Contemporary Slatted Sceen - how it attach to existing fence

[Calvinmiddle]

You we want to build a screen like the photo to cover the back (the side with the battens) of some panel fencing and concrete posts.

We have some larch left over from the build and plan to cut it down from 145 and 95 to approx 45mm.

But I'm trying to decide how to attach it to the existing fence.

The panels are approx 30mm back from the front of the concrete posts and my initial thought was to fix 50mm square battens at 600 centres and nail the larch onto them.  The panels sit on concrete gravel boards and are well clear of the soil by at least 150mm.  But doing this means the panels are holding all the weight, and although they aren't the big shed rubbish panel than is still a lot of extra weight.

 

Altrnative is to screw a batten onto the concrete posts and let them take the weight with a couple of thicker battens on the fence to make sure they don't sag.

 

There will be some 'making good' needed on the fence to get the batten perfectly straight and vertical as fence was replacing  a holly hedge and the roots gave us some problems, though that maybe avoiding the concrete posts might make that stage easier

 

Any thoughts?

Edited July 29, 2017 by Calvinmiddle
Typo

[Ferdinand]

There are some decent US sites about this type of fence.

 

Where are you on your boundary? Can you move forward a few cm.

 

Drilling concrete posts is like demolishing the Atlantic Wall (which is why it is still partly there :-), so I would be inclined to go in between them - either in front of the existing panels or after removing the existing panels.

 

You need posts with pre-drilled holes, so i would use concrete (always for longevity) 1.2m repair spurs, such as these from Travis Perkins:

 

https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/Supreme-Concrete-Fencing-Repair-Spur-100x100x1200mm/p/700248

 

and then bolt a 1.8m or 2m fencepost to the holes they contain. Then fix the horizontals to that.

 

If you do not like the vertical expansion gaps between planks, then you can put a cosmetic vertical strip in line with each post.

 

Alternatively you could find your local post manufacturer and get them to make you some concrete posts with boltholes ... they just need to insert a bit of plastic tube in the right spot before adding the concrete.

 

Ferdinand

Edited March 17, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Calvinmiddle]

Unfortunately new posts aren't an option, not enough room and to be honest, the house has taken 2 years to build and 4 years before that to get planning.  I don't have the energy to start digging holes and getting posts.

 

Needs to be either on the fence panels (least work) or if that won't be strong, on the existing posts (as you say a pig of a job drilling into the posts)

[Ferdinand]

36 minutes ago, Calvinmiddle said:

Unfortunately new posts aren't an option, not enough room and to be honest, the house has taken 2 years to build and 4 years before that to get planning.  I don't have the energy to start digging holes and getting posts.

 

Needs to be either on the fence panels (least work) or if that won't be strong, on the existing posts (as you say a pig of a job drilling into the posts)

 

If you have to go on the existing posts then you are into long screws through the arris rails to mount vertical "ties" to put your planks on, or screw the planks directly to the verticals.

 

I suppose you could also strap wooden posts to the existing posts.

 

I  think that in any of these cases, you will be redoing it before too long.

 

The other option is to buy premade horizontal-plank panels and save your wood for something else.

[Calvinmiddle]

 

3 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I  think that in any of these cases, you will be redoing it before too long.

 

 

I was thinking of drilling 3/4 holes into the front of the post putting a wall plug in and then screwing on a 25-50 batten and nailing the slats onto them.

Don't have arris rails to go through as they are standard 'H' profile posts that panels slide into.

 

Wouldn't that work? Why do you think I'd have to redo it before long? Rot? Not holding?

[Ferdinand]

I think if you drill into the concrete posts you may be OK, but having taken a couple of hours drilling a mere *two* such posts myself I had discounted it due to practicality.

 

Good luck.

 

F

[Calvinmiddle]

Half of them are already done due to having wire strung on them for climbers previously.

 

I take it you think the straight onto the fence panels is a no go?

[Ferdinand]

1 minute ago, Calvinmiddle said:

Half of them are already done due to having wire strung on them for climbers previously.

 

I take it you think the straight onto the fence panels is a no go?

 

I think that if it is anything heavier than featheredge the panels are unlikely to be up to the job of supporting it for any significant period of time. 

[Stones]

12 minutes ago, Calvinmiddle said:

 

 

I was thinking of drilling 3/4 holes into the front of the post putting a wall plug in and then screwing on a 25-50 batten and nailing the slats onto them.

Don't have arris rails to go through as they are standard 'H' profile posts that panels slide into.

 

Wouldn't that work? Why do you think I'd have to redo it before long? Rot? Not holding?

 

I don't think fixing to the existing fence panels will be a robust long term solution. The method you describe is how the timber cladding is fixed to our ICF house - 45mm batten fixed through 165mm of EWI to the concrete core. Long fixings in our case, but a decent drill and drill bit should see you okay.

[Calvinmiddle]

So now got a load on 50x50mm posts at 600mm concreted into the ground and also screwed in to the fence, so the new fence isn't going anywhere.

 

Next issue is how to sand back the larch that has been sitting outside to take off the weathering so it's all nice and new looking again.

 

One option is to use a belt sander but as I have 36 length of 2.4m that are mix of 145mm and 90mm wide I'm worried that it will take ages.

 

So wondering if it's worth hiring a thicknesses for the day and using it too take the weathering off, but never used one, but saw Ontario Lakeside Cottage who used to post on ebuild using one to take varnish off floorboards.

 

what the collective option, sander or thicknesser and if you have used one any advice?

 

[Ferdinand]

Personally I like my larch to look weathered.

 

So I would suggest a beer and a barbecue as the best option.

 

You will only have to do it again in a couple of years !

Edited June 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Jeremy Harris]

Run it through a thicknesser, far and away the quickest way.  I planed down some of out spare, weathered, larch boards, with an electric plane, just to post a photo, either on here or on Ebuild, I think, of how it compared to oak when someone asked the question.  Even using an electric plane took time, and I was only doing a small bit.  You don't need to remove much to get the colour back, and it'll be much nicer working with timbers that are all consistent in size and colour after having been run through a thicknesser.

[Calvinmiddle]

On 11/06/2017 at 15:32, Ferdinand said:

Personally I like my larch to look weathered.

 

So I would suggest a beer and a barbecue as the best option.

 

You will only have to do it again in a couple of years !

 

So do I, only issue is I don't have enough Larch left over so have to sand back to old to match the new ones I'm buying 

[Calvinmiddle]

On 11/06/2017 at 16:05, JSHarris said:

Run it through a thicknesser, far and away the quickest way.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't find a thicknesser for hire at a sensible price, none of the hire places near me had one (the place I normally use sold theirs last year as no one was hiring it) and the rest said they could get it in from a partner but it was going to be way to £££ as it was a min 1 week hire and carriage £40 each way so all worked out about £300.

So back to sander plan, which actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

[Jeremy Harris]

Our village is just starting up a tool share service, the sort of thing that might be very useful for one-off jobs like this.  They are calling it a Virtual Tool Shed, with the Parish Council coordinating a list of tools that people are willing to lend out, and also looking after PAT testing to make sure all tools that are in the Virtual Tool Shed are safe.  It's early days, but one big advantage will be that we will know what tools are available nearby.  There are a lot of hobbyists and DIY'ers around, so I think we'll have a pretty wide range of tools.  I know that some of my bigger tools, like the lathe, milling machines, etc, only get used a handful of times a year, and I wouldn't mind betting that there are some woodworkers around that might well have things like a thicknesser that they only use occasionally.

Edited July 29, 2017 by JSHarris

[Calvinmiddle]

As mentioned earlier I decided to use 50x50 posts concreted into the ground to take the vertical load and then screwed into the existing fence panels to help keep it upright, got a the bottom third of one fence done with the old sanded back Larch and the new Larch arrived next week so dining the posts on the other fence.

These posts have been a pig to do as trying to keep the holes small in diameter (10-15cm) and 30-45cm deep and also tight to the exist fences concrete gravel boards.

As we discussed over on this thread about used a vacuum cleaner to clean the holes out I can say it works a treat!  We have very compact clay soil, nice a fine once to get it broken but hard to do that with a trowel like I've hard to do, but a couple of bangs with the chisel end of the crowbar to break the soil and then the vacuum to clean it out has seen me just do 4 holes in the time it was previously taking me to do one.

So can confidently say that using a vacuum cleaner to clean out holes is a great plan and works fantastically 

[Calvinmiddle]

Just to round things out, here is a picture of the finished fence, well one side, got another 12m of fence to go 

[Stones]

Very smart!