Sunday 9 June 2013

Building a Pallet fence

Just for a change I thought you would like a crash course in putting up a Pallet Fence, it's so quick and easy. 
You can see here the broken pallet fence even some missing up to the fruit cage, but next doors plot has fruit bushes there to fill the gap. Considering we have had our Allotment 13 years now, I dont think the fence has been replaced until now, pallets do make a good quick fence.
First you need to dig post holes, this can be done with a narrow spade, but I invested in a Post Hole Auger quite some years ago, they are available in different widths, this one digs a 6" diam hole, ideal for the reclaimed 3 x 2.5" timber I have  acquired from several house renovations in our village.
I marked the shaft with a black line at 20" (50cm).
Other tools needed: Hammer, Spirit Level, Trowel, Grips and lots of 5" nails.
Here you can see the post hole auger in use, you simply screw it into the soil where the post needs to go, approx 10 turns will lift about 6" (15cm) of soil, best to lift the soil out regularly. You can see the black line I marked is level with the soil surface, as most pallets are 40" (1mtr) wide its best to dig your post holes depth equal to half the height of your pallets. This makes the posts when in place and firmed in good and solid.
I was lucky to have 2 x 8ft (2.4mtr) pallets from some building work I had done at home.
I put the 1st post in measured the width of the pallet and put another post in, with my wife's help we lifted a pallet between the posts I nailed through the pallet wood into the 1st post, checked the level, then nailed into the other post, using the spirit level again to make sure the posts are level vertically, I filled & firmed the soil around the post bases.
So this 16ft+ length of fence only took us 2.5 hours, there was some weeding (mostly Ground Elder) to be done in that time too. 
The next sections will be made from 2 x 1mtr pallets nailed together and suspended between posts, as I did last time.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian   

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