Improve the look of your home by building a fence around your air-conditioning unit. Materials:
4" x 4" posts
1" x 6" pickets
Measuring tape
Miter saw or circular saw
Hammer or pneumatic nailer
Galvanized nails
Level
Line level
String
Framing square
Work gloves
Safety glasses
Gravel
Quick-setting concrete
Spray paint
- Determine the basic layout of your fence, and mark the location for your first post. Use a posthole digger to dig the first posthole (figure A). Be sure to dig below the frost line. The hole should be deep enough that one-third of the fencepost is buried and about three times wider than the post's diameter. Check with the local utility company before you begin digging. Be sure to leave enough room for routine maintenance on the air conditioner and surrounding shrubbery.
- Use the post to tamp the sides and bottoms of the hole. This will help keep the post steady.
- Pour in about 3" of gravel to provide adequate drainage (figure B). Set the post in position, and secure it with concrete.
- Use a framing square and a string to determine the layout of the fence, and mark the location of the next post using spray paint (figure C). Install the remaining posts.
- Stretch a string between the posts at the height you want to place your stringers (the boards that support the pickets), and use a line level (figure D) to make sure the stringers will be attached at the same height on all the posts. You'll place stringers for the top and bottom of the pickets between each set of posts.
- Measure from the outside of one post to the outside of the adjacent post, and cut the stringers to size. Attach the stringers to the posts with galvanized nails (figure E).
- Determine the spacing for your pickets (figure F), and attach them to the stringers with galvanized nails. Use a spacer to make sure the pickets are uniformly spaced.
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