How To Install A Split Rail Fence

hey guys my name is sean owens and today i'm going to be showing you how to install a split rail fence all right so i put my wide angle lens on so you guys can see the area a little bit better so the first part's a little tricky we're going to be doing a lot of cuts there's a lot of shorter sections of the fence but as we go along um you know it'll get a little easier at certain points uh so here's where we're gonna start um i'm gonna start right here on the corner i'm gonna go right next to the gutter come down and um i have to put a gate here because there's a sideway sidewalk going here um so there's gonna be an end post here and right here and then i can continue my normal run so i'll show you what this process looks like here's the space uh where we're working and um my one post is gonna be here there's another one there and the corner posts uh which i just showed you guys so after this post we're gonna start our normal runs so it's gonna go down here it's gonna be on this side of the sidewalk and then our corner post is gonna be right around here and then what i have to do is from here shoot down go around that little section and it goes all the way down so we're gonna do that and run all along the perimeter here and um uh finish uh somewhere over there on the other side of the house so it's a lot of digging but we will uh hopefully try to get through it all right so here's everything laid out and the reason why i did this i want to get the spacing and exactly how far apart the holes are going to be all right so another important thing i want to show you guys before we start i laid everything out right here our hosts are going to be ten and a half feet on center um that's where everything lines up uh each of the rails are gonna go through and stick out around like three or four inches so that's our spacing and what i also need to do now is see how far down in the ground it's going to go so i'm going to be putting chicken wire on the back of this so what i'm going to be doing chicken wire goes from the top all the way down so we're going to measure from that top hole go down 36 so that's the height of the chicken wire okay all right so this is where the ground is going to be that means all this is going to be underground and we have 21 inches so that's how deep our holes have to be uh another thing that we're gonna do that first uh fence post that i have to cut it's not gonna go in the ground it's gonna be screwed right to the house so and it's gonna rest on the foundation wall so it's not gonna go down into the ground so what i'm gonna have to do is cut it to 43 inches uh because it's gonna be sitting right on the corner right there so that's our first corner post that's where we're gonna start uh we'll cut it to 43 and then uh we can get going all right so our numbers before we're 43. we're going to mark 43 here bring it over now i'm going to be doing all the cuts with a chainsaw so um obviously this doesn't matter because it's on the ground but even when we start cutting the shorter rails um i'm going to be using this this is very rough sewing wood so you kind of want that you know that hard look to it so it's our first cut [Applause] [Music] so all right so we have our first post set right here i need to do another one here and another one here and then this is the last one before we do that run so what i'm going to do now is i want this section to come out and i want it to be parallel with the house so what i did i measured how far off the siding this was it's five inches right here so at the other end of the house i put a screw five inches away and i'm going to loop this string on that screw down there pull all the way down and put a level down so we know exactly where our posts are going to land all right now see how far that string is out we're gonna go right over here as soon as it touches that post that's right where our marks have to be so right around right here we're gonna level down all right so there's right there and there's our second mark all right now it's time to start digging the holes um what i'm gonna do is uh lay out a small little tarp so i could put all the dirt on there just so i'm not leaving like little dirt piles all over my yard um and uh yeah it'll just be a little easier to work with later [Applause] all right so we have our first hole dug uh it's a little deeper than 21 because 21 was our number when we measured before so there's going to be a gate right here and i laid it out 48 inches apart so that's how wide the gate's going to be you don't have to put concrete in every single post you can if you want to but with split rail fences they're um there's not a lot of surface area on them so if you're doing like a privacy fence like a big you know uh eight foot by six foot solid you know piece of wood that's a lot of surface area for that wind to push it over uh those posts you need to concrete every single one uh split rail the only ones i'm going to concrete are right by the uh the gates so it's just the two end posts by the gates and uh the rest of the the field posts i'm just going to tamp it down real good and uh that should be all right all right so we have our two holes for the gate now what i'm going to do remember before i put that string line going all the way down i'm going to set these posts in i'm actually going to use a fence post mixed on this i've never used it before so see how it works i've heard good things about it so i'm gonna put them in put braces on it throw that string line across and line everything up nice all right so we have our posts just hanging out there in the holes that we just dug and what i'm going to show you next is um i put this stake into the ground with a screw attached to it and that same screw um that is uh holding the other end of that that line over there um that we had before we're actually going to pull that tight and put it right on this screw and then we'll have a nice straight line so when we set our posts it's perfectly aligned with that string there all right so we have our screw right here and what we're going to do is pull the line pretty tight right over to here so as soon as like i feel that's you know a good uh good length what we're gonna do take a loop grab it and then put it over i'll show you one more time it took me forever to get this but once you get it's pretty easy put both fingers in here flip it around like this and then you have your your two loops bring it over pull it tight here and let it go and you want to push that all the way over so it's tight right here so what i'm gonna do it a little bit more perfect all right so now our line goes right down and now when we set these posts we can actually line them up perfectly with that line all right so here's what i did here uh i fast forward a little bit um this is uh like i said before the pain in the ass part uh these have to be perfectly level uh because there's gonna be a gate right here so uh i leveled this off and um i put little marks on the ends on each one of these to keep that exactly four feet and uh you know put this going across and it acts as a uh leveling system too so uh these are plum uh plum is up and down level is uh horizontal uh so what what i have to do now is since these guys are ready to be poured with the concrete uh i have to cut my posts in here or my uh sorry my rails uh there's gonna be two rails in here so what i'm gonna have to do since these are going to be in already i have to take that one out you know do my measurements take that one out put them in and slip it back all together and then everything gets screwed together so that's what i'm going to do now and yeah and then we could start pouring these and then uh hopefully now we could do our run uh one more thing that i did here you notice the holes are going this way uh the gate hinges are going to be here so it's going to open up this way the holes line up to catch the rails right here so i can run it straight down and on these two posts here uh the holes are facing each other so the fence is gonna go here the gate is gonna go here and then i'm gonna continue my run going all the way down [Applause] all right so what i'm gonna do now is uh cut two sections uh to fit into that little uh you know that little run over there uh it was 53 inches so i'm just going to mark 53. all right now um what i have to do here now is after i cut it i'm going to clamp it to the horse and uh on on each end i have to replicate uh that same uh you know curve and uh slope that they have going on there so uh for this one i'm probably the cuts here i'm probably gonna start here and kind of taper that off so it fits into that notch this is where i had to trim a couple of the rails here i tried using a chainsaw it didn't work out that well i just have like a little small battery powered one it's only meant for you know cutting the fence posts themselves um what i did here instead which worked out pretty well is i used a reciprocating saw and to shave that off and right now it stands out but as it weathers it'll blend in just like the other side here this is the main path right here so what you want to do when you install your rails make sure this rail overlaps this one just so they don't see that end joint so this is the template that i used yesterday when i set these posts i want to make sure they're exactly four feet apart in the center because that's how wide my gates gonna be and what i did i made marks right here and i shot some finished nails in here so i lined the marks up with the end of the post and i did that on the top and the bottom [Applause] all right so i'm about as deep as i want to go um i'm 22 inches down uh what i did i actually put a piece of tape on the bottom of the post hole digger so i don't have to keep you know checking it with my tape measure and keep looking for 22. when uh the ground gets right around here and covers the tape then my hole is good all right so as you keep going in order to get deeper and deeper what you want to do is take a spread bar and just keep playing at the uh at the edges which knocks more dirt in so you can take the full digger because you'll see it'll the post hole digger will max out at a certain point uh you take the spud bar hit the sides and try to loosen up the dirt in the middle and then you can use the post hole digger again and go deeper and later once the fence is in and you're starting to fill the uh the holes this acts as a little tamper you just turn it this way and you can tamp around the perimeter of the uh the post all right so i got my line on got my holes marked we only have two in this run and then we're finished with here [Applause] [Applause] all right so out of the three sections i got the two ends done and both of them are full so what i'm going to do in the middle since it's a cut i'll show you what you have to do in order to instead of just measuring because sometimes it wedges in a little farther or a little you know shorter than you think so i'll show you a technique how to uh measure these all right so here's how you cut these you want the nice end up which is like this all right you wedge that in there and then what you want to do [Applause] cut it right on this side here so after it's cut you can get it in and then pull it back that way mark all right so we have our piece cut now uh it's cut to size so what we have to do is taper the ends uh this part's kind of a pain in the ass um i'm gonna use a reciprocating saw and i'm just gonna start here try to make it as symmetrical as you can to the other end i'm going to start here and just kind of you know shaping some down remember it doesn't have to be perfect but you want it to be you know somewhat close to the other side um another option that you can use is a chainsaw mine's a little you know too small it's just a little battery powered one it's meant for just you know cutting fence posts and stuff i don't have a gas powered one so um you know you can use that as long as you're careful with it but for right now i'm going to use just the reciprocating saw with a good blade on it [Music] all right so we got our piece here uh we're just gonna see if it fits uh remember what i said earlier about um which which end goes in first so in this case we want um that end here to overlap this side and uh this end here to tuck in so everything's symmetrical with the uh with the row all right perfect all right so that was our last piece i will pan out i'll put a different lens on and we'll look over everything that we did you

Channel: Owens Custom Carpentry

Views: 14,323

Rating: 4.7922077 out of 5

Keywords: fence, carpentry, build, owens custom carpentry, split rail fence, how to, how to install, dig, posts, wood, fencing, carpenter, bosch, drill, dewalt, chainsaw, shovel, saw, post, hole, digger, tarp, diy, lumber, cedar, pressure treated, home improvement, tattoos, sleeve

Id: ahGLOt-OTC8

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021