give
another quarter of an inch or so for our
latch and because of the latch we're
using we kind of need to build out this
corner a little bit now when you're
measuring that's where your three
quarters of an inch comes in I'm gonna
be measuring from our Jim here our build
out piece to the post
I have forty seven and a half inches so
take off 3/4 and we'll have forty six
and three-quarters inches the height of
the frame can kind of be anywhere in
between these rails so I'm going to pick
56 inches I think that'll work out great
now we'll cut all of our pieces for our
frame
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so because of our little well do we have
going on at our hinge here we need to
kind of mitre or chamfer our edge right
here right there and then this board
also
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using a gate building kit not only makes
this project easier it will also prevent
the gate from sagging over time
[Music]
so now when we're cutting our middle
brace we'll find the middle of our frame
so half of 56 is two foot four and just
mark it and we'll do the same over here
thank you
that'll be the center of our 2x4 when we
put it in our in-between will be thirty
nine and a half the best way to do this
is to start off going straight and once
you get a little bit of a hole going
then you tilt your screw in now we'll go
hang it
[Music]
first we're just going to mark our holes
and I'll pre-drill up
[Applause]
[Music]
now we just install the pickets and
we'll still use the string line as a
guide now I'll do the other side first
install the post side of the latch and
then the gate side after you've finished
building your fence wait a few months
before sanding or painting now you'll
have a new wood fence and a new look for
your backyard want more great ideas and
how-tos
go to lowes.com/howto
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you
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