Round rail fence repair

August 27, 2007 12:55 PM

Wooden fence repair question: I have a wooden round rail fence kind of like this, but with only two horizontal rows. One of the horizontal rails in the middle of the fence needs replacement. Is there some kind of magic trick for this, or do I just cut and hammer and crowbar until it pops in?
posted by Area Control to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

hmmm...take it with a grain of salt but this is what I would do:

1) knock out the damaged rail,
2) remove spikes/nails from damaged rail,
3) get new rail and hammer spike/nail into one post, leaving the other free,
4) measure the amount you need to cut off and then cut it and nail it in. It doesn't have to be exact - it's wood. It grows and shrinks with moisture content.
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 1:20 PM on August 27, 2007

The new rail should be tapered at each end to fit into the holes in the posts. I'd cut off a little from the tapers so that you can work it into the hole, then nail it in place. There's no magic trick that I'm aware of- just hammer and cuss.
posted by Shohn at 1:49 PM on August 27, 2007

Are they tapered at the ends?
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 1:53 PM on August 27, 2007

You should have one long taper and one short taper - You need to cut it in such a way that you can slide the longer end in far enough to get the short end over to its hole, and then slide the short end in enough to hold it in place, while still leaving enough of the long tenon in the other end to hold that end up.

Hard to explain, so I'll draw a picture:

Click Here (img src would be sweet here!)
posted by davey_darling at 3:15 PM on August 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yeah. It works like a giant version of a toilet roll holder.
posted by flabdablet at 5:26 AM on August 28, 2007

Then I would say davey has it.
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 9:12 AM on August 28, 2007