Yard work: fence mending, part n

Self-tutoring about yard work: the tutor reflects about keeping an old fence alive.

I imagine the fence around our property, at some places, might be 30 years old. I’ve kept it alive with various types of fixes, and plan to continue doing so until my wife and I make a plan of how to replace it.

I returned home a couple of days back, after several weeks away, to find one panel of the fence broken down. The boards lay in a tangle under recent snow, but apparently a windstorm a few weeks back probably took it down. Yesterday I studied the site, not too optimistically, but realizing that a solution had to be put in place, preferably by dark. Since I started a 13:30, and it gets dark here at 16:45 these days, I had to think fast.

It turned out the reason for the collapse was that one of the horizontal support boards had actually snapped. In spite of the tangled, broken-down appearance of the affected panel, it had held together fairly well even as it collapsed.

I used a metal grid, about 6″ by 4″, to mend the broken board. The grid is full of pre-drilled holes through which you can place screws; I just placed the grid across the break and screwed it to either side. Then, I fit another such grid across the juncture of the panel and post, and repeated the procedure. I did the same at the back, with a third grid.

Repair hardware doesn’t help sitting in the drawer; when I need it, I use it. The repair seems to have worked out great. I was just finishing pressure-fitting the lattice back together (the decorative part that sits on top) as darkness fell:)