Building A Wooden Privacy Fence Economically?

[LFD2037]

We're in the process of building a shop & pool. I also need to build a privacy fence but funds are getting tight @ this point. I'll be doing 160', 80' of 6' tall & 80' of 8' tall. I'll be doing all the labor myself. I want to do this as economical as possible but don't want to cheap out. My questions for you fence guru's:
Is running the pickets horizontal or vertical cheaper (we like the horizontal)?
4" or 6" boards cheaper (for the project, not per board)?
Cedar boards worth the extra money?
4x4 treated posts or metal posts?
Pre-built panels or build them myself?
Thanks for your input!

[chunkinlead]

I’m not a privacy fence guru, but I built mine myself and here is my experience. I used metal oil pipe. It was about the same price as wood posts I just had to cut it. I didn’t even think about horizontal pickets building mine. I found that building mine myself instead of buying the pickets was cheaper.


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[Marine]

I've built several privacy fences. I haven't ever put the pickets horizontal. I use 2 3/8 drill stem for the post and 2" square tubing for the runners. I also use cedar 6" cedar pickets. Cost is around $30/ft but my fences look just as good 12 years later as they did the day I built it. Whether you are building it to sell your house or building it for you. It's worth it to go ahead and spend the money and do it right. Build it out of pine pockets and 2x4's and 3 years from now you'll have a crooked sagging fence.

[JayB]

I will give my experience/cost.

I rebuilt mine around part of my yard and recently priced out doing the other side of my house. I have roughly about the same amount of fence as you but I only need 50' of 8' fence along with 60' of 6". I priced out at about $20/ft.

4 x 4 post set 6 ft on center
Rock for bottom of hole/concrete per hole

2 x 4 rails 3 on 6' ht and 4 on 8 ft ht

2 x 6 bottom kick board

All lumber treated!

6" Cedar pickets

1 x 3 top trim

If you want to redo pickets in 5 years, use pine/ Whitewood.

I prefer wood post because I like a firm connect rail to post and the wood post has more give than metal. You must have good drainage at bottom of wood post.

Stainless nails on Cedar. Galv is ok on rails.

Post hole digger that you pull home on hitch...not sure what it's called but rents $100/day and digs holes almost by itself.

It is a lot of work. Helps to have a good friend. I do NOT recommend any building lubrication because you want everything to remain straight and square.

I like horizontal also, but you gotta build the fence different than vertical pocket.

.....and God Bless America.

[LFD2037]

Good info.!
I forgot one other question:
Is a lumber yard cheaper than HD or Lowe's?

[Marine]

Some are. Best price I found on pickets is Lowe's. But I get 10% off for veteran.

[toledo]

If you really want to do it cheap, wait until a storm rolls through and go load a trailer full of panels that someone else is throwing away. Tons of good pickets get thrown away because shady fencing companies use landscape timbers, wait two years for them to break, and then sell homeowners an entire new fence.

[furtrapper]

You can check prices at HD, Lowes/McCoys, Blacklands, see who will give you the best deal.

[LFD2037]

If you really want to do it cheap, wait until a storm rolls through and go load a trailer full of panels that someone else is throwing away. Tons of good pickets get thrown away because shady fencing companies use landscape timbers, wait two years for them to break, and then sell homeowners an entire new fence.

I'm trying to do this cheap but that's a little too cheap! I don't think my wife would go for that.

[JayB]

One good thing about big box....you can return any unused pieces

.....and God Bless America.

[Rick]

Good info.!
I forgot one other question:
Is a lumber yard cheaper than HD or Lowe's?

Step by step:

pick out a list, for example:
8' 4x4
8' 2x4
6' cedar picket
8' cedar picket

Call lumber yard, HD, and Lowes

Ask for price on the items

Then you will know the answer

[brushtrooper]

Ditto on what JayB said. Only thing I have not seen discussed is depth of holes. I go a min. Of 3’ on the posts and if a gate is hanging off of it I go 4’, gravel in bottom and concrete to the top of ground with a taper to drain the water. I also like the “bell” the bottom of the hole with manual diggers some. The fence will never lean like the ones that go 18” deep. Firm believer in 6’ post space over 8’, that will be appreciated over time as the rails will not sag as easy. I have had treated pine last much longer than the 5-6 years. I would go with screws to attached over nails. It will make any board replacements easy plus I have had nails push out as the treated lumber dries. It is much easier and faster with a nail gun by far. I just bought a used Harbor Freight Predator one man gas post hole digger and it does very good in the black clay we have in the Corpus Christi area. I am truly surprised by it so far but I have only drilled 10-15 holes and the auger is only 6” wide, so some manual digger work is necessary to get things true’d up. If renting, ditto on the pull behind type, those are sweet. One thing I would add and purely an option. On the bottom 2x6 rot board, I notch it so the picket will sit 1/2”-3/4” into the 2x6. This keeps the pickets from “kicking” out over time as they age. I did my first fence like this recently and it looks pretty sharp

[Rick]

Is running the pickets horizontal or vertical cheaper (we like the horizontal)? Price the boards required each way and you will know

4" or 6" boards cheaper (for the project, not per board)? Price the boards required each way and you will know

Cedar boards worth the extra money? To me, yes they are, they will definitely last longer

4x4 treated posts or metal posts? I prefer metal, but you have already stated that you prefer 4x4, so go with that. They both work fine, but metal will last longer

Pre-built panels or build them myself? If you mean cost wise, once you do your homework, you will know. But like most anything, if you build out of exactly the same materials, pre fab is probably higher. I think building with pre fab would be hard unless your yard is really level. Plus "matching" the 8' and 6' sections might be hard

[Rubberdown]

Some are. Best price I found on pickets is Lowe's. But I get 10% off for veteran.

Same discount at Home Depot

[Johnny Dangerr]

Supplies are super important. We bought the second best cedar available and here we are 17 years later fixing to replace the pickets only. Spend the money on high end supplies. Will post a picture of what we are going to build. {neighbor just put up a cool new fence}