Double Sided Fence with featheredge boards

[srj321]

Hi,

Hopefully you guys here can tell me if my plan is feasible.

Currently I have a well battered fence which I believe is shared with my neighbour and he thinks it is mine. Anyway it is made with 3ft high concrete posts with 3ft boards slotted into them - the posts are leaning where they have been pushed by the roots of my neighbour's tree. Anyway the trees are coming down to stump level and I now want to improve the fence. Now rather than dig up all the concrete posts and re-align them I wondered whether I can baton some timber to the posts to extend them up to 6ft - to the batons I then want to attach arris rails and then featheredge boards onto those. Now if I do the arris rail flush with the posts I could then featheredge along the whole length of the fence and effectively hide the leaning posts behind the featheredge. Does this make sense? Would it work?

Now if the above is do-able then I end up with nice fence with no wonky posts on display - however being neighbourly I wanted to offer my neighbour the chance to have the wonky posts hidden (but only if he is prepared to pay) - so rather than arris rails could I attach horizontal batons instead of arris rails - and then fit featheredge boards to both sides of the fence - hence the wonky posts are hidden on both sides.

Bit of a long question I know - but in my mind this sounds like a potential way of making a nice looking fence without messing around with the concrete posts. Am I missing an obvious flaw in the plan.

Cheers for any input.

 

[roberta1000]

Aside from anything else it might be worth checking how well planted the existing posts are. A 6' closeboarded fence will have quite a wind-loading compared with 3'. If they're already leaning a bit that might give a clue .....

 

[srj321]

I had hoped to avoid digging - but probably worth a look I guess. The only thing I would say though is that the posts are leaning in the line of the fence rather than into the garden which is what I would have expected with wind hitting the fence over a period of time. I had just assumed that it was the rather large conifers planted right next to the fence in the neighbour's garden which had forced the posts to move. But I guess no matter how well set the existing 3 ft posts are it will have been set a with a lot less depth/concrete than a 6ft post would have had. Had hoped to avoid playing around with the posts too much but guessing I may well have to.

 

[ladylola]

Your idea is really going to be as much work as putting in new fence posts and will use twice as much materials , I'd bite the bullet and dig out those wobbly old posts

 

[srj321]

Thanks for the input guys on this - been out studying the fence to see what removal of the posts will mean - apart from a lot of hard work.

Anyway one of the things I am thinking about is that if I take the old concrete posts out and replace with some nice shiny new concrete posts I am thinking I will still need to use slotted posts as I need to slide in a number of concrete gravel boards (two between some posts) to act as a bit of a retaining wall for the garden (I plan on doing some levelling up of the soil as my garden is on a slope). Anyway if I go with the slotted posts to facilitate the concrete gravel boards I still actually want to use arris rails for the fence (I have a load of featheredge boards already acquired on the v cheap) - therefore how would I attach the arris rails to the slotted concrete post? Would I still need to go with my idea of putting in a 50mmx50mm post into the slot and bolt that through the post through the pre-drilled holes so I have a wooden base to attach my arris rail support brackets or is there another easy way to attach arris rails to a slotted post?

Cheers

 

[ladylola]

If the posts have predrilled holes then yes bolt through them .If as I suspect therearen't any holes then why not just cut the rails between the 50 X50's tightly and fix , it won't fall out after all as it will be held by the post slots. The "critical" joint would be the joint between the rails and the 50x50's and this I would reenforce with a metal angle plate of some sort.

 

[srj321]

So I wouldn't be creating problems for the post if I drilled into it to attach a small metal angle plate then?

 

[ladylola]

Well you don't actually have to drill into the concrete post at all although a couple of screws isn't going to hurt. What I meant was use the 50x50 in the slot as you originally intended and maybe stick a few screws into the post. Then with the rails cut tightly between these 50's so as to wedge the whole thing in place renforce the joints with the metal angle plates. Hope this is clear.