r/FenceBuilding

Running 500 feet of fence. Doing Kentucky horse park four board style. Me and my wife haven’t decided on height yet, but let’s just say it’s 4 and a half feet. Do you pull a string line between your corners each marked at your measurement? Or do you measure each one? Google has given different answers. I want it to look good, if it’s level with road, actually level etc. any advice would be wonderful. I’m doing this project by myself before I start my new job so any chance to make it go smoother I’m in lol.

I am replacing all the pickets on my wood gate; they haven’t been touched since I bought the house, and was in poor shape since then (6 years ago). I bought cedar pickets (fence boards), grade 1, and am tempted to use “Sherwin Williams WoodScapes Rain Refresh Exterior House Stain with Self-Cleaning Technology” with a white base, to match the garage doors.

I realize after doing a lot of reading that most people are against covering the natural cedar with anything but a clear stain, but aesthetically for this part of the property, a matching white fence would be nice.

I guess I am looking for advice if the Sherwin Williams stain above will be fine.

Homeowner here: I have a small fence/gate idea I would like to implement for some privacy. I would need a gate. Slipfence has a 6' gate kit so that is appealing. To the left of the gate there would be only 9' of fencing. I am considering horizontal cedar boards. I guess my question is, how important, with such a short fence, to have concrete footers. I was thinking to embed garden stakes as far as they would go, then put the Slipfence post over it, and embed this as far as I can. Then cut the top off at the correct height.

I'm guessing that ideally the gate would have concrete footers because of the torque.

I'm also thinking, I could try it, and if it doesn't work, just undo it, and do concrete footers.

Slipfence is available in my area, but happy to look into other brands! Thoughts? Thank-you in advance.

So I need to replace about 230 ft of pickets/rails but I want to reuse the existing self-tapped screws and holes in the vertical post. I can remove the bolts easily.

Any recommendations on how to properly line up a new hole I would drill through the 2x4 to get close to the existing holes in the vertical posts?

These are 2" square tubing posts.

Hi there! I am replacing 10 fence posts on my fence and I wanted to get some thoughts on which concrete would be the best option to go with. I am located in East Tennessee where we have that “east TN clay soil”. I am going 10 foot posts going about 36 inches into the ground with around 6 inches of gravel underneath. The holes have to be on top of the old post holes (too much to go into on this post) and the old fence posts were only set around 18-24 inches max but when removing them, the holes got a lot bigger at the top. Since I am going about 12-18 inches deeper than the other holes, I figured this was fine as long as I filled the extra space with more concrete (I know, it will be a pain if I ever need to replace a post). So that brings me to my question. For this particular scenario and soil, would the Sankrete Fast Set Concrete be okay to use for the faster curing time or will that potentially be too brittle? The part of the fence I am replacing is the windward size and gets a lot of wind, and it also curves off into an L shape that creates a lot of pressure build up. To mitigate this I am doing a shadow box fence, but even with that, is the fast setting stuff going to be strong enough overtime or should I go with the high strength? I am also doing 2 6x6 posts for a double gate but for that I know I should use the high strength. Thanks in advance!

A friend's property fence is old and falling apart, and is in desperate need of being replaced. Boards are falling off and he has dogs, so this just won't do. He's currently very sick and can't take care of this himself, and because of the treatment he needs, he can't afford to hire someone to do this, so I'm stepping up. I've never built a fence before, but I'm very handy and capable, and a quick learner.

The entire fence length is approximately 300 ft, mostly about 5 ft tall, though some sections are different from others in style and height. I'm debating if it makes sense to fix the most important areas, replacing the boards that are in the worst shape, or just do the whole thing. How should I approach this so that it's affordable and reasonable in terms of both financial cost and physical demand?

We're in Southeast Michigan.