hang on a sick that looks a bit serious three packs of beautiful Aussie hardwood dumped on my front lawn I think it's time for a new front fence there goes the weekend now first things first let's get those pesky post holes dug and since I've got a bit of a dodgy old shoulder I recruited my neighbor Beau as Chief hold Digger and just between you and me it's the best 70 bucks I've ever spent now while young Beau was slaving away on those post holes I decided to put a roundabout profile on all of the fencing material a Monumental task but it was well worth it as it leaves the wood with a nice profile and gets rid of all those pesky splinters they can often plague a square edge profile and I have to say at the amazing RT 1000 performed like an absolute champion now just in case you're wondering yes you are right treated Timber such as treated pine also known as pressure treated lumber in some other countries is often recommended for fence posts as they are pest resistant it's hard to say and they also tolerate being put in the ground however no treated pine for me for this job I'm using this beautiful Aussie hardwood called ironbark which is a Class one for durability rated Timber which lasts 25 plus years in the ground and 40 plus years above the ground so that's going to see me well and truly out and to improve that longevity even further I'm coating the part that goes in the ground with a waterproofing bitumen paint [Music] now when it comes time to finally putting those posts in the ground obviously the post Fairy doesn't Rock up and wave his big magic wand and suddenly all your posts perfectly line up in a beautiful straight line it just doesn't work like that your posts they do need to be straight but in most cases you also need to work to the property's boundary and to do that you need to set up some Timber profiles in the ground like I have here that enables you to drive in a nail to run a string line off which you then align your posts up to [Music] before the posts go in I like to add about 100 millimeters of gravel into the hole to encourage drainage away from the bottom of the post some people think it's a waste of time but you know what it can't do any harm and it gives me some peace of mind alrighty in go the posts and to keep them in position so they don't move around once they've been plumbed up flush to the string line just attach some simple braces which will stop the post from moving around when you're placing the concrete and it also holds them in place until that concrete dries foreign now with all those posts braced and in place mix up a batch of concrete and I generally use two 20 kilogram bags per post and make sure that you agitate the concrete as you go with your shovel to make sure that the concrete gets right around the post and into all those hard to reach nooks and crannies and to finish off I then top up the rest of the hole by adding a combination of the soil that you've taken out of the hole and pure cement mixed together which I then compact down in sections as I go now trust me these fence posts are never going to move now just to go the extra mile a really good thing to do to extend the life of your post is to build that soil and cement mixture up just above ground level so that any future water rather than sitting against the post runs away from the post speaking about fences how's this a couple of days ago I was walking past this really tall fence and from behind it I heard this group of kids chanting 13 13. and I thought what's going on over there so I tried to look over the top of the fence but I couldn't because it was too tall and then halfway down I noticed a little peephole I thought that's perfect so I went over to it to look through it I've got my eye up against it like that next thing you know boom one of these kids fingers has gone through the hole in Fair smack into the middle of my eye and nearly took it out I had tears this running down my face like this and next thing I heard is excited chant from behind the fence of these kids and they're going 14 14 14 and I thought yeah cheeky little sides he got me oldest trick in the book can't believe I fell first I've got myself a chalk line here which is an easy way to Mark out the location of the fence rails over multiple posts with one easy flick of the line once they're marked you're ready to cut out the rail checkouts with your trusty circular saw now if you're not too comfortable using a circular saw which is understandable to cut out those checkouts you may want to check out my circular saw master class that I'll link to Down Below in the description box now just a little tip to help extend the life of your fence coat all the fresh checkouts and cut ends with decking oil before you screw the rails in place and don't forget to cut an angle on top of the post so the water runs off it now check this out how good does that finish look if apply two coats of that decking oil to the posts and rails before I screw on the fence patterns [Music] a little easier I am pre-cutting all my fence battens to size then pre-drilling and countersinking the screw holes with the aid of a template so all the holes finish up the same and then finally I'm getting there folks finishing the battens off by applying a couple of coats of decking oil and again I have to say how good does that finish look love it now here's just a couple of quick tips to be aware of when driving soft stainless steel screws into hardwood now it's a great idea to pre-drill all your screw holes to stop those screws from snapping and I also like to dip my screw into the decking oil that I'm using which will act as a lubricant might need to rephrase that last paragraph hmm and please resist the urge to use your impact driver to drive in the screws as that will only snap off the screws leaving a nasty Master fix instead set the clutch on your regular drill so that it kicks in once the screw comes to a stop foreign [Music] to keep all the battens the same height I'm sitting them on a metal straight edge which I'll screw to the posts on either end which makes the job so much easier now look I have to say that pre-drilling plumbing and screwing on all those 40 by 40 battens is a little time consuming but the end result is definitely worth it [Music] foreign [Music] there are still a couple of landscaping jobs needed to finish the fence in regard to planting and installing some Core 10 steel as garden edging but all in all I love how the fence adds to that beachy Vibe of the place it gives the house some curb appeal and more importantly it gets the Minister of Finance off my back until she finds me another job to do which it won't be long trust me all righty after all that I think I need a good cup of tea thanks for watching folks until next time be good be safe and I'm out of here cheers can't believe I dressed up as a fairy the links I go to right now
