How to Install a Vinyl Privacy Fence | Ask This Old House

all right that should be good right there all right okay so this is where I double driveway gate is going to go now it's going to open in and it's going to be big enough so you can drive a car or truck through it if you have to oh wow that actually is really convenient for us yeah and this is the fence that we're going to make the gate from it's a four foot tall vinyl fence semi private which means is a half-inch space now we're going to go over we're going to set the posts for it as you can see this vinyl post is a hollow piece of vinyl what we have to do is we have to add an aluminum i-beam inside of it to give it a strengthened structure and also it has a nice flat surface that we can mount our hinge screws it to so this supports the gate ignore the vinyl yes that's right and there's nothing worse than a saggy there isn't so we notched out a little bit of the deck so that we can get the post right up against it tight I'm going to mock out the asphalt so that I can cut it out with the electric jackhammer so I'm just going to run a string line to the other side where the other post is going and I'm going to keep it parallel with the corner of the deck right do you tell me when it's good yeah go to the street Mike okay little more little more I think that's good right there yeah all right we'll make a mark there and that's going to be the outside of this post all right Eric now it's time to start digging these holes all right what we're going to use his a regular post hole digger and it's two shovels you slam it into the ground spread it a pot and you take whatever dirt you can get out of it and put it over here all right so let's get at it let's give it a go I think I got the hang of this that's good all right Roger you start that hole I'll work with Eric on this one got it the high do you slam that in and take more material out the better it is because we got to get these down 30 inches 30 inches that's right all right like 30 perfect I'm all set that's good now I've taken the aluminum insert and attached it to the vinyl post as you can see now we need some concrete in the hole okay great that's where I come in what do you want to in there Mike two's good yep now I can set the post in and plumb it up tell me which way you want it Mike pull a little to me perfect all right Eric would use some more concrete all right all the way around do you fill it all the way to the top Mike what we'll leave three inches again so you have some grass to grow around it just using the bottom make sure it's well distributed around the post some more one more scoop okay I'm just going to finish this concrete here now we have both gatepost set they have to set up in the concrete for 24 hours before we can hang the gates on them I'm going to put this cap on let's go start on the six-foot fence so we add our property surveyed and this fence is right on the property line well it doesn't look like much of a problem we can get this thing right out of here you come up pretty easily huh ROG yeah cut that funny I'll take it right out Mike all right Mike watch it good let's get this one get it all right yeah now we just got a few posts to do all right now we're ready to start installing the six-foot fence we're going to start at the high point of the yard because it's much easy to put the fence in going downhill as opposed to trying to come back up the hill we're going to put the first post in as tight as we can to the neighbor's fence you're digging down 30 inches again same thing we're going to get 30 inches it looks pretty good now time to put that post in alright here you go thank you and what we have here is the same hollow vinyl but we actually do is we put a pressure-treated insert in up to just below the first hole and we don't want it to impede the panel from going in it's a mortise and tenon system the panel goes right in we keep the PT just below that but that gives the bottom of that post strength gives a lot of strength how's that look let's see the level you know plumb this that's good that way that's real good that way I just want to make sure that this bottom hole is above grade which that's perfect it's just above grade all right Eric we want to put a little concrete around each side on all four sides all right put it right in the front and then around the side that's good another shovel full all right we're going to put about a foot of concrete into the hole and then we're going to tamp the rest in yep all right that should be good I'm just going to compact that concrete and then we're ready to add some of the material we took out so why don't you shovel some of that in and I'll just stuff from behind here too real yeah all right Roger and you make sure that was still plumb we're good okay great up it in yeah all right just keep it coming all the way around you're still good there ROG yep right there thank you I'm gonna run a string line the whole back run here and it'll give us a point where we can plumb our posts - you're gonna run this right to the property line there you got it here you tell me what you want it let's go over to pass the property line good that looks good Roger you all right now we're ready to set our first panel there's two ways of installing the fence to accommodate the grade one is to bring it across level and then step each panel down and the other way is to rack it down the hill with the top of the fence follows the grade now in this yard there's two different grade levels one runs from the post that we set to just beyond that tree and the next one drops down even more to the property line and so to get the first grade line what I did was I put a screw in on the top of the mortise line here which is six inches above the grade so then I put a stake in just pass the tree and set the line to six inches there and that will give us a line to set these posts to so let's get this first section in Rodge okay get that now I'm going to drop this bottom piece into the mortise you're gonna just tip it back alright now I'm gonna put the stopping ridge how's that good just hold it right there yep I'm just gonna put a screw in through the post into the top rail to hold it in place and these have a little snap cap now we're gonna do the same thing on the bottom rail we're ready for another post see if we can drop it in you get it facing the right way there you go okay okay kick that bottom in a little bit ROG you good there yep good perfect let's just check the height here on that bottom that's good all the way around just like the last one we're gonna rock each panel to follow those two different grades Erica took three days to install the fence but you now have an enclosed child safe backyard and it all starts with this gate yeah and this gate is beautiful in its strong taupe we mounted the screws for the hinges through the aluminum i-beam and the gate itself is hollow but we add pressure treated wood on the gate uprights and also it has a diagonal brace which gives it strength and to open the gate just simply hit this lever swings open if you need to get your Chi through just pop this pin up and there you go and I see you're already enjoying the backyard we are thank you we're looking forward to being able to be out here playing every day and not worried about the street thank you yeah and the fence looks great it matches perfectly with our neighbors now it looks like we have one continuous fence thanks so much Mike and Roger for helping us out this looks great you're welcome yeah you're welcome enjoy it thank you go down the slide here we go good he's having fun they're gonna get a lot of use out of that back yeah yeah yeah so Roger some people might say that vinyl maybe doesn't have the best reputation that it might be flimsy well let's just say that all vinyl isn't equal take a look at this one top rail bottom rail and that's it holding the whole thing together alright so not much here now this is the vinyl fence we installed the first thing you notice the top cap which helps stiffen the top but the most important part is down here in the bottom rail there's an aluminum i-beam that's going to stop the bottom from sagging or bowing so this is really gonna hold up right one other thing we did is remember that every post had a piece of pressure treated six by six in it to hold it in place so it wasn't going to move okay well looks are important too and as you look at this panel right here it's pretty plain there's not much going on yeah but the one that you guys install they notice the top cap that's a nice detail and even like the molding detail here at the top and the bottom sometimes those little details that can make all the difference and I love the fact that you're not going to have to paint this so I guess if you have buy the right vinyl fence it should last for a long time and you know what they say vinyl is vinyl

Channel: This Old House

Views: 1,435,459

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, privacy fence, fence, fencing, Do It Yourself, Installation, Construction, yard, Hobby, vinyl, Home Repair, Norm Abram, Tom Silva, kevin o'connor, roger cook, Richard Trethewey, Design, Interior Design

Id: OPf6Ed9NqMw

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2015