Features of a fence made of wood, types of such structures, their advantages and disadvantages, preparation for work, installation of wooden fences and their care. A wooden fence is an excellent solution for a suburban area. Any owner, relying on his own imagination, can make a completely exclusive fence due to the properties of wood and the many options for using it for this purpose. You will learn how to make a wooden fence without resorting to high costs from our article.
Types and features of wood fences
Depending on the height, the fences are divided into three categories: low up to 0.8 m; medium - up to 1.5 m; high - more than 1.5 m.
In appearance, wood fences can be divided into several types:
- Fence … It is a canvas made up of rails nailed to horizontal girders and fixed between the support pillars. Such a fence is often used for decorative purposes, as well as for fencing a site from the street and neighbors.
- Board fence … It consists of processed boards, nailed close to each other, overlapping or with gaps to the girders, located horizontally between the supports. Among the wooden fences, plank fences are considered the most reliable.
- Palisade … This is a fence consisting of a row of logs dug vertically into the ground. Logs can be located close to each other or with gaps. To strengthen such a fence from its inner side, the logs are connected with the help of nails with transverse strips. The consumption of wood material when erecting a log fence for a garden plot is often unjustified.
- Wattle … For a summer residence, such a fence is a beautiful and successful solution. It is made of small height, using willow or birch branches for weaving the canvas.
What type of wooden fence to choose depends on the preferences of the owner of the site. But usually high structures separate the perimeter of the entire site, low fences divide the courtyard into zones, and medium-height fences are erected on the border with friendly neighbors or with the intention of keeping pets.
Regardless of the type, the structure of any wooden fence consists of three main elements: support pillars, transverse girders and material for filling its sections - boards, rods, slabs, etc.
Advantages and disadvantages of a wooden fence
The main advantages of wooden fences are the low weight of the wood, which makes it easier to transport, and the affordable cost. The simple design of such fences allows you to build them yourself.
Wooden fences are perfectly combined with the green landscape of the site, a stone house or a log house. If you show a little imagination, your wooden fence can be made absolutely unique.
The disadvantage of erecting wooden fences is their short service life. Wood is susceptible to decay and damage by woody insects. Fire and precipitation do not have the best effect on it.
But it is not difficult to deal with such problems today. There are many different protective compounds such as antiseptics, stains and fire retardants. The lumber or logs processed by them last much longer.
Wooden fence installation technology
Even the most common wooden fences can be made beautiful with proper installation and decoration. The installation of a wooden fence consists of three steps: installation of support posts, fastening of the transverse girders and nailing of the picket fence. Instead of a picket fence and girders in such fences, a slab, a picket fence made of logs or wicker weaving can be used. Consider the basic principle of installing a wooden fence.
Preparatory work
They provide for the choice of the fence design, design, preparation of materials, tools and marking the perimeter of the fence on the ground.
You need to start work by determining the type of planned fence. The easiest way is to build a picket fence. If such a fence is decorative, it can be recruited from thin diagonal strips. Many owners like a solid slab fence that imitates a palisade.
The top of the fence sections can also be made in different ways. It can be curly, convex or concave. In any case, before starting work, you need to clearly imagine the appearance and design features of the planned fence. Several options for its sections can be depicted on paper and at the same time determine the need for a basement under them. Such a fence will be combined, that is, consisting of wood and stone, but it looks no worse than usual.
In order to calculate the required amount of materials for the external fence, it is necessary to draw a plan of the land plot to scale. Knowing the dimensions of the sides of its perimeter, it is easy to calculate the length of the future fence. At its corners and in the entrance group, it is necessary to plan the installation of support pillars, and every 2 m - intermediate posts, which will provide the fence structure with the required rigidity. Having all this data and determining the height of the fence, you can calculate the amount of material.
After performing calculations on paper, you need to prepare the tools necessary for work and start marking the fence on the ground. The set of tools should include: pegs, nylon cord, tape measure and hydraulic level, shovel, ax, hacksaw, garden drill, hammer and nails. For the installation of fence posts and waterproofing devices, in addition to basic materials, you will need roofing material, bituminous mastic, M400 concrete, crushed stone and river sand.
The marking of the fence on the ground should be started by determining the installation points for the corner posts. These places must be marked with pegs driven into the ground. After that, between them it is necessary to pull and fasten the nylon cord, and then mark the points of the location of the intermediate racks with pegs. Thanks to the cord, they will all be on the same line of the side of the perimeter of the site, and after installation, the wooden fence will turn out to be even. When the marking is completed, it is necessary to prepare the support posts of the fence for installation. At the request of the site owner, they can be made of rolled metal, timber or logs. When choosing the first option, plugs cut from a metal sheet must be welded to the top of all pipes. This will prevent moisture from precipitation from entering the racks and causing them to oxidize. The underground part of the supports should be covered with bituminous mastic, and the rest should be primed and painted with anti-corrosion enamel.
If the option of wooden posts is chosen, it is recommended to begin with sharpening their top. This will prevent rainwater from entering the rack through its end. Moisture will simply slide down the support without penetrating into her body. As for the thickness of the logs or beams for the supports, you should choose something in between. Too thick supports in the fence look ridiculous, and too thin will not have sufficient strength. Before installation, it is advisable to burn the pillars on a fire, and then their lower part, which will be underground, must be covered with bitumen and wrapped in two layers of roofing material.
In the places marked with pegs, holes should be dug under the supports. Their depth is directly related to the height of the planned fence. If the height of the above-ground part of the support is less than a meter, the hole can be made 0.8 m deep. Further, respectively: for the support up to 1.5 m - 1 m, over 1.5 m - the depth of the hole is 1/2 pillar. The width of the hole should be such that a distance of at least 0.2 m is maintained between its edge and the installed pillar.
If the pillars are metal, it is convenient to make holes for them using a garden drill. If you stick an electrical tape on it, it will be possible to control the depth of the grooves with high accuracy during the work with this tool.
Installation of supports for a fence made of wood
Before installing the support pillars, the bottom of the prepared holes must be covered with medium fraction crushed stone. In this case, when the soil freezes in winter, the fence posts will be able to maintain their original position. It is recommended to cover the walls of the dug holes with roofing felt, making a kind of formwork out of it.
The installation of the fence supports in the holes should be carried out using a plumb line. After mounting in a strictly vertical position, the racks must be temporarily fixed with stops. If the height of the supports is less than one and a half meters, it is enough to fill the sinuses of the holes with a fight of bricks, rubble and tamp everything. If the height of the fence is more than one and a half meters, the holes with installed supports should be poured with M400 concrete. In order to reduce its consumption, 2/3 of each hole can be covered with stones or bricks.
If you plan to install a combined fence with a plinth, the installation of its supports should be done differently. Instead of holes along the marking lines, you need to dig a meter deep trench. Its bottom should be covered with rubble, the walls should be covered with a waterproofing film, and outside, a wooden formwork should be installed, which should form a base, and therefore rise 0.5 m above the top of the trench.
After that, support posts and reinforcement cages can be installed in the trench. The bottom of the supports, which will be in the concrete, must be treated with bitumen. Their installation should be carried out using a plumb line and a building level. The vertical position of the racks must be fixed with stops made of bars.
When everything is ready, the formwork together with the trench must be poured with M400 concrete. If you prepare the mixture yourself, you will need a concrete mixer, as well as cement, sand and crushed stone in a 1: 2: 3 ratio.
After pouring, you need to wait until the concrete hardens. If the supports were installed in the holes, this period will be just over a week. The base will take almost a month to harden. After the concrete has set the required strength, the pillars can be clad with brick or stone.
Fastening girders and other elements of a wooden fence
These details of the fence are bars or slats with a small cross-section, connecting the posts and forming the frame of the span between them. When erecting a wooden fence, each girder must be attached to the center of the support, and when installing the next span, a new girder should be docked with an already fixed bar. Runs can be nailed over a wooden support, or you can cut out a seat in it for a more durable fastening.
To make the structure of the fence strong, the transverse girders can be nailed by staggering them and excluding their joining on one support. The thickness of the purlins should be selected depending on the thickness and weight of the lumber. The more massive it is, the stronger the girders should be.
Their location should be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the supports. Otherwise, the appearance of the fence may be damaged. This will be especially noticeable when installing a picket fence with gaps. The installation of the purlins should be constantly monitored using a tape measure and a building level.
If a horizontal arrangement of boards is planned in a wooden fence, then the girders must be connected with vertical guides that will carry the load from the spans. It is recommended to fasten the purlins to wooden supports with galvanized self-tapping screws. If nails are used, they should not be driven vertically into the wood, but slightly at an angle.
To install the picket fence in a vertical position, it is recommended to make a template that will facilitate the work of even fastening the boards. A template is a rail with a width corresponding to the distance between the strips of the picket fence. If it is made T-shaped, it will be possible to additionally control the height of the picket fixing.
If in a wooden fence the picket fence will be located diagonally, you need to make a frame from the slats in accordance with the size of the span. The frame should be fixed on supports, and then a picket fence should be nailed to it.
When making wattle fence, the support posts have a small cross-section and are mounted in relation to each other at short distances of 40-60 cm. Before installing such a fence, the vine from which it is to be woven should be soaked in water for a couple of days. After that, it will be easier to work with this material. A wattle wicker with a horizontal or vertical arrangement of vine branches is very beautiful and resembles a traditional village fence.
The picket fence can be imitated or real. In the first case, it is a slab nailed to the girders. Its boards need to be placed close to each other. Much less often, the palisade is real. To make it, sharpened logs need to be dug into the ground. Such a fence is strong, but requires a lot of logs.
Wooden fence maintenance
Due to the fact that wood from constant exposure to moisture can gradually rot, a wooden fence needs periodic maintenance. It consists in treating boards and supports with antiseptic compounds and painting all wooden parts of the structure with waterproof enamels.
It is recommended to do this work every year, preferably in the spring. Before the next painting, the old peeling enamel must be removed from the fence with a metal bristle brush. If it is white, it will have to be dyed up to three times a year. Only in this case, such a fence will always look fresh.
How to make a wooden fence - watch the video:
Building a wooden fence with your own hands is absolutely simple. However, after its completion, such a design must be constantly paid attention. Without it, it will become vulnerable, and with good service it will delight everyone with its appearance and protection from many misfortunes for a long time.
