A Different fence

**Sigidi** · 23rd November 2011, 08:17 PM

So I got a call from a chap wanting a 'slab' fence, I went and had a chat with him - turns out some natural edge 'palings' (for want of a better word) was what he was thinking about. He wanted to cover up the 'industrial look of his existing fence and also slightly increase the height of the existing fence. The design brief was to be irregular and random - something I knew I'd have trouble with as I tend to be a bit regimented (or pedantic/anal as others may say)

So I decided a bunch of these would be just the ticket...

Holly and I Sliced off 19mm natural edge palings on over 30 of those 'logs' ranging from 150 -250mm dia and from 1650mm to 1900mm in length...

Trailer loaded and ready to roll (most of the top ones where used to give the others cover and protection - these split badly during milling, I wasn't very happy about how many split)

So the existing fence down one side looked like this to begin with...

And after treatment with the natural edge pailings...

The other side to begin with...

After the pailings...

And a general shot from across the yard...

So the whole thing was a learning experience in many ways. Lots of small logs placed on skids, rolled into notches was the quickest way to get them sliced, doing 19mm slices was rather repetitive but still easy enough to do with the Lucas. The logs had a tendency to split easily and I found the best results from doing the horizontal slice in roughly 25%, 50% then 25% passes, some still split, but this seemed to give less splits for me. Putting them up was much faster than I thought and I even went the other side of the fence and ran the nail gun over the existing palings to fix them back on the rails.

If I ever do this again, I'd use skids with two or even 3 notches in them to slice off 3 palings per drop, thereby only doing a third of the work on the ratchets, also use more volume to cover the inevitable splits.

**widowmaker** · 23rd November 2011, 09:01 PM

Looks good!! done a few similar ideas, I rip old fallen hollow logs into boards/cladding with a chainsaw. makes awesome rustic cabin weatherboards!

**pjt** · 23rd November 2011, 09:32 PM

Hi Al, certainly "irregular and random" and different, if it were mine I probably would have cut the tops of level but then it aint mine

Pete

**dai sensei** · 23rd November 2011, 10:24 PM

Interesting project and result looks good

.

Added weight however will mean when the fence starts to tilt, it will go very quickly. My back neighbour decided to double pale the back fence to help with privacy to his pool, only on one side, so a few months later it was on the ground

**gonetroppo** · 24th November 2011, 08:06 AM

Nice outcome, gives it that "organic" look which I assume is what he wanted.

Saw a similar look done on a Visitor centre somewhere (thing it was Weipa or somewhere like that) using only flitches, random 4 to 6 inches wide guess they must have treated them, looked great. They had greyed off and together with zincalume iron it looked excellent

**Ilya** · 24th November 2011, 08:42 AM

Looks very good. Is it going to be treated with something to give it some UV protection?

**gonetroppo** · 24th November 2011, 09:51 AM

These area couple of pics of the wall I was talking about above.

**artme** · 24th November 2011, 10:37 AM

I like that Al! Rustic without being crude.

SWMBO would NOT like it!

Simply because its a wooden fence!!

**Sigidi** · 24th November 2011, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by pjt

Hi Al, certainly "irregular and random" and different, if it were mine I probably would have cut the tops of level but then it aint mine

Pete

Yeah me too, but that was something specifically mentioned, even got me to take some out and replace some coz 2 short ones where next to each other in places. Lucky I just tacked 'em on to start with, cos I was asked to remove and re-install the first two panels - ended up making a much better 'look' tho

**Sigidi** · 24th November 2011, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Interesting project and result looks good

.

Added weight however will mean when the fence starts to tilt, it will go very quickly. My back neighbour decided to double pale the back fence to help with privacy to his pool, only on one side, so a few months later it was on the ground

I hope not Neil...

Originally Posted by Ilya

Looks very good. Is it going to be treated with something to give it some UV protection?

Apparently not

**Bushmiller** · 24th November 2011, 07:04 PM

Allan

Certainly a different commission. I understand what you mean about the repetetive aspect. I don't think you mentioned the type of timber. Is it known?

Regards
Paul

**Sigidi** · 25th November 2011, 09:35 AM

Yeah sorry mate - was all bluegum I sourced from forum member Rude

**nifty** · 25th November 2011, 12:39 PM

Looks cool Al, simple and effective. I have people go through my flitch piles quite often to do that very thing on chook houses and the like. In return I get a bit of bloke currency and everyones happy.

**felixpower** · 5th December 2011, 11:40 AM

i think that fence is in burpengary it's my back nabour's if i am right he backs on to the school i like the look given me idea to clade my lawn shed

**Sigidi** · 19th December 2011, 08:10 PM

Hey Felix - yeah mate you're spot on, it's in Burpengary lmao

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