Project: Split Rail Fence

The split rail fence – sometimes summer home or property improvements end up being a far lager feat than you ever anticipated. This fence was just that – a huge feat! First, the drive way is more than 250 feet long and we wanted more than 220 feet of it fenced – both sides. That’s 44 post holes and more than 120 rails. The task of treating them all took about 8 hours, 4 hours twice. We treated the wood since we want it to retain it’s natural cedar colour, not grey or weather.

The next big part? Oh, clicking before we dig, of course. Guess what? The gas line runs down one side of the driveway while electricity runs down the other. Guess who gets to dig 44 post holes, 27 inches deep, I might add. Me – and Bryce, of course. The best part of building the fence was eating all those extra earned calories! Oh, and having pride in our property and the joy of getting the job done, and well at that!

Split Rail Fence

First – purchase you wood and treat it.

Second – you’ll want to lay out some rails where you want your fence to run, not because you’ll dig all the holes first, but rather so you can problem solve if there are any issues – and so you know where you’d like to start.

We measured between each post to ensure they were between 158 – 162 inches wide. No way did we want our driveway to feel enclosed, or have the fence look wonky.

We also got 14 yards of road crush delivered to even out some of the wear and tear, but also because we needed about 1 yard total for the bottom of the posts. You don’t set cedar posts into concrete – it’ll discolour the wood. Rather, you dig down 27 inches, add in 3 inches of road crush for drainage and then set your post and backfill. We used a spade shovel, a post hole digger and also a short handled tile shovel. The tile shovel was my best friend throughout this whole project.

Oh, and it should be noted that Bryce and I each had our own tools and we got so used to the way they worked when we accidentally picked up the other’s post hole digger we found it uncomfortable and wanted our own tool back – so funny!

One is done!

Third tip – you’ll leap frog each post hole since each post sits in the ground differently. Dig and then set the rails, then dig again.

We need to rake, too.

Some details.

All done! Just need to level out the rest of the road crush.

Looks pretty good, eh? Now, time for a gate.

Thanks so much for visiting and I’ll see you again soon.