r/FenceBuilding

It will be the only fence in the neighborhood, will be a 360' run with mostly open areas. The house has white trim and a charcoal darker siding. The images are ai generated, the posts and fence are 5' high, panels are 8' long, and the white and black posts are 5x5 while the wood is 6x6 nominal. The wood could be stained a different color as well. We're aiming for "open and inviting" and it's only going up for a dog....

Saw these steel fence panels waiting for finishing and noticed some light surface rust.

Curious what people in fencing/fabrication think:

• Does light rust before galvanizing matter?
• Would this concern you?
• Any bad experiences with rust after galvanizing or powder coating?

Like how this turned out. Going back to continue a slightly less complicated style on the other two sides sometime soon. A gate for the door way and need to pick a stain color 🤔

I want a solid fence here to help keep leaves from blowing into the stairwell.

Had this fence installed about two years ago. Noticed this post is warping. What can be done about this? Is there any other option other than replacing the post? How do I prevent this from happening to other posts?

Any ideas on how to make these gates stay straight and keep from sagging? We tried putting these tension bar thingies or whatever they are, but they ended up warping the gates even more, although they did bring them off of the ground.

First time building a fence. Was hoping to be able to dig much lower but rocks and clay wouldn't allow it.

Following the ground while putting pickets, and stacking it on a 2x4 before screwing in. The perfectionist in me wants to make it cleaner at the top.

Any suggestions? Contouring with a jigsaw?

Hello! I live in a MCOL city in the Midwest. I want to put in a 16' privacy fence along the alley in the back of our house, using 6' dog ear wooden pickets.

The 16' span includes a 8' driveway, and I've requested a 9' steel gate be included in the quote. I asked for a quote with and without an automatic opener ("operator" is the term they used?). The quote for the fence alone: 3k With an automatic opener/operator: 10K

I was expecting a few grand perhaps for the automatic opener install, but not 2-3 times the price of the gate itself. I'm wondering if this is to be expected, or what I might be missing?

One thing I'd love opinions / info on, is perhaps the issue is that it's a privacy fence - I was thinking about buying a Ghost Controls opener, and I realize on their website they specifically say that they acn't be used for privacy fences because of the wind load (https://ghostcontrols.com/pages/have-a-solid-panel-or-privacy-gate). Maybe a gate opener for this sort of situation is a completely different beast and to make sure it can be opened/closed during windy days perhaps we're looking at a completely different class of opener? Any recommendations on this for a DIYer?

Thanks for your time!

There's always a lot of discussion about gates here, so I thought i would share one of my frames. I get 1.5" square stock and cut and weld each frame.

Also, these are postmaster posts, set in concrete.

Hi all,

I solo DIY’d this horizontal cedar fence on my property late last summer/fall, but had to abruptly hit pause when my son needed surgery out of state. Thankfully he’s doing well now, and I’m finally getting back to finishing the project. Unfortunately, leaving the fence unfinished through the winter created a few issues I’m now trying to fix.

The original plan was to add 1” vertical supports down the center of each panel, plus matching trim pieces on each end where the cedar meets the steel posts. My hope was that those vertical supports would help keep the boards aligned and minimize warping/gaps over time. I managed to finish two panels with the center supports installed, and those still look great. The rest, though, are definitely showing some warping and uneven gaps now.

I’ve thought about backing out the screws, using long clamps to pull everything tight again, and then immediately installing the vertical supports. But it’s pretty labor intensive and would require a lot of access from the neighbor’s side, and that’s not the easiest situation to navigate.

For those of you with more fence building experience, what would you try here to help snug things back up and reduce the warping/gaps? It doesn’t need to be perfect, but I spent a ton of time during install carefully clamping each board tight so the spacing would age more uniformly, and I’d love to salvage as much of that as I can.

Appreciate any advice you can share!

First photo is mostly finished side showing the center supports I got in before I had to quit work. Second photo is the showing the warping/gaps that developed over winter on the unsupported sections, which has affected all panels to some degree.

I’ll note that stain hasn’t happened yet, which hasn’t helped, so once I address this issue, each panel will be treated.

Couldn’t help myself and went a little overboard on this small but highly visible section of fencing... 6x6 posts (partially for the looks) with zip tape wrapped around the below grade portions. Pocket screws instead of toenails to attach the horizontals between posts. Ripped the pickets to be parallel and a custom width for each section. All cut ends/edges sealed. Gate is built from KDAT and fastened with pocket screws and PL3. All material oriented to best hide any stamps from the lumberyard.

I just bought a house with a challenging yard that requires retaining walls. The second tier wall that is all wood was newly built to sell the house. The neighbor said he would add more support on that wall so I already plan to do that. But what should I use to maintain the wood? I want it to last as long as possible and I heard something about oiling it?

Thank God easy digging. Pay could have been better. Had my friend with me those 2 days really if you add it up 12hrs in total. Had my friend help me just pour the concrete and he dug 4 holes.

Im considering building a privacy screen/ fence on a hill in my backyard. The issue is that are a lot of Douglas fires and cedar tree roots where I need to put the posts. I dont want to cut through the roots and kill the trees as they could later crash down on my house.

Gemni suggested taking simpson ez post and driving down 2' rebar into the ground for each post. Has anyone tried this before or have any opinion on the matter? The image shows a paver, but I would want to drive straight into the soil. Paver seems like it would break easily.