- Welcome to DIY for Homeowners by Mother Daughter Projects.
I'm Steph.
- I'm Vicki and today we're at my house
and we're replacing my mailbox.
Join us as we show you how we did it.
- [Steph] We're using eight one by four by eight foot
pressure treated boards and two four by four posts,
a brand new mailbox, a post light,
some foam post hole mix and a brad nailer.
From the one by four's we cut 21 pieces and 19 inches.
Here we're setting up a fence which is just a way
to cut all the boards to the same length
without repeated measuring.
With each board, we started by cutting off each end
so we had a nice fresh cut.
We also cut two pieces at 22 and a half inches
and four pieces at four and three fourth's inches long.
We cut each four by four post longer than we needed
and we'll trim them in the very end
when we know exactly the height we need.
We went back and forth on whether to
stain or paint the mailbox.
We went with paint because we had some left over
from painting my house a couple years ago.
Mom primed everything with a Bayer outdoor primer
and then we painted with a Bayer outdoor paint.
Mom ended up painting three sides of the posts black
to give the slats a more defined look
in the finished mailbox.
Mom is turning the posts so the gray faces outward
and then we're starting by making the top shelf
that the box itself will set on.
We're using outdoor wood glue and galvanized brad nails
for this build.
We secured the shelf and then put it into place.
We're very visual builders
so we have to put everything into place
to test the fit before we start attaching anything.
We decided on the placement of the box itself
and once we had the spacing figured out,
we moved on to adding the slats.
We're test fitting them here
and for the spacing, we're just using large paint sticks.
These really come in handy and come three to a pack
for under a dollar.
(upbeat music)
With those secure, mom touched up the paint
so no black was showing.
Then we flipped over the mailbox
and attached the rest of the slats.
Some of the four by four was a little wonky
so as the glue dried we clamped it where it needed it.
With that done, we stood it up
and next we attached the shelf for the box.
Again, spacing with large paint sticks.
We brad nailed it into place.
We also added the light to the post a while back
which was just with two screws.
We put the box in place making sure the door fully opens.
We used scrap pieces of one by four
to provide support for the box.
Here we're adding painters tape so we can tell
where the supports need to go on the shelf.
We glued and brad nailed the supports into place.
The top was left white as you won't see that
in the final build.
We'll attach the box once the mailbox is in place.
We headed outside to make the two holes for the post.
The ground here is really hard clay
so we utilize a couple of different tools
to make this a bit easier.
First we have a large auger drill bit
on a Rigid right angle drill,
a shovel and a post hole digger.
The auger worked great to break up the hard clay.
Here are the finished holes.
And the mailbox is a little heavy
so we just rolled out our Husky table
right into the street as it's pretty low traffic.
We get it into place and found the front hole
was a little deeper.
We just back filled that with a little bit more dirt.
We can now cut off the excess of the four by four posts
using our Makita subcompact reciprocating saw
with Diablo wood cutting blade.
Again, our table really came in handy here.
We get the mailbox in place, leveled it out
and here we're using foam fence post mix
to secure it into the ground.
We've been wanting to try this product
and knew mom's mailbox would be the perfect place
to try it out.
The instructions say one bag is good
for an eight inch diameter by 36 inch deep hole
and the holes we dug are only about 15 inches
so I thought this would be simple to just use one bag.
This sets up really fast.
You mix for 15 seconds and have to pour it immediately
before it starts to set in the bag.
Having never used this product before,
I didn't realize how liquidy it was
and started putting too much in the first hole
before I noticed.
Whoops, so I quickly moved on to the second hole.
It started expanding a lot
so we just watched it grow and expand.
I will say we did get a perfect amount
in the second hole.
Once it was safe to touch but not fully cured,
We started to remove excess which was not that difficult.
Mom used an exacto knife
to cut the parts away from the wood.
A little more scraping and paint
and you can't even tell the difference.
To finish off, we noticed that this was a very muddy patch.
My neighbors had some leftover edging from a project
and we used it to create some simple landscaping
for the mailbox.
We dug two holes on the side to add some monkey grass
and finished it off with some leftover mulch
from my neighbors.
Lastly, we secured the box into place.
It's tight quarters in here so I'm using a
right angle attachment with a flexible shaft
to secure the box in eight places.
These are just outdoor screws that I'm using.
If we ever need to replace the box itself,
we can easily unscrew it.
And here it is all done.
I love that mom painted the four by four on the inside.
I think it gives the slats a really defined look
and if you're wondering, where are the house numbers?
We did buy some numbers but returned them
because we realized it would be easier and cheaper
to cut out vinyl letters on our Cricut maker
and we got a gray vinyl to match the mailbox.
We're not gonna share that version
as we don't wanna share our address
but here's a demo on our old mailbox
on how we attached the numbers.
We cut the numbers out of vinyl,
added a transfer sheet on top,
put the letters in place and removed the transfer sheet.
In the final mailbox,
we put the address on both sides
and small numbers on the front of the mailbox.
What we learned.
- 15 years ago, way before mother daughter projects,
we actually replaced this mailbox.
This was when Steph was still very reluctantly helping me.
I remember we had this discussion about concrete.
Should we put concrete in the hole?
We were like, we don't know how to do that so,
we didn't do it and the mailbox stayed.
But as you can see, by this tiny little push,
that this mailbox was long overdue for replacement.
- We bought this wood about two weeks before we needed it
because it's pressure treated so it's a little wet
when you first get it and you wanna give it
plenty of time to dry out before you paint it.
And while it was drying out,
we'd also turn it occasionally to make sure that
it dried pretty evenly, as evenly as it can.
We got some wonky pieces of wood
but we overbought a little bit
just because we knew that might happen.
- There were lots of different mailbox designs.
So find one that you like.
Drive around your neighborhoods and see what inspires you.
That's actually what we did.
Steph found this mailbox that we based the design on
and we actually drove by it and took pictures.
We didn't actually stop and measure
although we really, really wanted to.
But just take a look at what's in your neighborhood
and find something that inspires you.
- If you're thinking about making a mailbox,
be sure to check with the
United States Postal Service online,
they'll have information on how far it needs to be
from the curb, how tall it needs to be,
so keep those in mind when you're doing your design.
And if you wanna see some of the ways
we refreshed the mailbox at my house,
take a look at the videos over here
and thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.
- Bye.
(melodic music)