Rail Fence ?
 

Can I set 4" wooden posts 10 feet apart for rails that will be pressure treated 1 x 6? The fence will line the front of my property- it will be for decorative purposes mainly but will keep in a horse, my dogs, and goats once in a while. Also can I tamp them into the Florida sand or should I pour concrete? Thanks :)

If you could get 16 ft 1x6 then 8 ft spacing would be better. You could stagger seams so they do not all break on same post. Look here for good info.http://www.americanfenceassociation....fm?bbtopicid=5

For rail fencing I would not go more than 7 ft (14 ft PT wood)

I put up a four rail fence two years ago and I used ring shank galv nails and some of the boards are curling and I am having to screw them in

Tango if you water your posts in or put them in when the ground is wet you should not have a problem and not need to use concrete. I have only put used 2 bags of concrete on my 200+ poles. 1 is for a 16' gate and the other is on a post that could only be sunk 4 inches.


I've not had a problem with posts bending except where tee limbs have smashed them down due to the storms.

Hope that helps
-- Tim

Alright thanks all. I can do the sixteen ft'ers. Just saw them in town today. Haven't seen the 14 ft'r maybe in Ft. Pierce Home Depot. I'll look tomorrow. No problem with wet soil around here right now Tim :) One more questions. What are peelers? They're about 3.5 inch posts, look much the same as the other 3.5 inch posts except they're $1. less per. TSC was too busy to help me with my questions today.

I think the peelers are the posts with bark on them, ie the lower quality ones. I'd go 8' on the post spearations, my brother did that and he got the 1x6x16 from TSC in okee.


-- TIm

Great. Thanks Tim. That's exactly where I saw them.

Peelers are the core that is left from large logs after the machine has peeled the log to make plywood. Many people use them but I find that a large percent of the "cores" will rot readily even if treated.
PS....when using the 16 footers for rails, stagger the joints so that they do not all fall on a common posts.

What does this mean, agmantoo? :confused: Can you explain to a building impaired person? :o

easy start 1 board run it the fill 16'
cut a board in half (8') put it below that one (assuming you are doing a multi board fence

then the boards are staggereds


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-- tim

Staggered joints mean top board 16 ft next 8 ft. next 16. That way your seams are not all on the same post. After that use all 16. I think I like the 7 ft. distance between post better. Also if you get off a little and your post ends up being off a little and rail is to short what do you do? 1 x material is not that strong when spanning 8 ft. How deep you putting your posts?

Alright , I got it! Took a while but I got the "seam," thingy. Thank you :o And thank you, Ed. Probably the 7 ft. spacing is better but I haven't seen it out here. I've gotten out of my truck and measured every fence line I've liked out here for the past two years (got the look more than a few times from property owners :rolleyes: ) None is under 8 ft. Wonder if that has to do with the sand? The posts are 6.5 feet so they will be going 2 ft. in. Any deeper and they might be in water most of the year. What are your thoughts on this?

...............Tango , if you are going to have animals I WOULD RUN A hot wire around that fence to keep the animals from "pushing" the boards . A 1x6 is NOT avery strong when you are setting your posts every 8 feet . Plus , you should use Treated lumber or the life of your fence will be very short . UNtreated lumber does NOT holdup well in the presence of UV . ...fordy... :eek: :)

:) Fordy beat me too it! LOL I never saw a rail fence that would keep in stock or dogs either although I must say, they are very beautiful. But for me, keeping in my animals is way more important than beauty.

There is a gorgeous rail fence about a half mile down from me, over off of the private road I am on and I admire it a lot and watched them build it along with a gorgeous new home. They have Labs andRottweilers and to my surprise these dogs do stay inside this fence. Then I took a close look one day when I was without my dogs. There was 2"X2" wire, latexed green on the inside and a hot wire running on the inside about half way up! Way to go! LOL

Good luck with the new fence. LQ

Tango, are you planning on fastening a vertical board on each post to cover the butt joints of the 1 x 6's ? I suggest that you consider this as it will allow you to not have to concentrate on getting the joints to fit and it will allow you to better let the fence "fit" the contour of the land.

TKRABEC,
That was cool, the way you drew that fence.

:confused: butt joints? The boards will be screwed on to the posts from the inside. What are butt joints?

Thanks for the tips fordy and LQ. While it is a decorative fence, I can foresee ocassions when my dogs or my [future] horse etc. will be inside. Not often but, the way things go, I'm sure I'll need them to move in there or to stay there every once in a while. For the dogs it shouldn't be a problem. They are not the runaway type. The horse will never be alone unsupervised. I might not be able to take my eyes off of him or her for the first ten years :)

butt ends are where the end of one board meets the end of the next board. If you get your post off by a inch or so, you will have a hard time making the boards "butt up" to each other, therefore, using a vertical board on the post hides the butt ends and also adds a little strength to the ends of the boards to keep them from popping loose or working loose.

Sidepasser

Thanks Sidepasser. Same as "seams" in the above posts then?

I used 16 ft boards with the post on 8 ft centers. WE used half round post this gives us a nailing surface of 5 to 7 inches. A 4inch post will only have3 and one half inch nailing surface. Pre drill the boards for nails or screws. WE used 4 boards for a height of 60 inches. Happy Fencing.

Yep, same as "seams". Screwing the rails in will make the fence a lot easier to repair if an errant horse pops a board loose or through the natural hot/humid/cool cycle, the wood shrinks and expands. I used nails for my first board fence (big mistake), now I use screws and it is so much easier to take my cordless drill out and unscrew the loose screws or just tighten them back up. No more pulling nails or trying to keep from tearing up a post!

Good luck and use an electric strand, horses are terribly destructive sometimes when your back is turned :)

Sidepasser

Thanks. I purchased a Ryobi cordless drill a few years ago and have never hammered another nail. Everything I've buikt here is screwed in and it makes for easy take down, repairs, and recycling of screws. I've decided to build the pasture fence first and am picking up the material in the morning. Since it is just me at work, I figure it will be a month before I finish and be able to start on the rail fence. Afterward it will be another few months before the sides of the front property are fenced and we can use the rail fence to actually fence anything in for short periods. Once I have the pasture fence up though, the horse and goats won't be using the front of the property. Makes more sense to build the pasture fence first. Guess I have my work cut out for me and for a while. Thanks to everyone for the advice.