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

Posted by on June 6, 2007, 1:06 pm

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.

Posted by mm on June 6, 2007, 1:40 pm

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:06:49 -0700, hzaidi1@towson.edu wrote:

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.

>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.

Posted by Dave Bugg on June 6, 2007, 2:33 pm

hzaidi1@towson.edu wrote:

> ... Do you guys have any ideas on how to deal
> with this. Looking for someone with experience in this.

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.

--
Dave
www.davebbq.com

Posted by HeyBub on June 6, 2007, 3:59 pm

hzaidi1@towson.edu wrote:

> 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.

The terrain may be sloped intentionally to facilitate drainage.

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

Posted by Robert Barr on June 6, 2007, 5:06 pm

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.
>

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.

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