Fence Building Basics

Installing our backyard fence has been one of the best improvements we have made to our home. Not only were we able to add value to our property, but we gave our dogs a place to run and created a ton of privacy in the back. This fence building basics project, however, was not easy. Digging holes for the posts was difficult, but the worst part was negotiating all the legal obstacles many towns have for building fences. This article will walk you through the most important fence building basics when permitting a wood picket fence.

Fences and the Law

Your Plat of Survey may not be accurate.

Prior to building a fence, our municipality required us to have a land survey done to plot the corners of our lot. The current survey is helpful in knowing exactly where you can build and where you cannot. When the survey was complete, we discovered that we were permitted to use less land than was on our Plat of Survey. Although upsetting, we are glad we took this fence building basics step before beginning construction

Fence Building Basics: Height and Picket Ratio

Our house sits on a corner lot, so we had to take a little more into consideration when building our picket fence. We wanted as much privacy as possible, so we were originally going to make the whole fence a privacy fence. After a ton of research, Kathleen learned that we were only able to put a privacy fence in the back edge of our lot. Local ordinances also stated that our side picket fence had to have a 1:1 picket-to-opening ratio, and could only be 4-feet in height. Again, this was disappointing, but it gave us a idea of what our fence was going to look like. Following the law is the most important fence building basics. Although we didn’t get our first choice in design, it saved us a lot of back work and heartbreak.

picket fence building basics — We are planting trees to create privacy where the opening-to-picket ratio was required.

Costs to Consider

Since it was a last-minute add-on to the remodel, cost was our biggest concern while building our wood picket fence. When we calculated it out, we estimated a cost about $1600. Here is what to keep in mind when calculating the cost for fence building basics and materials.

Property Survey
Auger rental
Cement to go around each post
Lumber (4×4’s, 2×4’s, pickets, etc)
Hardware for gates, screws, etc.
Permit & Inspection fees

To save a little bit of money we only dug each post hole 12-inches in diameter and 2-feet deep. I only used 2 bags of Quikrete for each post as well. Though this is more on the “minimal” side of fence building basics, Kathleen is adamant that we save money where we can. Though we could have added more concrete to each post, it likely won’t make any difference.

We could not find 4-foot pickets anywhere, so we had to buy these 6-foot pickets and cut each one down to 4-feet in length for our shorter fence. This wasn’t ideal, but we found a fantastic way to use the scrap!

basics to building your own wood picket fence — It sure is messy back here, but you can see how the privacy fence makes all the difference in the world

A Fence Building Basics Summary

We are looking forward to doing more of a breakdown of our DIY fence project. All in all, it took us a few weeks of backbreaking, sweaty, dirty work. However, the payoff has been one of the most rewarding projects to date. We love watching the dogs run & wrestle outside, without any risk of running into the street. Our pups’ safety really is the utmost concern. It is worth every penny, and every hour of fence building basics research.

Disclaimer: We’re not professionals or experts on this topic, so all we can do is share our own personal experience in hopes that it helps you in your journey! We always recommend consulting with the pros directly.