Category: Home Improvement

What got done this year and what didn’t …

What got done

Finally got back around to working on the fence today. Replaced the rough-cut cedar with finished-cut redwood. Got about half of the beams put up in front. Ran into two problems.

1. If you buy 8′ beams, but have 6′ spaces, it doesn’t all average out. Instead, you end up with a lot of 2′ leftovers. This means I will probably run out of 2x4s before I’m done.

2. The bevel at the corner of the fence is turning out to be a bit more difficult than I’d originally thought. That’s because the width between two 4×4 posts at an angle is less than the width of each post (or of a 2×4). So I had to change my beams around to vertical, not horizontal. Then I had to flatten out one side of the hangers, and then …

… well, I got one of them to work, and the next two should go a lot faster.

So about another 3-4 hours of beam work, then the pickets, then the gates.

Racing the snow …

Okay, so here’s why I really hate home improvement projects. They are a constant two steps forward, one step back.

Fence posts are up. Sprinkler lines are fixed. Hangers to hold the 2×4 rails are in place.

So all I need to do is cut the 2x4s to length and set them into the hangers and I’ll be that much closer to having a fence, right?

Bzzzzt.

Home Carpentry Hint-O-the-Day: Rough-cut 2×4 cedar boards are not the same dimensions as regular 2x4s. Neither is 2″ thick, actually, but regular 2x4s are more like 1.5″ thick, while rough-cut are more like 1.7 or so. Guess which size the hangers are set up to accomodate?

*sigh*

Went back to Home Depot. No hangers designed for rough-cut dimensions. So I can either (a) trade in all my cedar 2x4s for redwood (regular dimensions), at an extra dollar a board, plus the hassle of doing so, or (b) take down the brackets, cut some 2×4 cleats, mount those, mount the cedar 2x4s to those, and be done with it.

Hassle either way.

Bleah.

Sunday I finished patching the sprinkler feed pipe that we so cunningly augered into (GLURSH).

Monday afternoon, I broke out the walky-talkies, and, as Margie manned the valve in the basement, I stood outside, looking down into the Big Hole, waiting for the fountain to start up around the patch.

Nothing. Nada.

I patched the valve control wires that also got chewed up, and we ran through the sprinklers.

Perfect. The two I’d rerouted held steady, and the Big Hole stayed dry, and all the sprinkler zones ran.

Hu-frickin-zzah.

Coincidentally, yesterday was the last day for outdoor sprinklers for all us users of Denver Water. (We’re actually in a different water district, but last year, just in time for the drought, our water district sold all its well water rights to someone else, and started buying Denver Water. I’m sure this was a good idea. I’m sure of it. Bastards.)

So, having gone without sprinkling for the last week, I polished off the season with a massive double-run.

Now when I get home from work, I can actually be working on fence, not plumbling.

In the course of putting in the fence, three sprinkler issues came up — and need to be fixed before we go beyond the post stage.

First off, of course, was the sprinkler feed line that we, er, augered into (GLURSH). That needs to be patched, and the wiring that ran along it repaired.

Plus, two sprinkler heads need to be moved from one side of the to-be fence to the other. That’s going to leave some space behind the fence that’s covered only by the fringes of some of the sprinklers there, but the space out front is in more sun and needs more help.

I dealt with the second part (moving the sprinkler heads) first, digging trenches from where the heads are now to where they need to be. In one case, it was a simple two foot jog. In the other, I needed to change the actual coverage, since it’s near the corner of the fence. (In digging that one, I discovered that another of our post holes came within an inch of tearing up another sprinkler line. Yikes!)

Then it was a matter of digging into the bore hole where we struck water and … behold! A white plastic (PVC) pipe. Bigger than the black poly pipe used for all the normal sprinkler stuff, I realized that must be what the supply lines all are, which makes sense since they are always under pressure.

Now came the fun part. What pieces do I need?

You’d think that putting together sprinkler lines would be like … well, like connecting tinkertoy or something. Hah. In reality it’s a matter of combining different sizes of pipe (3/4″, 1/2″, riser 1/2″ which is actually 3/8″), plus different fixtures for each joint, male threaded riser joints, female threaded riser joints, flexible tubing, and, of course, the various arcs and heights of sprinkler heads. It’s like a puzzle where there may be multiple ways of putting it together, but you may not have all the pieces you actually need to do so — and, in some cases, some combinations of pieces (3/4″ male pipe insert right angle to 1/2″ female riser opening) may not actually be even manufatured.

Throw in the new, added dimension of the white plastic pipe, and it’s all hugely exciting. Heh.

So I wrote down a list of what I needed, and headed off for the local sprinkler parts store. It’s closer than Home Depot, and it has a better selection, and the staff is definitely more knowledgable. On the other hand, I always feel like an idiot when I go there, even though the staff is also quite friendly and helpful.

So that’s where I learned that there’s a difference between 1/2″ poly pipe and 1/2″ poly riser pipe (the stuff that’s actually 3/8″).

Picked up everything I needed, and headed home.

Except it never quite works that way. I got home and discovered that while I could rebuild one of the sprinkler lines ….

… I didn’t pick up the right size of collars for patching the white feeder pipe (though it turned out I did have the right size of pipe in the garage to create the patch piece with).

… and it turned out that, dagnabbit, I was missing the one set of pieces I’d taken for granted — the little metal crimping sleeves that hold the PVC pipe to the joint fixtures.

So that’s tomorrow’s trip …

I got cylindrical forms for the post footings. It was recommended someplace I was reading (which doesn’t say much, because everything I read had slightly different recommendations, from how wide a hole to how deep to how high the concrete should come), and it made a certain amount of sense given our freeze-thaw cycle here.

The forms, which come in 4′ lengths, are measured by diameter. We got the “10 inch nominal” ones.

nominal \Nom”i*nal\, a.
[L. nominalis, fr. nomen, nominis, name.]
1. Of or pertaining to a name or names; having to do with the literal meaning of a word; verbal; as, a nominal definition.
2. Existing in name only; not real; as, a nominal difference.

I think this was meant as in defn. 2, since there was, in teeny-tiny print, the note “+/- 0.5 inches.” That means they could (and did) run from 9.5″ to 10.5,” which works out to 57 sq. in. to 87 sq. in. Or, in other words, the smaller tubes were 2/3 the area in cross-section of the larger tubes.

Which is why, I suppose, they could nest up to three 10″ (nominal) tubes inside of each other. And why some tubes were very difficult to fit into the 10″ (nominal) holes we bored, and why were way too easy.

As I noted later in the day, clearly this is not rocket science. Something useful to remember when sweating over the slightest variation.

My original impulse was to hire someone to build the fence. Really. Doyce kept saying, “No, my Dad and I used to do this all the time. It’s doable, dude.”

Well, I’m a big believer in not figuring I’ll get something done in a timely fashion, so I went ahead and got quotes on the fence from three different sources.

$2,500. Yeesh.

“Dude, we can do this.”

And so we did.

Now for the rest of the story.

But, as we worked on the fence, I would start to remember things like “wow, this hole digging goes a lot faster when the augur’s attached to the back end of a tractor” and “oh yeah, there were two guys that were doing just this the whole time, that sped things up a lot” until, by the end of the weekend, I clearly remembered the six people who had all worked on the farm fencing, whereas I had before dimly recalled only myself and Dad.

Heh. Yeah, that (and the whole sprinkler line episode) might explain it.

(Which, having been said, does not in any way take away from the above-and-beyond physical effort and moral support that Doyce, not to mention Justin and Jackie, put into this. “Pish-tosh”s notwithstanding, we owe those guys big time.)

We were serving at the Sunday church service at 9:15 this weekend. Which means getting all dressed up in a surplice and processing down the aisle and all that good ceremonial stuff.

Well, at 8:55 we were in the van sitting outside the equipment rental, to return the power auger. And at 9:00. And at 9:05 … they finally opened the gate, after Joe-Bob Yukyuk finished checking in all of the rental trucks parked on the street, yo-yup-yup-yo. And, of course, we were third in line, so it took another 5 minutes to get all checked back in, race to the van, race to the chuch … and we will managed to slip into the side pews before the end of the processional song, and sneak up to our seats by the altar before the readings. Still, not a good way to start the day.

After getting back from church and bruch, and putting both Katherine and Margie down for greatly-needed naps, I tackled cleaning up the mess from the previous day’s work (including all those cubic feet of dirt), re-laying the mason line, and basically getting everything ready for Doyce and Justin’s arrival.

They got there (post the game day events Doyce had to run) around 3, and we set off to actually getting the posts cemented into the post holes we’d dug the day before.

We used the dry-pour “Just Add Water to the Hole” Quikcrete, as well as the clever little post level I’d picked up. Doyce and I alternated on holding/leveling vs. bracing the post. We’d then pour in the concrete into the form, and Margie would add water. Justin served as both general gofer and Katherine Entertainment.

(Katherine was great, except for the inevitable moment when, in the middle of a bunch of people, all of whom managed to turn their backs at the same instant, she decided to ride her little car down the driveway — fortunately hitting a brick retaining trim at the bottom and doing a header there, rather than rolling into the middle of the street … Eep!)

It took about three hours to set the ten posts that needed doing (and, yes, we set all of them in concrete, though in theory we could have just done the end posts. But I’m a lazy man, so I’m willing to invest a little extra up front if it will mean that many more additional years before the fence needs to be replaced).

We went ahead and used cedar posts. Jim, the Father-in-Law, e-mailed back the day after I bought the materials to say his sources recommend using the pressure-treated wood for the posts, instead, but the research I’d done makes me thing the cedar will do as well in its own way.

So now we have a forest of posts — which already looks keen.

What remains to be done:

1. Determine the height of the three rails on the main(east)fence.
2. Install the rails.
3. Install the rails/connectors to the fence on the NE property line.
4. Install the rails/connectors on the corner of the east fence.
5. Measure the space on the west fence.
6. Trim down the existing fence panel there (temporarily removed), and mount it.
7. Picket the east fence panels (including connectors).
8. Build gates.
9. Mount gates.
10. Have a big party.

Actually, we may do the Big Party for the picket part of the activities, let folks come over, socialize, take turns putting up pickets, etc. That’s Margie’s idea. But that (and the rest of it, with the exception of maybe the gates) can also be part of Something I Do Each Evening When I Get Home for Half an Hour. There’s also a backup fence building day I have tentatively scheduled with Doyce that could be allocated to that (or, more likely, to the gates).

Pictures to follow Real Soon Now.

Whilst I was off learning about the inner workings of the High Plains Region of the Diocese of Colorado of the Episcopal Church (more about that some time), Doyce and Justin brought over the pick-up full of supplies, unloaded it, and then set out to chop down the dead aspen on the side yard.

(“Don’t kill yourself before I get there to help,” I had urged Doyce the night before.

“Hey, I get to use a chainsaw and pull a stump with my truck. That’s called fun.”)

Came back to discover the tree cut down (and another besides), but no removed stump. Even though the tree had wobbled greatly beforehand, it defied removal, despite the best efforts of, er, Doyce’s bumper.

They’d run off for Justin’s soccer game before I got home, and all my plans to do some further prep work before the game were taken up instead with eating some lunch and dithering over the course of the fence.

We went off to Justin’s soccer game (it being his birthday), and had a lot of fun watching him play (and watching Katherine at the playground adjoining the field), then headed back to work.

I got lines laid out, identified where we were going to bore, and we were ready to go off and pick up the power auger. We did so, brought it back, got it all set up, and chose the first hole to bore.

The auger was a lot heavier than I was expecting (certainly heavier than all the little illustrations indicate, with their smiling young workmen easily hefting it around). We made it down about a foot or so, then started hitting a root. Hmm. Big root. Keep giving it a try.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. GLURSH.

That’s when all the water started coming up out of the hole.

We sat there and stared at it for a while. But — but — I called the utility folks about the water lines! They said as long as we weren’t going down below four feet, it would be no problem.

GLURSH. GLURSH. GLURSH.

I ran inside and spent several minutes trying to find the number to call for the water district. Called — and got the emergency voicemail box. “Someone will call within thirty minutes.”

Went back outside and stared at our new water feature. It was only a small nick, so water wasn’t shooting into the air, just welling up at a steady, high rate. We felt the water line, and it was going across the yard, not toward the house, which made us worried about what other proposed holes were going to be a problem.

Hrm.

We finally decided to go for the post hole on the other side of the house. Those went off without any incident, though we gained a new appreciation for how deep 2.5 feet actually is.

The water folk called back. Someone was on the way. Were we sure it wasn’t a sprinkler line?

Nah. Too wide. Didn’t think there was one there. Besides, the water was steady, and the sprinkler line would just drain out.

Well, unless it was a feeder line on the way to the electronic valve for one of the zones out front.

Well, yeah. But it felt way too large for a sprinkler line.

Well, there’s one way to be sure …

*sigh*

Yes, when I turned off the sprinkler valve in the basement, the water stopped. D’oh!

So sometime in the not-too-distant future, I have to dig out that line, and fix it. And, dagnabbit, the control wire that goes with it. Yeesh. Lucky thing we’re almost to the end of sprinkler season.

Of course, that particular line was at the even 8 foot mark between the end post and the corner post. So we had to replace it with two more.

We tried to regain momentum, the Great Water Leak of ’02 having sucked quite a bit out of the project. Eight more post holes later, though, and …

a. We were exhausted.
b. It was dark.

No time for setting the posts, by any means, so I fear instead of some Oriental Adventures today, we’re in for more (if, hopefully, less strenuous) fence-building today. I’m a bit worried about the alignment of the post holes, though we have some options in that direction. And I have a lot of dirt to move. I mean, you’d be amazed by how much dirt a 2.5 foot by 10 inch bore hole will dig up. (Well, yeah, about 1.4 cubic feet. But that’s a lot!) We have two gates to build, the cross-pieces to put up …

And after that, of course, the pickets. But that’s probably going to be a project for another day.

So, Dave, what’s on your agenda this weekend?

• (11) 4x4x8′ cedar posts ($11)*
• (18*) 2x4x8′ cedar boards ($8)**
• (TBD) 9/16x4x6′ cedar picket $1.30 (to be purchased later? or now, while I have access to the truck?)
• (11) post caps
• (2) sets of gate frame hardware (“No Sag Easy Gate” $30; “Quickgate” hinges (2) is $15.)
• (TBD) 2x4x8′ to make gate out of.
• (2) sets of gate latches.

• (TBD) QuikCrete dry-pour bags of cement
• (11) 2′ form tubes (diameter TBD)
• (TBD) gravel

• Mason line
• 1×4 stakes, boards
• line level
• post level
• layout paint
• (TBD) #8 2.5″ deck screws (stainless steel if cedar; hot dip galvanized otherwise)

• (1) Power Auger (rental)

*Pressure-Treated Wood is $6 ea.; redwood is $14.
** Redwood is $6 ea. 10′ is $7.40.

Unresolved questions/issues/to-dos:

1. How to scab ends onto existing fences (stability, gap).
2. Wood material. Everyone says, “Cedar, redwood, or 60# (or 40#?) pressure-treated wood.” Cedar seems to have the advantage, slightly, when I look on-line for advice; need to use stainless steel screws, in that case, since the tannins will interact with the galvanizing on the others.
3. Sprinkler wiring on short fence.
4. Gate location on long fence (and leveling it).
5. Removing the dead aspen by the long fence.