Continuous Arris Rail

[Big G]

Thanks to all of you that have answered previous questions about my fence building project. Normally I’d just cobble together a fence but, as this is a joint project between myself and a neighbour, it has to be completed with a bit more skill.

I’ve got my posts in and am now about to fix the arris rails. I want the rails to look continuous rather than having them with staggered heights where I use a new piece of wood.

So, what is the best method of ‘butting’ together the two bits of wood? The timber I’ll be using is 47mm x 75mm from good ol’ Wickes. This will need fastening to 75mm posts. I was going to join the wood together using a half lap joint at the location of the post. Is this the best place for the joint or would mid-rail be better? Should the size of the overlap be 75mm or would it be better to do a shorter overlap (say 25mm) then there’s 25mm of full thickness arris rail against the post?

Does the above make sense?

Many thanks

Gordon

 

[breezer]

why not move the posts close together?

 

[big-all]

why not move the posts close together?

i think they are in breeze


in my humble oppinion 1.5" fixing isnt enough realy to give you a good solid fence ok in a mortice

i personaly would have gone for a 18 to 25mm rebate in the post to support the weight if i had cemented them in but i dont know what size your panels are how many rails you have [top mid bottom]and how far appart the post are

 

[Big G]

Posts 6 foot apart. Five and a half foot high. Three rails, top, mid and bottom.

Going to have vertical planks attached 100mm * 19mm with about a 25 mm gap between.

Posts are concreted in.


Cheers

G

 

[big-all]

are you saying youve got 4" planks overlaped by an inch-- big !!!

are you using feather edged !! or just 19 by 100mm!!
i personaly think 19mm is a bit thick around 9mm is more usual try your wood yard rather than the sheds

you may be ok but personaly i would pre drill and countersink the screw holes in the rails

but hey i dont do many fences so wait for another oppinion or two before you act on my ideas

 

[Thermo]

From what you describe sounds more like a hit and miss fence.

putting a joint in the arris rails mid section is a no no as it will be too weak. Ae you cladding over the posts so there is no break in the fence or are you stopping at the posts? If your going over the posts, you could cut an open mortice into the post and then slot the arris rail into them. Alternativly with the size of timber your using you could screw them straight into the posts with some decent sized fixings. As your having a gap between each board, wind loading wont be such a problem

 

[Big G]

The above should be a drawing of the proposed fence.

a.) is a birds eye view

b.) is front view

Drawings 1) & 2) are birds eye views of two different lap joints

while 3) is a front view of another lap joint and 4 is simply having the rails staggered on the post.

Hope that makes sense and thank you for your help so far.


Cheers

Gordon

 

[Big G]

Another idea was to use a lap joint with the joint being the full 75mm wide and using a couple of bits of wood to the side of the post that the rail would connect to for added strength.


G

 

[JohnD]

Drawing (4) looks the strongest and easiest to me. I'm sure you will grow to like the look of it!

 

[Thermo]

full lap across the width of the post will more than suffice

 

[big-all]

Posts 6 foot apart. Five and a half foot high. Three rails, top, mid and bottom.

Going to have vertical planks attached 100mm * 19mm with about a 25 mm gap between.

Posts are concreted in.


Cheers

G

aaahhh got you now

use a piece of wood as a spacer so you dont have to keep measuring and
check for verticle 60%allong each panel and adjust before the post

 

[Thermo]

dont forget to add the centre post under the middle of the bottom arris rail