Wood Fence 4 Feet High

Whatever old fence will cordon off a infinite. Just a handsome design built from cedar parts as well boosts curb entreatment, which can't be said of even the finest chain link. And though cedar is pricey, sleeving pressure-treated 4×4 posts in i× cedar instead of paying for solid 6×half-dozen cedar posts cuts costs. Save even more by reserving articulate cedar for prominent areas and using mutual cedar in places where its imperfections won't show.

"Just be sure to call 811 to have utility lines marked before you dig," says This Old House senior technical editor Marking Powers. Read on to come across how he put this beauty together.

Download the cutting list to build a woods lattice fence.

How to Build a Woods Fence Overview

Day-to-Solar day Timeline

Prep Day Determine the fence line and gear up the get-go post (Steps 2 and iii).

Sabbatum Build the sleeves and panels (Steps 4–6).
SUNDAY Install the panels and trim, and set up the remaining posts (Steps 7 and viii).

For cut list, encounter below or download the cut list here.

Cut Listing

Console

This cut list is for 1 36-past-51-inch console. Repeat for each console, and customize the size of your panels as necessary to avert partial panels in your run of fence. For the lattice panel stops, you can safely rip up to 3 from each 1x6 common cedar board. However, if yous rip only two strips out of a 1x6, yous'll have plenty width left over for the narrow sleeve parts. For our panels, we left 43 inches of postal service exposed higher up footing.

2x4 frame peak and bottom: two @ 51 inches
2x4 frame side: ii @ 33 inches
¾-inch stops: iv @ 31½ inches (1x material ripped to ¾ inches wide to create a ¾-past-¾-inch square dowel)
¾-inch stops: iv @ 48 inches (1x fabric ripped to ¾ inches wide to create a ¾-by-¾-inch foursquare dowel)
Lattice: 1 @ 32⅞ by 47⅞ inches (to fit comfortably in a frame with internal dimensions of 33 past 48 inches)
Cap rail: i @ 49½ inches (Ripped to 5⅛ inches wide)
Post and sleeve

Brand the visible front and dorsum full-length sleeve pieces from articulate cedar and the stops and blocks from less-expensive common cedar. To determine the number of sleeve pieces needed for each post configuration, refer to the list below.

Full-length sleeve pieces: 43 inches (Ripped to 5⅛ inches wide)
Lesser block sleeve pieces: 4 inches (ripped to 3⅝ inches broad)
Top block sleeve pieces: iii inches (ripped to iii⅝ inches wide)

Eye mail service

1 full-length front piece 5⅛ inches broad
1 full-length back piece 5⅛ inches wide
ii top block 3⅝ inches wide
2 bottom block 3⅝ inches wide

Stop post

1 full-length front slice five⅛ inches broad
1 full-length dorsum slice five⅛ inches wide
1 full-length side piece 3⅝ inches wide
1 top block iii⅝ inches broad
1 bottom block 3⅝ inches wide

Cornerpost

1 full-length front piece 5⅛ inches broad
1 total-length side piece four⅜ inches wide
1 top cake four⅜ inches wide
i bottom block four⅜ inches wide
i superlative block iii⅝ inches wide
1 lesser cake 3⅝ inches wide

Pace one: Position the Line

To square the fence line to the firm, you'll marking off a right triangle extending from the foundation. Sink one pale for the triangle's corner where the kickoff post will go, and a 2d one 3 anxiety away along the foundation. Tie a bricklayer line to the outset stake, stretch it taut roughly perpendicular to the house, and marker it iv feet from the stake. Observe the v-foot mark on a measuring record and angle it from the 2d stake toward the line. Now cross the taut line and the tape until you become the four-foot and v-foot marks to meet. When they do, co-ordinate to the Pythagorean theorem, you have a xc-caste angle at the triangle'southward corner—and thus a perpendicular line intersecting the house. A bigger triangle (say 9, 12, and fifteen feet) works even better.

Footstep 2: Dig the showtime posthole

Typically, digging beyond the frost line and setting at to the lowest degree one-3rd of the post in tamped crushed rock and soil works fine. Merely anyone with very sandy soil should sink the post in concrete, like we did. Mark your hole depth on the handle of a posthole digger in painter'southward record, and dig vi inches below the frost line and to a diameter three times the size of the post

Step 3: Wrap the Post

If you're using concrete, you'll want to go on water from seeping between it and the wood. In that case, wrap a section of the post with self-adhesive flashing, starting near the bottom and extending above the concrete line but below ground level.

Step 4: Prepare the Post

Cascade 6 inches of drainage rock into the hole and tamp information technology with the post. Add or subtract stone to get your post elevation. Clamp two furring strips to adjacent sides to prop up the post in the pigsty, equally shown. Tack a 1x bit to the mail service's front end confront to stand in for the sleeve, and make sure it touches the bricklayer line. Using a level on ii side by side sides, adjust the supports to make the post plumb. Add a few inches of drainage rock around the post. Cascade dry out concrete mix into the hole up to a few inches below grade. Add water until the mix is saturated, and stir it with a slice of scrap. Check for plumb, top off the hole with soil, and permit the mail to stand undisturbed while the physical cures.

Footstep 5: Cut the Post Sleeve Pieces

To construct the sleeves, you'll sandwich narrow blocks on sides where fence panels connect between wider total-length pieces. Utilize a circular saw to rip the blocks to 3⅝ inches and the full-length pieces to 5⅛ inches. For finish posts, substitute a 3⅝-inch full-length piece for the narrow blocks on the side with no connecting panel. Once ripped, cutting the pieces to length using a miter saw.

Footstep half-dozen: Assemble the Sleeves

Apply polyurethane mucilage to the edges of the lower sleeve blocks, sandwich them between the front and back pieces, and employ a blast gun and 1¼-inch nails to secure the associates. Set up bated the top blocks until later on the panels are installed.

Tip: If the glue foams out of the seams, don't smear information technology with a cloth, or information technology will never come off. Just wait until it dries and shave it off with a chisel or scraper.

Step 7: Install the Get-go Sleeve

Slide the sleeve over the post with the forepart face up parallel to the fence line, as shown. Make it flush at the peak, shim it, and spiral it in place.

Step 8: Cutting the Frame Pieces

Use a miter saw to cut the ii×4 frame pieces to length. Fit a circular saw with a debate and rip ¾-inch strips from a 1x board, every bit shown. Y'all'll use these strips as stops to hold the lattice in place. Cut the stops to length: i½ inches shorter than the frame'south side pieces and 3 inches shorter than the pinnacle and bottom pieces.

Step 9: Adhere the Front Stops

Lay the frame pieces of one console on the work surface. Identify a corresponding strip on each board, centered stop-to-end for the front cease. Now use a scrap piece of the strip material to recess the stops 3⁄four inch from the front edge of each board. Tack them in identify using a nail gun and one¼-inch nails, and screw them to the board using a drill/driver and 1⅝-inch screws.

Footstep 10: Drill Cry Holes

Using a drill/driver fitted with a ⅜-inch paddle bit, drill four weep holes forth the centerline of the bottom frame piece to drain h2o. Repeat to create the pieces for the remaining frames.

Step xi: Cut the Lattice

Lattice shows staples on the back, so starting time decide how you want to orient the outward-facing strips—horizontally or vertically. Then, marking the panel width and height on the lattice. Making panels 48 inches or less will allow you to get two out of each four-by-8-foot canvass. Cutting the lattice to size with a circular saw.

Pace 12: Assemble the Frame

Position the frame pieces front end-edge down on the work surface, and barrel the side boards between the summit and bottom boards. The ends of the stops attached to the tiptop and bottom boards should create a tight joint with the stops attached to the side boards, as shown.

Step 13: Install the Lattice

Lay the lattice into the frame confronting the forepart stops, finish face up down. Screw back stops to the top and bottom frame pieces to lock in the lattice; save the side stops for Pace 17.

Step fourteen: Set the Postal service Spacing

Butt a panel against the first post, resting it on the lower sleeve block at i end and scrap blocks at the other. Using the posthole digger, mark the location of the next post slightly underneath the end of the panel. Remove the panel and dig the hole.

Step xv: Position the 2d Post

Create your stone drainage bed and fix the postal service height. Slide the sleeve onto the mail, shim information technology, and tack information technology in place. Sandwich the console between the posts, and position the loose post then that the console sits level when resting on the lower sleeve blocks. Keep the scrap blocks in place to steady the console equally you brand adjustments. Add drainage stone effectually the post.

Step 16: Attach the Panel

Drive iii-inch screws through the back side of the frame and into the posts (top, center, bottom) to secure the parts, as shown. Then install your side stops. Clench furring strips to adjacent sides of the unset post, as in Step vi, and position it plumb and with the sleeve face touching the mason line. Make full the hole with physical, mix in the water, and let information technology set, usually virtually 45 minutes. Repeat Steps 14-sixteen to set the remaining posts and attach the remaining panels. Become back and secure the upper sleeve blocks to a higher place the panels.

Step 17: Attach the Cap Track

Rip the boards to v⅛ inches broad. Hold each board abreast the posts and scribe it to length. Cutting the boards to length and place them on top of the panel, edges flush with the sleeves. If the board is cupped, exist sure to put that side down. Secure the boards with polyurethane structure adhesive.

Pace 18: Secure the Post Caps

Apply the same construction adhesive to the mail tops, and gear up the caps in place. Or you can nail through the caps and into the posts.

Tip: Brand your own post caps from two foursquare blocks, one smaller than the other, glued and nailed atop the post.

Tools: