Typically which wood for fence?

[Monkey Mark]

Probably a stupid question.

Over the summer I intend to replace two fences to the rear of my house. Both will be 6ft high. One about 10 meters in length, the other about 18 and probably with a single gate.

Any recommendations for type of timber or place of purchase (are the larger chains like wicks competitive?)

Any tips to help it all go smoothly appreciated.

 

[marcros]

tanolith softwood would get my vote. Then treat it immediately when you erect it, making sure that the endgrain soaks plenty in. I prefer the spirit based preservers, with the consistency of the old creosote but that may be personal preference. They seem harder to get now than before- most seem more like a paint that I have seen.

 

[RobinBHM]

Treated softeood posts last a long time. 4" posts are best for taller fences. The posts I like are those that have the faces kind of spiked to help the impregnation.

I found the local builders merchant the cheapest for posts. Best to select your own if you can, or expect a few rogue bent ones.

What type of fence are you wanting? Pre made panels are the cheapest, close board fencing is a better quality option. I think some people connect the rails with brackets rather than morticing.

These tools are excellent for fence post holes.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Landsca ... ger/p55706
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Landsca ... Bar/p48155

With that number of posts, I would buy ballast in a bulk bag and cement. The post hole kits wont fill up a very deep hole.

There are various options for concreting. I tend to dry mix, put in hole and ram down.

A friend of mine told me he always wraps the post with bitumin flashing, just one full turn at the position so a tiny bit will be exposed above the concrete once in. He reckons it seals the post at the point where water always sits. Ive not tried it, but it seems quite logical, most posts seem to rot at this point.

 

[AJB Temple]

For 28 metres of fence I would use long life tanalised softwood, 4" posts with mortised rails, and vertical lapped boards, applied with nail gun. This is a great deal cheaper than buying panels and you end up with a robust and long lasting fence. We have recently done about 120m of fencing in this way, in my case I employed a fencing contractor. as there were a lot of posts to put in. Their comment was that DIY'ers tend not to buy posts that are long enough - the post needs to go 600 - 800 mm into the ground, especially in exposed sites. They bought all of their material from a timber yard that supplies fencing contractors.

We also put in about 80m of chestnut post and rail, which was all untreated. Used an excavator with post borer to put those posts in. We are on clay.

 

[RobinBHM]

Yes depth is important to resist wind load, for a 6'0 fence probably best to use 9'0 posts, which will allow for a gravel board and 2"-3" of post above the panel.

Close boarded fences do look more attractive and more traditional than larch lap panels. They can also be repaired.

If you are feeling really strong you could go for concrete posts.

 

[porker]

Treated softeood posts last a long time. 4" posts are best for taller fences. The posts I like are those that have the faces kind of spiked to help the impregnation.

I found the local builders merchant the cheapest for posts. Best to select your own if you can, or expect a few rogue bent ones.

What type of fence are you wanting? Pre made panels are the cheapest, close board fencing is a better quality option. I think some people connect the rails with brackets rather than morticing.

These tools are excellent for fence post holes.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Landsca ... ger/p55706
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Landsca ... Bar/p48155

With that number of posts, I would buy ballast in a bulk bag and cement. The post hole kits wont fill up a very deep hole.

There are various options for concreting. I tend to dry mix, put in hole and ram down.

A friend of mine told me he always wraps the post with bitumin flashing, just one full turn at the position so a tiny bit will be exposed above the concrete once in. He reckons it seals the post at the point where water always sits. Ive not tried it, but it seems quite logical, most posts seem to rot at this point.

+1 - If you look at where wooden posts rot it is always a couple of inches where they get constantly wet and dry near the ground. There are some post savers like these http://www.postsaver.com/ available that claim to make your posts last much longer. I replaced a couple of rotten posts earlier this year so will see how they go. Also the tools mentioned make digging the holes so much easier than using a spade without opening the hole too big. Personally I prefer concrete but understand they may not be right for certain places.

 

[Bm101]

hammering-square-posts-in-square-t90870.html A post where I missed the op dates and went a bit late with the advice. If you have a local company you can go to you might drop your timber costs significantly. My local non chain timber/builder suppliers was a third cheaper just on the timber costs for my front fence than Travis Perkins. Personally I think fencing panels are expensive and generally very badly made. Anything that is stapled together is a liability imo.
Robins advice is always sound but as someone who used to do it for a living I'd add a caveat. Use postcrete for the bases then top them up with a sand/cement for the top 2/3rds. Dry mix is perfect for this. Convenience meets cost saving. The magic of being able to set your post within relative minutes is a massive boost and makes life a breeze doing a long stretch of fencing.
Endcapping your posts should make a difference to longevity too.

Cheers!
Chris

edit. If you dont have a chalk line, a string and some nails at either end can save a lot of time if you use rails.

 

[acewoodturner]

I milled up some douglas fir a few years ago to make my own 8' high fence. The slats are 1.25 inches thick and the posts are 5 inch square. Solid and long lasting, there is no need to treat it. It has now turned a nice silvery grey colour and even after a few very windy storms is still solid. The other good wood that doesnt need treated is larch. I have no idea of the prices of larch or doug fir but if you dont want to paint it every couple of years, they are the ideal timbers.

Mike

 

[Monkey Mark]

Thanks guys, plenty to think of there.

I have an mkm merchants just round the corner. Also have a couple of timber yards in the next town. Once I've adapted my trailer (a high rail to allow for longer lengths) I'll happily collect myself.

 

[No skills]

Ahh rotten fencing, a particular bug of mine...

I won't comment on panels or whatever as it's been covered but I will give my big fat penny's worth on posts.

If your doing wooden posts then yes get treated, if you can stretch to it get tanalised but all is not lost if you can't (which is understandable with big stretches of fencing, gets costly quickly).

Anyways My ideal post treatment is as follows...
Buy all your posts long before you need them, put them in stick and let them dry out for a couple of months (some are wet as you like from outside storage and treatment).
Either spike or very slightly slit the bottom 18" or more (depends how deep their going) of each side of each post and sit them in tubs filled with the best wood preservative you can get, leave them alone to soak up lots of lovely preservative.
When the posts have wicked up as much chemical as they can get them out of the tubs and let the ends dry.
Paint the bottoms of the posts with a couple of coats of bitumen paint, ideally 6" higher than the ground level because this is where most rot occurs.
Let that dry and then install as needed.
I'm pro post mix as well for speed of install, but I will also add extra sand and cement as needed and I will also bulk this out with some small chunks of broken brick/concrete block that I might have handy, the more weight you have in the ground the better imo.

If I was living in the house that I was going to die in and I had to do wooden posts I would also add some copper pipe into holes in the posts near ground level and fill them with preservative a couple of times a year.

I have had to repair some wooden fencing at home installed by me only 5 years ago and several of the posts (standard diy shed posts with no extra treatment) were rotten through, one stump I pulled up still had the paper barcode label intact stapled to the bottom of the post (in the concrete) and in readable condition! The post had rotted clean through at ground level...
As we are hoping to sell up and move my repairs have been less than my ideal (shameful) but I stand by my comments above - if we can't afford to move and I have to do this fence again from scratch I'll be cursing not doing it properly in the first place.