I'm building a 6' high fence and I'm having trouble with land elevations and gaps under fence????

[hzaidi1]

Ok this is the deal. I live in an end unit townhome. I'm only required to make a corner fence since the neighbor's fence is on the other side I just need to join my fence with his. I've already laid out my fence and have all my 4x4x8 post concreted into the ground and are at equal heights and distances. The problem is that before I bought the fence boards I started to calculate the gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground. You want at least an inch or so room between the ground and the bottom of the fence. You want this so that soil dosen't rot the fence boards and you can deweed underneath. The problem is that what ever gap height you select you need to continue this so that it's consistent and the picket heights are all the same along the top. On one side of my fence that is fine and I can do this but if you continue around the corner the ground has a lower elevation around the corner and it will cause a 6" gap underneath the fence. It looks weird if I were to do this and I don't want to have a gap and try to mediate it with soil, stones etc... Do you guys have any ideas on how to deal with this. Looking for someone with experience in this.

[mm]

In many places, you want at least an inch or two of empty space, even when you haven't mown the grass, so that termites don't crawl up the grass and get into the wood.

They don't like to go out where they can be seen.

You should find out if there are termites in your area. Maybe all areas have them, I don't know.

I'm in Baltimore. When I found I had them and went looking for something to kill them with, after a referral to a store I couldn't find, another guy took me to the home of a well known exterminator around here. He was at work but his wife told me not to exterminate for termites in a fence. Too dangerous, she said. Just cut off the bottom inch or two of the pickets. I don't actually remember exactly how much.

I haven't done anything for my posts and they are all fine. But some of the pickets were practically hollow.

[Dave Bugg]

I always follow the topography of the ground with the pickets. I place a 6 foot 2x4 on the ground and let each picket rest on top of the 2x4 when I nail or screw it to the rails. The top of the pickets will be higher or lower, but the gap at the bottom will be consistent.

[HeyBub]

The terrain may be sloped intentionally to facilitate drainage.

Plant bushes or ground cover. This also solves the trimming problem.

[Robert Barr]

the ground has a lower elevation around the

If you want it even across the top, obviously you'll have to trim along the base, or vice versa. You'll lose 6" around most of it this way. One way or another you have a decision to make.

Not a huge problem as long as you have a water level (or an actual surveyor's level) to lay it out & measure, and then a good saw.

it would be a bigger problem if you needed to trim higher than the lower horizontal framing member on the fence panels.

[Colbyt]

I always temp nail the first and last board of a run after placing them on a

1" spacer. Then I stretch a taut string from one to the other. I drive a small nail into the top of the board and use this to attach the string.

I hold the top edge of the dog-ear to the line. This ensures that the fence overall has a gentle graduation. I guess if you had a dip in the middle of the run, you would place a board there and work down to it and then back up to the other side.

I almost never trim more than a few boards.

For a short run with a severe grade change I would step them down in the exact same manner holding the side edge of the dog-ear to the line.

Colbyt

[willshak]

on 6/6/2007 1:06 PM [e-mail] said the following:

I had a similar problem with topography. I laid 6"x6"x8' PT timbers on the ground between the posts under the fence to fill the gap. Besides filling the gap, it makes it easier to weed whack along the bottom. I live in the NE so they do get moved around a little by winter frost, but a few whacks with a sledge puts them back in alignment.