Total Read Time: 2.5 Minutes

Background:

Every year, I help my parents do some sort of landscaping activity at the house, even though I haven’t really lived there for a couple of years. Last year was the brick paver gardens around the perimeter of the house primarily to cover up the shotty trim job the builders did about six years ago. My brothers and I did most of the work, digging holes for the brick’s foundation, adding that weed-be-gone matting, pouring the rocks and then finally laying in the bricks. As that project neared completion, we decided to eliminate another eye sore, the old deck, which would eventually be replaced with a lovely new patio. Phase 2 of the project would be designing a large fence encompassing the back yard so that the dogs could roam free. The fence had been a longstanding request by my mom, but we didn’t have the money to purchase a nice one. Luckily, the wood from the old deck was still in pretty good shape and my dad came up with plan to reuse it effectively.

The Big Project:

Fall Down – In an effort to both cut down on costs and be a little greener, we would reuse supplies and wood that we already had from the deck. Unfortunately, that meant salvaging the flooring and framework by unscrewing every single screw and left little fun for a demolition. Thus, we began unscrewing, measuring, cutting, sorting and finally stacking the different pieces of wood into their corresponding piles to prepare for the following season’s project. Check out the instructions below to learn how to do it.

Spring Up – Luckily, last fall’s process significantly cut down on the time it took us to setup the fencing this year and because the old deck was gone, we were able to have some professionals come and create our beautiful new patio in its place. As it stands, we’re about half way finished with the fence now! We’ve invested about ten hours on a fence that’s going to be close to 200 feet. We also used some of that thick green wire fencing to cover the holes in the fencing that were too large to keep the dogs contained.

Details On How We Created the Fence:
1. Cut three 1inch X 6inch pieces of lumber at 7 feet and two 1inch X 6inch pieces of lumber at 3 feet (adjust to jumping height of dog).
2. Place the three 7-footers on top of the two 3-footers and screw in 2 screws each time the wood overlaps (should be 12 screws per whole piece of fencing).
3. When you have assembled the frame, cut the wire fencing to 3feet X 7feet and use a staple gun. Note: staple the fencing to the side with the three 7-footers facing up.

4. Cut one 2inch X 6inch piece of lumber at 5 feet. Dig a big round hole that is 2 feet below the surface of the ground. Put your lumber in the ground and then pour in cement or rocks to stabalize (we used some dried cement from home depot).
5. Once post is in place, screw fencing in with one or two screws and you are ready to move onto the next section. Note: set fencing 3 inches into the post so that you are able to fit two pieces on the 2X6 post.

Tools: Post hole digger, level, tape measurer, chalk line (string covered in chalk), cement, bucket to mix cement, drill, skill saw, staple gun, screws, reused decking, green wire fencing.

That’s all for now. I won’t likely be posting how-to’s all the time, but it was a fun current project and I thought it was another easy way to be more earth-conscious. If you decide to build your own recycled fence, send us a link to your project so we can see how you did it.

-Ryan-

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