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In recent years, the fashion for wooden buildings has led to the fact that more and more developers are thinking that a metal fence may not be the best solution. In terms of durability, maybe yes, but in terms of aesthetics, it is inferior to wood. The wooden fence has somewhat lost its popularity due to its short life: wood, with constant exposure to the sun and water, quickly collapses. To increase the service life, the protective coating in the form of paint has to be constantly updated. With a large length, it takes a lot of time and requires a considerable amount of paint. This problem has become less acute, since the new antiseptics that have recently appeared can extend the life of the fence, and also guarantee the durability of staining for several years. The term is different – from 2-3 years, to 5-7. It depends on the type of antiseptic impregnation and the manufacturer, but finding “long-playing” ones is not difficult: in any more or less large store.
Moreover, these impregnations do not paint over the texture of the tree: all the veins are visible. They just change color, usually to a darker one. Such a fence made of wood looks solid and rich. Even a simple picket fence, and even a difficult one, even more so.
What is important is that you can put up a wooden fence with your own hands alone, if necessary, even without the involvement of assistants. Another important thing: a significant part of the work – the preparation of wood – can be carried out not on the spot, but, say, in a garage or workshop. And start it long before the start of construction. For example, from autumn to spring, and the construction itself should be started already when the weather is warm.
Wood is a very plastic material and the simplest thing can be done so that it looks like a work of art. This is true for fences as well. If you wish, you can make such a “candy”, which is a pleasure to look at. There are several designs of wooden fences.
Fence
The simplest is the picket fence. This is a set of edged boards or strips of the same, as a rule, width, which are nailed vertically to two or more transverse rails.
The shape of the top may differ. A 90° floor cut is the easiest option, but far from the best, and not only in terms of aesthetics. The top of such a fence, even painted, is exposed to intense moisture, as a result, the coating in this place is destroyed first. And the wood pores in the perpendicular cut remain open. Rain, fog, melting snow / ice are absorbed by them, which leads to the destruction of wood. To avoid this, cut the tops not at 90 degrees, but at 45 degrees. If you look at such a board in profile, then the top will be beveled (see the figure below).
The distance between two adjacent fences is chosen according to your desire. You can make a solid fence, fitting one close to the other, you can make it translucent, leaving a gap of 1-2 cm, or you can make it completely transparent – with a large distance equal to the width of the boards or even more. Such options are popular for internal fences, which are more designed to separate zones and mark boundaries than to protect from something. For outdoor fences facing the street, they usually choose a solid installation, maybe with a very small distance so that the boards do not “swell” in wet weather.
Sawn tops add variety. They can be sharpened in different ways – with a rounded top, in the form of peaks, triangles, trapezoids. All this in different versions and combinations.
Some even make truly works of art: a carved fence requires a lot of perseverance. The work is painstaking, but the result is worth it.
Make curly tops faster and easier with a template. Cut out a sample from a sheet of plywood, bring it to perfect condition. Then cut out all the rest according to this pattern. You can cut with a jigsaw or on a milling machine.
A jigsaw for such a case can be bought. All the same, even taking into account this expense item, it will turn out cheaper than buying ready-made carved pickets. The downside here is that it takes a lot of time, and the pickets turn out to be unequal: either the file will go a little to the right, then a little to the left. The edges then still have to be processed with sandpaper.
Buying a milling machine, if you don’t plan to use it later, is unprofitable. And those who already have one can buy cutters with a floating head and make a figured picket fence with it. The height of the cutting part of the cutter is equal to the thickness of the board that you will be processing, and the head rests against the template.
In both cases, you will have to somehow fix the template on the workpiece. This can be done with thin nails or by sticking double-sided tape on the template.
But if you approach the process creatively, then even from even thin planks you can make a beautiful wooden fence: nailing it at different angles.
The authors of this wooden fence made it even simpler: they only made the height non-linear, emphasizing the relief with a plank nailed on top. This, by the way, is the second way to significantly increase the life of a wooden fence – the plank blocks access for water to the most vulnerable open cross sections). Also, non-linearity is given by planks nailed to the surface in the form of frames, and the wood inside is painted in a lighter color. Agree, original.
You can read about corrugated fences here.
Wooden fence “checkerboard” or “chess”
In fact, this is one of the subspecies of the picket fence. The boards are stuffed alternately on one side, then on the other side of the crossbar. It turns out an interesting three-dimensional view.
If you look at such a fence exactly opposite, it looks like a deaf one, if to the side, then at a certain angle some part of the yard will be visible through the gap. The degree of transparency is regulated by the entry of one bar after another. You can make it so that the visibility will be zero. For example, with a plank width of 10 cm, make the distance between them no more than 6 cm. Here, no matter how you look, nothing is visible. The disadvantage is the high consumption of wood. But the fences are very beautiful, especially in combination with brick or stone pillars and figuratively made tops.
They make horizontal fences from chessboards. But here you need to keep in mind that it is very convenient to climb on such a fence: boards are like steps. True, any fence is not such a serious obstacle. Rather, it is a protection from prying eyes than from serious assassination attempts.
Such “chess” looks decent and solid. Pillars can be anything: metal, wood, stone, concrete. If metal poles are installed, they are made from a profiled thick-walled pipe (3 mm). Above ground level, on the front and back sides, they are sewn up with boards (to the pillars with bolts or self-tapping screws), which are larger than the width of the profile: they should protrude 3-6 cm on the sides. Thus, we get guides into which the boards are inserted. The boards are then fastened from the inside to the sheathing of the pillars.
How to make a foundation for a fence, read here.
Fence “Herringbone”
Another type of horizontal fence is called a herringbone. It is named so because the boards are stacked close to one another, and with an overlap on the one below. In profile, it looks like a Christmas tree, as children draw it.
It is more difficult to climb up such a fence. Please note that there is a protective visor on top. It protects the most vulnerable part of the fence, greatly extending its life, as well as pushing back the time for the next painting. After all, usually the top and bottom of the coating is the most damaged. From below, this fence is protected by a plinth, from above – by a visor.
Photos of the construction of fences are here.
Wooden fences “blinds”
They differ from those described above in that the boards do not adjoin one another. They are fixed at an angle, but with some clearance. This type of fence does not create a solid wall and the yard can be viewed, although this will require you to sit down or even lie down – depending on the angle of inclination.
This type of fence is very uneconomical – wood consumption is usually high. The assembly is also difficult: fasten a bar (corner) under each board or cut a notch in the post.
But with this construction, good ventilation of the site is ensured. This is important if the climate or terrain is humid. You can’t install a solid fence: there will be a puddle under it and the dirt in the yard will never dry out.
Wicker from the board – a beautiful fence
The fence made of boards bent between the pillars looks unusual. They are intertwined between the pillars like a traditional wattle fence. They only make it from long boards.
Most often they are found in a horizontal version. There are fewer joints and bending long spans is easier.
There are also vertical braids. To give them a finished look, planks are nailed at the top and bottom – they both hold the edges of the boards and protect them from bad weather.
Read how to make a real wattle fence here, and how to grow a hedge – here.
How to make such beauty, see the video. It’s really easy, but it takes a lot of strength.
lattice fences
A wide variety of gratings are made from thin, and not very thin, slats: with different angles, frequency of slats, etc. These fences play a rather decorative role and are used either for indoor fencing – the waters of the thief, in the garden – or for the main entrance – to mark the borders, but not cover the beauty.
Photo of beautiful fences
You just wonder what beauty people can make from a piece of wood. Really beautiful. And some, while not very complex.
Maybe someone will be inspired by these photos of old wooden fences, they can be repeated …