New Fence

Hi,

I don't think this has been asked before,

I want to put a new fence up, but I want to use standard concrete H posts and gravel boards, but is it possible to use rails and then vertical boards fastened to both sides of the rails, with it all still in line with the gravel boards at the bottom.

For it to work would i have the thickness of the two vertical boards plus the thickness of the rail have to equal the H gap?

I think I am basically trying to make my own panel.

- Jason

I'm currently in the process of putting up a fence using concrete posts and vertical feather-edge fence panels, some of which I've had made up for me and some (non-standard sizes) that I'm making up myself.

The same thought did occur to me but, while there is a small amount of movement in the panel within the post recesses, I don't think the gap is quite big enough to finish both sides of a panel with the feather-edge boards. This is true for my panels at least, which look to be made from fairly standard size pieces of timber.

If you wanted to try this and weren't able to drop the boards into place down the grooves from above, then it may be possible to put up a standard panel (finished on one side) and then attach boards to the other side in-situ. These extra panels might not fit right to the edge of the board, but this would be hidden to a certain extent by the recess.

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the fence and posts will stand up to the hammering needed - this will obviously depend on how secure your fence is !

The alternative would be to use thinner batons, so that the overall panel depth would be about the same as a standard panel. I would imagine that the extra strength provided by the extra boarding would compensate for using thinner batons.

What size will your panels be ? A 5 or 6x6ft panel boarded on both sides is going to be pretty heavy !

Hi,

My plan was for a 4 or 5ft fence, maybe with some trelis at the top.

I never even thought if the posts would take the hammering!!!

I was plannning on fixing the rails in first and then fixing the vertical panels in situ, may have to rethink that, or maybe do a few on each side then lift into place and finish it.

Also I wasn't looking at doing the overlap style I was going to do one where you have a 2 or 3 inch wide vertical panel, with maybe an inch or 2inch gap before the next.

Our last fence blew down (although it was old and rotten) but I thought that would at least allow some wind to pass through.

Cheers for your help
Jason

One possible solution would be to use three horizontal timbers and screw/nail vertical timbers on alternate sides with a gap between them sort of like this plan view:

______ ______ _______ ________
----------------------------------------------------------
________ ______ ________

Try not to get too overwhelmed by my graphics
That way, you'd still have airflow, but would also have privacy plus a full thickness panel