Mrs. (Mis)Adventure: Fence Part Five: The Angled Corners and Pickets

Remember way back in the beginning after we selected a fence and then drew some sketches, took some measurements, and then bought a whole lotta lumber? Well, here's where most of that lumber was used. We planned to build a board on board privacy fence similar to this one. We bought 720 pieces of pickets. We calculated that each eight foot section of rail would accommodate 18 to 19 pickets. The Mister built a spacer to allow him to evenly space the pickets during installation and allow for a 1/2 inch overlap of the first row of pickets.

Lesson Learned: About six months after installing the pickets, we both agreed that if we were to build again, we would overlap the first row of pickets 1 inch on either side. instead of half an inch The current boards have shrunk a bit and some have small gaps which allow visibility into the yard if you are standing about 5 feet from the fence. Allowing for more time for the boards to cure may have been another option. We waited one month from the time of purchase before installing the pickets.

First row of pickets installed

Second row of overlapping pickets installed

To save time, The Mister installed all of the pickets in a section minus the last two. These two pickets he would have to trim to size so he pulled out the saw to complete them over a weekend. It took about two weeks of installing pickets before work, during lunch, and after work to complete.
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Each of the corners of our property sits a large tree. During the post installation, we set the posts in from the corner about five feet. This created a 45 degree angle from the corner post to the next. The brackets we used were great for posts in line with one another, but not for 45 degree angles. To install the corner rails, The Mister measured and notched the rail on both ends. After making sure the rail fit snugly and was level, he then secured the rail with screws on both sides. Here's where I failed in taking pictures, I only have an after photo of the pickets installed on the rails.