Will 180cm centres (so not 6ft space between) be ok for fence posts?

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

I’d like to fix the fence boards direct to the posts. I’ve bought 3.6 m boards. So 3 posts at 180cm will allow a 3.6m board to span centre to centre and a post in the middle. I thought it would mean I won’t have to do any or much cutting.

But I’ve just had a horrible thought that I’d in future I wanted panels, then I can’t, the posts are too close. Or I’d have to reduce panel widths.

does anyone think it matters? Is it best to space them at 6ft between posts and cut wood to fit? Would be a lot of wasted wood and cost a lot more. Unless I screw wood inside the posts to secure 1.8m boards to.

just wondered what’s normal, does it matter, should I plan for panels just in case?

worse case is the posts can’t accommodate off the shelf panels and so they’d need to be cut thinner. Or always use boards.

posts re concrete in so not easy to move.

Keithmac · 2 Apr 2021

If posts are already in I'd just crack on with the boards.

Panels can be cut to size later if necessary.

Our fence is hand made feather edge, we re-posted it a few years back, just took a bit of thought and managed to re-use the fence (made it into sections).

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

Posts are not in but I dug 3 out of 9 holes so thought I’d check first. Since posting I dug another 3 so am committed now!

yes worse case panels can be cut or even fixed to the front of the posts I guess.

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

Oh, this question is irrelevant now... one of the holes had a massive boulder about 40cm down. I could not budge it. I could not find the edges or underneath. Must have been massive. So I had to move the post about 15cm across which would have meant it’s not the right widths anyway. As I’m putting boards across the front it doesn’t matter if it’s moved.

thinking about it I bet if I went for 6ft between posts I would have missed the boulder anyway! Spent over 2 hours trying to budge it before moving the hole.

JohnD · 2 Apr 2021

are your posts wooden or concrete?

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

big-all · 2 Apr 2021

if the fence is exactly the 3.6m then first post at 1.830 as you would anyway and only one panel to cut
if its multiple 3.6s then remember post 3/5/7 will have to hold 2 boards as a join then the gaps 1/3/5/7 as 1.830 to halve the cutting

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

It’s just over 10m so thought 2x 3.6m boards then cut the smaller span.

I think I get you... I can have 1 x 6ft gap for every 3.6m board so if I do move to panels it’s half the panels that need cutting for the smaller gaps. Genius!!!

big-all · 2 Apr 2021

lozcozard said:
It’s just over 10m so thought 2x 3.6m boards then cut the smaller span.

I think I get you... I can have 1 x 6ft gap for every 3.6m board so if I do move to panels it’s half the panels that need cutting for the smaller gaps. Genius!!!

yes exactly
also if you already have post holes full off concrete along the line see if starting at the far end with the full 1.83 and 3.6m will put the posts away from the old post positions

JohnD · 2 Apr 2021

lozcozard said:
Wood

When they go rotten and snap off, you can consider if you want to position the replacements 1800 apart.

If they were concrete, you could look on them as near-permanent.

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

I’ve dug 5 out of 7 holes for the 2 x 3.6m spans but no concrete yet. There might be enough room in the hole to slide it over for a 6ft gap but if not I can open up the hole a bit. Thanks a lot.

lozcozard · 2 Apr 2021

JohnD said:
When they go rotten and snap off, you can consider if you want to position the replacements 1800 apart.

If they were concrete, you could look on them as near-permanent.

Hoping that will be some way off! Going to try those sleeves you melt on to protect the rot line. Have another fence with wood posts in concrete been there decades! But one snapped in high winds other day so I drilled the old post out and slipped a new one wooden one into the concrete and postcreted the gaps, seems to be sturdy enough - just realised that’ll probably be a nightmare for these posts at 60cm deep!

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Will 180cm centres (so not 6ft space between) be ok for fence posts?

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