Fence Repair
In my latest adventures in home maintenance, this weekend I have taken on repairing that old two section 4 foot high, horizontal shadowbox fence of mine that is literally falling apart. Fortunately, the fence posts are in good shape.
First task: Find replacement boards. 8 ft long, 6" width x 1/2" thick. Home Depot? No. Lowes? No. All the big boys have are 6ft length, for vertical fencing. It is amazing that those stores can carry 150,000 square feet or more of merchandise, but have basically two wood type fences and plastic fencing. It sucks. So call some fencing companies. One place 13 miles away has what I need, but not in stock. Then I call back and they say can't sell any right now. Not sure why. Maybe a fence moratoriam? Anyway, then I told the guy I only needed 12 boards/slats, not whole sections. He then said that he wasn't supposed to, but he would sell me that amount.
2nd Task: Supports: Seems the supports on the end are rotting out. So, I need replacement boards for this. They measure 1 3/4" wide by 1". Do you think H.D. would have these? Nope. Just the standard "1 X 2's" One by twos are actually 1 1/2" X 3/4". That's what I buy. (What choice did I have?)
Okay, now I am ready, right? Wrong.
3rd Task: Cut the Supports: They come in eight foot lengths - I need 48" lengths. Get the old jigsaw out for the task. Pretty quick.
4th Task: Paint the supports: You see, I got the non-pressure treated kind of 1 x 2's. This was because H.D. only had beveled 1 x 2's in the pressure treated variety - so that meant even less surface area to screw the fence planks into. Bad news since I already have 1/4" less area to begin with.
Actually, the whole fence is painted. The fence planks are pressure treated too. The guy at the fence company says you shouldn't paint them because the wood needs to breath and have a way to let the moisture out - or it will just rot from the inside out. This kind of makes sense to me. He said to paint one side if they must be painted. You see I live in a deed-restricted community - so the part facing the street must look consistent and be painted. The back side faces my lanai/deck area - so this could look funky.
5th Task: Removal and Replacement of supports/boards: This is the most important and hardest part. The middle two supports seem fine - no rot and in good shape. But, all the boards on the front side are in pretty bad shape. (6 total). The supports on the left and right side are bad. The one against the house is the worst. In taking off the first board, it is revealed that ants have taken over the inside of that support.
Finally, after a couple hours, I have removed and replaced the two supports and all six front fence slats. Even got the level out to ensure they were straight. Still unpainted (the slats) - but I will tackle that next week. Still to do are three boards on the other side of that section and one or two on the other section that faces my neighbor's house. On that one, the slats are mostly acceptable, but the two middle supports are in really bad shape. The challenge on it will be taking off slats that are not new, and not breaking too many of them.
More later....
First task: Find replacement boards. 8 ft long, 6" width x 1/2" thick. Home Depot? No. Lowes? No. All the big boys have are 6ft length, for vertical fencing. It is amazing that those stores can carry 150,000 square feet or more of merchandise, but have basically two wood type fences and plastic fencing. It sucks. So call some fencing companies. One place 13 miles away has what I need, but not in stock. Then I call back and they say can't sell any right now. Not sure why. Maybe a fence moratoriam? Anyway, then I told the guy I only needed 12 boards/slats, not whole sections. He then said that he wasn't supposed to, but he would sell me that amount.
2nd Task: Supports: Seems the supports on the end are rotting out. So, I need replacement boards for this. They measure 1 3/4" wide by 1". Do you think H.D. would have these? Nope. Just the standard "1 X 2's" One by twos are actually 1 1/2" X 3/4". That's what I buy. (What choice did I have?)
Okay, now I am ready, right? Wrong.
3rd Task: Cut the Supports: They come in eight foot lengths - I need 48" lengths. Get the old jigsaw out for the task. Pretty quick.
4th Task: Paint the supports: You see, I got the non-pressure treated kind of 1 x 2's. This was because H.D. only had beveled 1 x 2's in the pressure treated variety - so that meant even less surface area to screw the fence planks into. Bad news since I already have 1/4" less area to begin with.
Actually, the whole fence is painted. The fence planks are pressure treated too. The guy at the fence company says you shouldn't paint them because the wood needs to breath and have a way to let the moisture out - or it will just rot from the inside out. This kind of makes sense to me. He said to paint one side if they must be painted. You see I live in a deed-restricted community - so the part facing the street must look consistent and be painted. The back side faces my lanai/deck area - so this could look funky.
5th Task: Removal and Replacement of supports/boards: This is the most important and hardest part. The middle two supports seem fine - no rot and in good shape. But, all the boards on the front side are in pretty bad shape. (6 total). The supports on the left and right side are bad. The one against the house is the worst. In taking off the first board, it is revealed that ants have taken over the inside of that support.
Finally, after a couple hours, I have removed and replaced the two supports and all six front fence slats. Even got the level out to ensure they were straight. Still unpainted (the slats) - but I will tackle that next week. Still to do are three boards on the other side of that section and one or two on the other section that faces my neighbor's house. On that one, the slats are mostly acceptable, but the two middle supports are in really bad shape. The challenge on it will be taking off slats that are not new, and not breaking too many of them.
More later....
posted by Noman at 9:50 PM
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