Landscape & Gardening

Want a Great Looking Fence?

If you want a great looking fence for your yard that also gives you some privacy, Building your own cedar lattice fence is an awesome project that any DIYer can do.

Cedar is a great wood to use for outdoor projects, as it naturally prevents decay and insect infestation. Cedar is very stable, it does not warp, shrink, or splinter much (most pressure treated pine will eventually).

Using Pressure treated post and cedar boards and lattice will make your fence the envy of your neighborhood. To save some money and make your fence look a little more rustic you can use #2 cedar instead of clear cedar.

Here is a list of materials you will need for each 8′ section of fence.

 

Cut List

Panel
This cut list is for one 36-by-51-inch panel. Repeat for each panel, and customize the size of your panels as necessary to avoid partial panels in your run of fence. For the lattice panel stops, you can safely rip up to three from each 1×6 common cedar board. However, if you rip only two strips out of a 1×6, you’ll have enough width left over for the narrow sleeve parts. For our panels, we left 43 inches of post exposed above ground.

2×4 frame top and bottom: 2 @ 51 inches
2×4 frame side: 2 @ 33 inches
¾-inch stops: 4 @ 31½ inches (1x material ripped to ¾ inches wide to create a ¾-by-¾-inch square dowel)

¾-inch stops: 4 @ 48 inches (1x material ripped to ¾ inches wide to create a ¾-by-¾-inch square dowel)

Lattice: 1 @ 32⅞ by 47⅞ inches (to fit comfortably in a frame with internal dimensions of 33 by 48 inches)

Cap rail: 1 @ 49½ inches (Ripped to 5⅛ inches wide)

Post and sleeve
Make the visible front and back full-length sleeve pieces from clear cedar and the stops and blocks from less-expensive common cedar. To determine the number of sleeve pieces needed for each post configuration, refer to the list below.

Full-length sleeve pieces: 43 inches (Ripped to 5⅛ inches wide)

Bottom block sleeve pieces: 4 inches (ripped to 3⅝ inches wide)

Top block sleeve pieces: 3 inches (ripped to 3⅝ inches wide)

Middle post
1 full-length front piece 5⅛ inches wide
1 full-length back piece 5⅛ inches wide
2 top block 3⅝ inches wide
2 bottom block 3⅝ inches wide

End post
1 full-length front piece 5⅛ inches wide
1 full-length back piece 5⅛ inches wide
1 full-length side piece 3⅝ inches wide
1 top block 3⅝ inches wide
1 bottom block 3⅝ inches wide

Cornerpost
1 full-length front piece 5⅛ inches wide
1 full-length side piece 4⅜ inches wide
1 top block 4⅜ inches wide
1 bottom block 4⅜ inches wide
1 top block 3⅝ inches wide
1 bottom block 3⅝ inches wide

Click Here for a great video from This Old House, with step by step instructions for building your own cedar fence.

 

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