I'm a carpenter and a remodeler.

Today we're gonna talk about fences.

If you want to add a little bit of privacy to your yard, you can build a shadow box vents.

We've already gone and check our local codes and regulations and had our lot survey To find our property line, make sure your fences within your property line The last thing to remember is to call your local utility companies and have them lay out all of your underground lines.

Are would fences component built?

This'll means the pickets and boards are put on piece by piece.

This will allow the fence to follow the contours of the land.

Shadow box fences, alternate pickets on each side so that you're able to see through at an angle for complete privacy, however, attached the pickets tight together on just one side.

No matter what fence style you pick, make sure you start your layout with string and a batter board.

I'm just kind of eyeballing where this goes.

Better boards air just made out of firing strips, and then this allows you to move your string line back and forth this one again.

I'm just eyeballing off the house there.

After you do that, you want to make sure your string Linus six inches off of your property line.

So I'm just gonna pull some extra around and cut it off and kind of eyeball six inches off of our stake right there.

And if I need to, I can move it around after I measure.

So the stake your tape there goes six inches.

It's and I'm in a pool.

The other string from that side to this better board.

Give it a little, not kind of adjusted, so it's close your line.

You can go back and do some fine tuning later on, just like before.

When they give a little slack here, cut off the excess and tie it tight, then continue running the strings around the whole fence layout for tips on squaring the corners.

You can watch our fence planning video when you're laying out the size to get the bust appearance.

Try to get full pickets at the corners and also useful pickets on the gate.

Adjust the post facing so the board will be flushed to the inside of the entryway for our five and 1/2 inch boards, they will overlap one inch.

So the board will be space three and 1/2 inches between.

Once we have our fence line established, we can start marking out our spacing for a post holes.

We have an eight foot gate going in here, so I'm gonna pull eight feet up of my steak and make sure that your tape measure is a level.

Don't follow the slope of the ground.

When you're setting your steak, you want to make sure you're half the width of the post away from your string line.

That way, when the post goes in, it'll be flush with your strength.

Now you can just continue on down the line.

Typical post spacing is between six and eight feet.

Once you're done setting your steaks, you can mark the lines on your batter boards, then remove your lines so it makes it easier to dig your holes.

I'm going to transfer my layout line mark to the wall here, just in case.

I need to remove my batter.

Bored when I'm digging my whole When you're setting your posts, make sure they're just below the frost line and your whole should be three times the thickness of your posts, and it helps to have a little bit of help to dig these holes here.

Yep.

Networks.

And we're gonna just outline where holes gonna go.

And we're using a shovel and a post hole digger since we're near the house.

Yeah.

So we've got our first hole dug, and I mean, he was marking paint on the rest of my steaks.

Just so I'm sure I can find the hole and to make quick work of a lot of holes.

Apollo, Rog, er, it's perfect for the job.

Try not to push down on the auger.

Let the weight of the machine do the work.

When the holes are Doug, we can start setting our posts.

We're gonna first string up our line to make sure our posts are straight.

Now we'll tie the strings on their batter boards right over.

The marks were made.

We'll start with about six inches of dry concrete in the bottom of the hole.

Set the post in the whole.

Make sure it's plum will hold it in place with braces.

Make sure you mix the concrete according to the manufacturer's directions.

After we've done that, we're still around the post with the concrete will keep it a couple inches below ground level and make sure we slope it away from the post.

Then let it cure following the directions.

Follow the same steps to install the rest of your posts.

This process might take a couple of days.

Once all of your posts are set and the concrete is scared, we can start taking off our better boards and are bracing.

Our pickets are six foot.

So we're going to go just under that at five foot eighth for the top of our rail.

Do you measure from the ground up five foot eight make a mark.

And so we remember where our two by four is gonna go.

We're gonna put an X underneath our line and then we'll measure up from the ground nine and 1/2 inches and an exit down.

That way, the bottom of our rail will be at five or six inches and remember, it has to go on an angle to follow your land, and we're going to cut it long.

We're going to cut it at 43 inches and we'll come back later and turn up the edge So I'm just gonna measure this at 43.

Keep going a little bit more.

Yeah, and I'm gonna cut it using a circular saw thistles when having an extra hand really helps.

Good.

Good.

All right.

Okay, Now, well, it's hats are bottomless.

All right, now we can mark out where Middle Rail goes.

We're just gonna find the height in between, which is 55 a half.

So half of that is 27 3/4.

That's the center of our two bike.

Or so we want to go up another inch and 3/4 to find this half of our two by four ancient 3/4 from this mark.

Yes, Engine 3/4.

Make a mark.

And we're doing our rails on the outside of our hosts instead of in between thistle.

Add a lot of stability to the fence.

I'm gonna cut the ends of my rails off with a reciprocating saw.

And as long as you have your guard close and tight with your four by four, you'll be able to cut your two by four office flush to your four by fours.

Possible.

All right, now, we can just continue in selling our rails way Finish our short sections offense.

We can move on to our longer ones.

This first section is a little bit more slope than the rest.

So we're going to use shorter boards just to kind of matches of slope a little better.

And he's just gonna match where that two by four is already up there and we're gonna overhang that two by four.

So we just cut it off to match our angle.

And be sure to split your four by four.

Because this right here is where you'll screw your other two by four into since our slope was a little bit more gradual here we can start installing longer rails and instead of measuring every single post, we'll just take our measurement here and transfer it down three or four posts and run a string line from the bottom of our top rail to the bottom of our top rail down there where he's gonna measure in this way once he has it up.

All I have to do is Mark where the string is versus measuring every single post.

Remember x above because we're marking the bottom so we can see it and then you just do the same thing with the bottom in the middle.

Now that the ground has leveled off some, we can install this section of rails in one continuous run.

We're using our string line again so we don't have to measure every single post.

Now that we have the top smart, we can mark the middles moving on to the bottom.

After all of your posts are marked, you can start in selling all of your rails here, where the ground is more level will span three posts, staggering the boards for added strength.

After the rails, Aaron salt will cut the post Ops.

All right.

Our rails are installed and our posts are cuts.

So now we can start in selling our pickets.

And then I'm using just a two by four on the bottom.

This is because we're supposed to have an inch to two inches of space.

A two by four is an inch and 1/2 when it's on its side like this.

So it's flush.

Just gonna nail it in.

Once this board is installed, we can move on to the other side.

We're actually gonna put the board on the adjacent side on first, and this is going to be flushed with our two by four.

Our next board here is gonna go flush with the outside of our pick it, so it's gonna overlap this picket.

Now, this run is so short that we're just gonna make sure we have three full pickets here.

So the middle one, we're just gonna split the difference.

All right?

We've rounded the corner.

So now we can start in selling our pickets on the long run offense.

Here I have this fancy little spacer, which is just a two by four with a little two by four block on the back.

And that allows us to sit on the top rail and have equal spacing between our pickets.

So that's going to stay in place next.

Gonna hold it there, Just nail it in.

Don't forget to use the space at the bottom.

Now we're using nails, but you can use stables or screws as long as they're rated for pressure treated material.

And use a level frequently to make sure the pickets are plump.

Now that we've hit a level part of our yard, we can string a string line for the tops of our pickets we've attached to picket at the very corner of our run here.

And Nick's gonna put a nail in it and he's gonna tie the string, and I'll tie the string onto my nail.

In that way, when we attach the pickets, the tops will be aligned.

So you just put the board on your rails there and just touch it lightly and then drop slightly below it That way, you know, you're not pushing it up way console our tickets on the inside of our fence, so I'm just gonna pull him out my first pick it here, and I'm just looking to cover the hole here.

Once I get it plumbed up, then I can shoot it in.

But first, if you see it the bottom.

I have a little shim of scrap material there in All that is doing is lifting my pick it up.

So it's not any higher or lower than these outside pickets.

Yeah, because of this corner posts.

I had to rip this board down to fit.

You see, I added a little dog ear to match.

I'm gonna start installing this first pick.

It tied up against my post here, and Nick is holding a two by four at the top so I can align the tops of our pickets.

So we're using this top two by four because the slope of the yard on this side of the fence makes it a little difficult for the bottom spacer.

Now, when you come to a post like this, all you have to do is not your pick it out, so it fits around it.

Now we've reached the point in the yard where soap is pretty gradual and we can do our string line trick again to align the tops of our pickets.

Boards might be a little bit green from the weather resistant treatment, but don't worry that green will fade over time.

So now we can install her last run of pickets.

What we're doing isn't selling a temporary picket were just screwing it in.

This is to hold our string line to align our tops and were overlapping and keeping it plus right.

We've already attached one at the other end here with a nail in it, so we'll just run our string line across like we did before.

Well, next time the string off we can address where the gate goes.

The big thing about the gate is at the hinges.

You want them to go into a solid piece of wood.

So we're gonna infill from this two by four to this two by four with another two by four.

You don't want your screws going into the end Grain of the wood.

So I'm just gonna hold this two by four here and mark the back angle so we get a nice, tight fit.

So then we'll just cut that and install it.

We'll start with a full picket at our gate post Well, in solid, just like we have been aligning the top of the ticket with the string line and flushing it out with the post.

Oh, good.

Because of the contour of the land, we didn't use our bottom spacer.

We'll cut this last pick it after we infill the rest that we would keep our string line intact.

So on this side, you'll see that the pickets a little tall.

That's just because the ground slopes up a lot right at the house here.

So a little trick.

What?

We're gonna D'oh!

Let's flip it around.

Set it on our spacer, and we're gonna mark the low side of our line and you're just gonna cut a 90 degree cut across there.

Now we added this temporary board at the end to hold our string line, but it's too big for the space and our gap is too small, so we have to rip it down.

And what we'll do is we'll this measure our spacing, which is three and 1/2 inches, and we'll transfer that mark over to our board three and 1/2 inches.

What's left here is what we're gonna rip down that will finish the inside Pickens.

Once the pickets are installed, we can start building our gates like any gate.

We're gonna build a square frame out of two by fours using a gate building kit.