A fence made of wooden beams: its pros and cons, how to choose the right material for the fence, stage-by-stage execution of work. A fence made of timber is a solid durable structure designed to fence off a land plot. It cannot be called especially popular, since many owners of private houses believe that it is easier, faster and, perhaps, cheaper to fence off your own territory with a stone or board fence. Nevertheless, for those wishing to build just such a fence, our today's article.
Features and choice of material for the fence
In order to decide which timber for the fence is better, you need to know about its types, properties and only then proceed to the choice of material for construction.
Wooden beams can be non-profiled, profiled and glued. The first type is the cheapest lumber. Its main disadvantage is the need for additional adjustment in size, since the shapes of such a bar are very diverse. In addition, there is a possibility that, after installation, the elements of a fence built from non-profiled timber may well lead. In this regard, there is a need for their treatment with protective compositions.
Profiled timber is made from treated wood, its dimensions are more accurate than that of the previous sawn timber. It has technological grooves and ridges that simplify the assembly of the entire structure. Profiled timber is used for the construction of solid fences. This makes them massive and solid enough. Fences erected from such material are almost not deformed and practically do not tolerate shrinkage. Its cost, of course, is higher.
Glued laminated timber is the most expensive material. Created with the help of high technologies, it has a multi-layer structure, which serves as a guarantor of the strength of any structure made from it, as well as its resistance to weather conditions. Glued laminated timber is rich in a variety of profiles and sizes. This allows you to make non-standard fences from it, which are distinguished by their massiveness and decent appearance. However, due to the presence of adhesive layers in this material, its naturalness is slightly lost. But glued laminated timber is waterproof.
When choosing a timber for the construction of a fence, you need to know that wood can change over time: swell, dry out or crack. Therefore, you should buy such material with utmost care.
Recommendations for choosing a fence bar:
- You should not take a third-rate timber, since its durability is initially doomed. It is quite possible that in a couple of years a structure erected from low-quality sawn timber will lead, or it will develop cracks that can ruin its appearance.
- Erecting a wooden fence from a bar should not be a difficult task. Therefore, its wood must be lightweight and easy to handle. Pine timber meets these criteria. Sawing and planing it is much easier than the same products from cedar, for example, or larch. It is lighter in weight, and the cost of such a bar is lower, although this material is inferior in moisture resistance to larch.
- If the timber has blue or gray spots, this means that the process of decay has already begun. You need to immediately abandon such material and buy a monochromatic timber of a natural color, even at its higher price.
- If the beam has curvatures, they are permissible, but only in the same plane. With the curvature of lumber in several planes, it is considered unsuitable for construction. Such a defect is easy to determine if you look closely at any end of the timber.
- The timber storage warehouse must be covered. But it will be better if you hold the timber in a drying chamber before starting construction. A similar service is sometimes offered when buying it.
Advantages and disadvantages of a wooden fence made of timber
The main advantage of a fence built from a bar is its naturalness. The natural texture of lumber is in perfect harmony with buildings made in any style.
In addition, the advantages of installing such fences include the following:
- Compared to the construction of brick or concrete fences, the construction of a fence from a bar requires less labor and time.
- You do not need special construction skills for the device of such a fence; it is quite possible to assemble it yourself or together with an assistant.
- A variety of design options and a variety of profiles allow you to assemble original fences from a bar. The fence can be made in a combined way or exclusively with bars of the same or different sizes.
The disadvantages of the fence can be called its sensitivity to the effects of climatic conditions and wood pests. In humid climates, the service life of the fence is limited to ten years. It can be increased by using wood preservatives. Another way of extending the "life" of the fence is the construction of its supports made of brick, metal or reinforced concrete. Such a fence is considered to be combined.
Timber fence installation technology
There are many methods of constructing do-it-yourself fences from a bar, and they are quite diverse. But their general requirement is preliminary cleaning of the territory and a breakdown of the perimeter of the fence. When they are completed, you can proceed to the main stages of work, which will be discussed below.
Fence foundation device
All debris must be removed from the location of the future fence, stumps and shrubs, if any, must be uprooted. The breakdown of the perimeter of the fence must be performed according to a pre-prepared scheme, which usually indicates the length of the structure, its location with reference to characteristic points, the number of supports and the distance between them. On the ground, the future fence should be marked with pegs and a cord stretched between them. The pegs must be hammered in at the corners of the fence perimeter and at each point where its posts are located.
Since such a fence is very weighty, you will still need some kind of foundation for it. A shallow strip foundation is well suited. It does not require a lot of resources and is fairly easy to manufacture. In addition, in our case, such a structure performs a very important function: being a kind of partition between the ground and the bottom of the fence, it protects the fence from decay, extending its service life. The foundation device provides for the following sequence of work:
- Around the perimeter of the planned fence, you need to dig a shallow trench up to 0.5 m wide a little more than the foundation. In it, you can make rectangular nests for the installation of support posts of the fence. If the soil on the site is wet, then it is recommended to cover the bottom of the trench with roofing material.
- The bottom of the trench must be covered with a layer of sand, moistened and tamped. A layer of rubble should be poured over the sand cushion and filled with cement mortar. Strengthened in this way, the bottom of the trench will be able to take the load from the foundation and the fence, and then evenly distribute it over the ground, preventing cracks in the base from occurring in the event of soil subsidence.
- Build a brick, stone or reinforced concrete foundation. To implement the last option, you need to make the formwork, cover it with plastic wrap, lay the reinforcement cages and fill everything with concrete. After the end of its hardening, the formwork must be removed. The ends of the fittings must not look outward to avoid corrosion. The fence supports must be installed in the prepared nests before concreting.
- The sinuses between the foundation and the side walls of the trench must be covered with sand and compacted in layers. After that, a small blind area should be made, which will protect the foundation of the fence from a bar from erosion by rainwater.
Fastening the timber to the supports
The strength and type of the future fence depend on the method of fixing the horizontal bar to the support post. There are three options for such a connection:
- Option 1 … For the support post, you need to take a bar with a cross section larger than the diameter of the fence wall element. Then, along the height of the support, it is necessary to make a U-shaped sample. A similar procedure should be done on the other side of the post. The most convenient way to do this is with a milling cutter. If it is not there, there will be a long work with a circular saw. For corner supports, such selections should be made on adjacent sides. To save lumber, the corners of the fence can be overlapped, as it should be for such structures. It is recommended to simulate the presence of a corner post by nailing two boards of the required size outside the corner on its side, and a thin beam inside the corner. The end parts of the wall beam also need to be prepared. With the help of a hacksaw, two samples should be made on them. They must be such that the butt end acquires a T-shape. When installing the wall bar, the “T” spike enters the “P” groove and provides excellent adhesion of the fence elements. It goes without saying that the sizes of both samples must match exactly.
- Option 2 … You need to take a bar of a large section and dissolve it along so as to get 2 parts of one support. They should be concreted next to each other so that a T-bar pin can be inserted between them. The length of the sample "T" should correspond to 1/2 the width of the posts. After installing the wall beam, the 2 parts of the support must be pulled with long bolts through the pre-made holes.
- Option 3 … It can be used if the wall beam has a large cross-section. Here, instead, a profiled metal pipe is used as a support. On the end part of the wall beam, it is necessary to make U-shaped recesses so that during installation it is put on a profiled pipe. From above it should be closed with a plug. In this case, the fence will be a solid wall. For beauty, boards can be stuffed on it, imitating the presence of wooden posts. You can do the same with the corners of the fence where the timber is overlapped.
When using a wall beam, its installation will not be difficult if the sampling tolerances are observed. Excessive efforts should not be made here. If something does not work out, in the right places you can hang, cut.
It is recommended to treat the joints of the timber and the sample before installation with an antiseptic and soak with drying oil. It is not necessary to do this for a laminated veneer fence. To provide additional strength of the structure, it is recommended to mount the timber in rows with wooden dowels. They should be inserted into holes pre-drilled in its lower or upper surfaces.
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After completing this work, the installation of a fence from a bar can be considered complete. Now it remains to clean it, prime it and cover it with polyurethane varnish. To protect the fence from bad weather, it is advisable to make a roof over the upper beam. The concrete foundation of the structure can be revetted with decorative stone, and the tops of the pillars can be decorated with lanterns or carvings - here, as far as imagination is enough.
