How to build upright spaced sleeper fence?

Hi Fence Lifers

Super keen to build an upright sleeper wall with gaps- along a meandering, curved line (not straight). I've seen two lovely fences like this in our hood, but in both cases, a few of the sleepers have fallen. I cant find much online about building this type of fence/wall.

Thing 1. Can anyone help please with step by step instructions?

Thing 2. The photos a re random online pics, one shows sleeper, the other shows a more square timber. If I build with the square timber, what type of timber should it be to avoid rot/insect boring?

Thank you very much.

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Comments

JacobZ

Hi @Sonji,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

While I agree that they look great and I'd love to help out, I believe there are a couple of flaws to this design, which are likely why you've seen some of the posts have fallen. Don't let this dissuade you. I just think it is important to point out the issues you could face.

To build a fence like this, you would essentially just install a series of posts at close intervals to each other. Have a look at How to Set a Post. This is the process you would be following for every single post.

In a standard fence, the posts are attached to each other by a rail. This means the posts are braced at their top, so the tops of the posts are held at a consistent distance from each other. If you try to shake a post that is not attached to anything else, the post essentially becomes a lever, meaning any force applied to the top of the post will be magnified as it moves down the post. If the post is attached to a really robust concrete footing, this isn't too much of an issue, but this leads to the next issue.

A standard concrete footing for a post is 300mm in diameter and 1 third the overall height of the post. This would mean the concrete for each post would have to more or less touch the side of the next post.

You could make it work long-term, but you would be looking at a whole lot of concrete, in what is essentially a 300mm wide strip footing along the full length of the fence. If you wanted a 1200mm high fence, then you would need to have a 600mm deep footing.

If you wanted to do it, you could use any H4 Sleeper, H4 Post or something like a Merbau Post as long as the underground portion is coated in bitumen membrane.

Allow me to tag @Nailbag and @Dave-1 to see what they think.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob

Dave-1

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/55520#Comment_55520

Good Morning @Sonji

Yeah I have also been looking at those twisty fnces and figuring out how they are supported to stop them falling over as well.

-The way that @JacobZ has described it pretty much corresponds with what I have worked out in a how to as well.

-600mm deep, 1 foot wide trench (300mm ish) (prefer 800mm for this depending on the height, if you wan it shoulder height then id go for the 800mm depth)

-You could use concrete (prefered) or pack it with large stones and tamp them down as you work your way along the fence line. The stones means you wont have concrete to dig out down the track if you change your mind or want to modify te fence, its just less solid then concrete.

-@JacobZ 's suggestions on what to use timber wise would be perfect as well as the bitumen paint.

I use to put in these styled single posts when I was younger and they really worked. The tamping of the stones and earth really wedged the post in place.

Would love to see a project showing your method if you go ahead with the idea so please take a bunch of photos just in case 🙂

Dave

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