One of the many, many things that I knew I’d have to fix when I bought my forty year old ranch house was the old wooden fence that ran around the border of my backyard. The fence was quite literally falling apart before our very eyes. The grey slats actually blew in the breeze and after every rain storm I had to go out and pick up the pickets that had fallen into the neighbor’s lawn. I had various pieces of cement block and even some old chicken wire set up to block the holes in the fence that our small dog could fit through. I had to replace the wood fence, and soon.
Old fence with first piece of new face installed.
Even though the wooden slats were falling right off the boards, the posts were actually in pretty good shape. They had obviously been installed professionally and they were still tight in the ground and fairly solid. They were 4×4 pressure treated posts which, as far as I could tell, were held in with cement (which is the proper way to secure fence posts).
So my goal was to replace the fence but save myself a fair bit of work by leaving the old fence posts in place. I could do this partly because all my posts were still strong and secure but also because they were all spaced out exactly eight feet apart. That was key because I had to buy my replacement wood fencing from a big hardware store and the only lengths they offered were eight foot lengths. Most fence lengths are this long, but every so often you’ll come across a custom fence with some different measurements.
I ordered 23 sections of wooden fence and arranged to have them delivered a week later. Now I had to actually get to work. I figured it would take me about three days of work with about four or five hours of work dedicated to the job each day. I took a few days off and made it a long weekend. Because it was going to take a few days and because I have a toddler and dog who like to run around the backyard I had to plan this project so that at the end of each day I always had a full fence up.
I slowly worked my way around the yard, following pretty much the same pattern of work over and over again. This is what I did 23 times:
Lesson Learned: Don’t pound the old fence off with a hammer.
1. Remove One Section of Old Wooden Fence:
I started out by removing one section of wooden fence at a time. I removed my first piece of fence by taking a hammer to it and pounding it off the posts. The fence was held to the post with several different types of carpentry nails, all which were fairly rusty. Lesson learned: pounding a fence piece off a post is not always the best way to go. My fence was so rotted out that I ended up literally shattering half the fence into a million tiny splinters. This shattered fence was difficult to haul to my disposal pile, filled with nails and left a trail of rotting wood and debris.
From that point onward I removed the fence pieces with more brain than brawn. I took a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade and simply went down the post cutting the nails like hot butter. Once I cut all six nails holding on each fence piece it would often just fall right over. I still had a few pieces fall apart on me, but it most held together and I was able to put them on a stack of old fencing. I then went over each piece with that same reciprocating saw and cut off any stray nail heads or ends that may have been sticking out.
2. Put the New Piece of Fence in Place and Drill Pilot Holes:
I then took a new piece of fence and placed it up where the old one was. I used a small bubble level to make sure each piece was more or less straight. I used some scrap wood under several portions of each piece of fence to hold it up and level it out. I then used a small drill bit and drilled some pilot holes in the fence, making sure to go through the cross beams of the fence and to hit the post fairly square on. I drilled pilot holes because I’ve learned long ago that drilling pilot holes almost completely eliminates chance of splitting wood. Because some of these fence pieces are being drilled near the edges there was a chance of splitting.
3. Drill Screws into the Wooden Fence (and Hopefully the Fence Posts, too!):
Once everything was more or less in line I would simply put sturdy 4 inch deck nail on the end of my rechargeable drill and drive it through the pilot hole of the fence and into the fence post. The original fence was held together with nails. I don’t like nails for things like this because I find them slow to put in, prone to error, always increase your chance of splitting the wood and require too much effort. This is not to say that I never use nails. You can find pros and cons for each, but generally nails should be used on almost any wood framing that holds any real weight or could be dangerous if it fell apart. I don’t put my simple wooden fence in that category. Nails bend and a generally stronger for holding things together, but for most of my little home improvement projects I take the easy way out and use screws.
Four full fence pieces shown. Only 19 more to go!
And that’s about it. Like I said, I did the whole project over about four days, managing to get between five to seven pieces of fencing replaced each day. I did have two sections that were less than eight feet in length due to their proximity to my house. I simply measured them and got lucky enough to have both within an inch of the end of one of my slats on a full piece of fence. I simple cut the three supporting rows all in a line and put up the fence piece just like a full-sized one.
I haven’t yet put together the new gate and I don’t know if using screws instead of nails will come back to haunt me or not. This was probably the “largest” project I’ve worked on (space-wise) but certainly not the most difficult. It just took some patience and muscle to get each piece in place just right. Oh, and a quick update: a year later my neighbor replace some of his fencing as well. He didn’t choose the pressure-treated wood, but my fence was pressure-treated. You can see the difference in the photos after just seven months.
Overall the project was a little more work than I had anticipated and took a lot more time, but the end result passed the wife test: she liked it so much we just ordered 10 more pieces to replace the back fence, too. I’m excited to have our entire yard looking new and updated, but I’m not looking forward to spending another weekend in the hot summer sun.
So I guess you could say I’m sort of “on the fence” about my success!
Looks great! I know it’s a lot of work. I replaced/rebuilt our 4-foot dogear many year ago. It needs it again.
But this time, I’m replacing it with vinyl privacy fence. Wood needs too much babying in my part of the country to hold up and keep lookin’ good. Luckily, I’m only covering about a third the ground you did. Not doing whole yard, just separating from back easement.
Nicole,
Thanks! Your porch looks great, too! I wanted to go vinyl, I really did… but that would have ended up costing me about four times as much as the wood when all was said and done. Next time I might go for it, but for the moment I figure I can probably get a good 8 – 10 years out of this wooden fence.
Smart move to leave prexisting pieces in place while you replace them one by one. I followed a similar procedure with repairing Adirondack chairs–piece by dry-rotted piece.
[...] The two biggest improvements to the exterior my home were both done in the backyard this year. I replaced an old wooden fence that ran all the way around my yard and my wife and I put together some flowerbeds using wooden [...]
[...] use pressure treated wood fencing in my yard. If you remember, it was about seven months ago that I put up a new wood fence around my [...]
Your fence came out surprisingly nice! Usually when homeowners or someone who is not a professional fence installer tries to tackle a project like this it is painfully obvious. The same is usually true when using pre-made panels.
Great work and an informative article on the process!
Keith
Keith,
Thanks! It was A LOT of work and ended up taking me most of the summer to put the whole thing up. Next time I’ll either space it out so I just replace one section per summer or, if the posts aren’t still holding up, then I’ll hire professionals to take them out and put in new posts. That’s the ONLY reason I decided to do this on my own. Putting posts in is tricky, but not impossible. Taking out 30+ fence posts that have been cemented in place just isn’t my idea of fun… Thanks for the kind words!
You made a huge mistake reusing the posts. Now when they are all rotted, you are going to seriously regret the time you took to redo that fence so nicely. Live and learn.
Will,
I’m a big fan of not over-spending or “over-improving” things just for the sake of it.
Here’s the way I figure it: the previous fence probably lasted a good 8 to 10 years. The fence posts are still, over a year since I did this project, pretty rock solid. I’ve seen no sign of rot, mold or even weakening of the posts so far.
As far as I can tell the fence was one of the cheaper types (stockade style is almost always the least expensive) and I have doubts as to whether it was water-proofed at all.
So if the fence lasted 8 years or more with practically no protection or pressure treating at all, then I have to think the fence posts (which are obviously pressure treated for ground contact and weather protection) will probably last a good deal longer.
The original fence was installed by a fencing professional, which means the guy probably used solid posts, good cement and did everything “right.” The one thing fence guys don’t often have control over: the quality of the wood fence panels that the customer picks.
Putting in new posts would have probably cost me another couple hundred bucks (not a big deal) and easily have doubled (or tripled!) the time it took me to finish this project. So being faced with the idea of not replacing the fence at all (too much time) or replacing it within my time and budget constraints I chose to do it this way.
Of course a professional fence guy is going to criticize this technique: it encourages people to pay their fence installer less money :-)
I agree what Will says (he is a straightforward guy!) about replacing the posts, but I also understand the reason behind your decision.
Do yourself a favor and treat the ENTIRE fence once a year with a water sealer and your posts and fence should last another 8-10 years (may have to replace a post or two).
Still a good looking job for a homeowner!
Keith
Heh… It’s cool. I KNOW that the 100% correct way to replace a fence is to replace the posts while you’re at it. But I also know that a lot of DIY home improvement people (such as myself) are sometimes strapped for cash, time, knowledge or a little of all three.
In the interest of making this a job that one guy could accomplish in on summer (with unpredictable weather and leaving plenty of time for family and friends), I took the “easier” route of leaving in the posts… So far I don’t regret it. True, I might later.. but right now they’re holding up nicely…
But I DO have a question that’s actually been bugging even more about installing my own fence… And, as fence pros, maybe you guys can help. Here’s my question:
Screws or nails?
I put up my fence with 4 inch deck screws (ones made for pressure treated wood)… Do the professional fence installers use screws or nails to attach the fence sections to the posts?
I’m curious to know your answer and your reasoning… Thanks!
Most pros use hot dipped ring shank galvanized nails. I have found this to be the best method for decks and fences both. The ring shank grabs as good if not better than screws, and being hot dipped prevents any corrosion so you get a long lasting product.