Guide to Building a Board Fence: Keep Unwanted Neighbors Out of Your Yard

Is your house the "cross-over" point of the entire neighborhood? Do children and adults, alike, tread across your yard to get from points A to B in spite of your multiple requests to walk around your property? Are you tired of small-time litterbugs "accidentally" dropping garbage on your lawn as they pass through?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then it may be time to put up a fence.

Whether you live in the middle of a busy neighborhood or on the last house of the last block in a small town, a rustic, board fence will bring a little bit of country charm to your property. A board fence will also keep your neighbors from making your yard a shortcut through the neighborhood.

Building a fence is hard work. But like any other home improvement job, it is one that is self-satisfying when the work is done. You will get hot. You will get dirty and you will sweat. Most important, you may work like you have never worked before in your life.

After you get an idea where the line of your fence will run, it is very important that you find out where your water/sewage lines and electrical lines, (if under ground), are buried. Call the electric company and contact your water company before finalizing your pre-digging plans. Now you are ready for the next step.

Before anything, you will need to know where your property line runs. Talk to your immediate neighbors or, if that does not work, go to the courthouse and look up the land blueprints. Once you have figured out where your yard ends and the neighbor's begins, then you need to do some measuring.

Figure that your fence posts are going to be eight feet apart. Also, think about where you are going to place your gate(s) and how big your gate is going to be. Keep in mind, (though it will never be perfect), that the distance of eight feet applies to the center of each post. This will give you an idea of how many fence posts you should buy.

The tools you will need are as follows:

Post hole diggers

Shovel

Spud bar (Tamper bar)

Measuring tape

Hammer

Saw

Nails

Level

2 C-clamps

Roll of yarn

Fence posts (8' long)

Planks ( 1" X 6" X 16' or 1"X 8" X 16')