Replacing Rails on 4 Rail Black fence

kycontrols · Sep 2, 2012

Project of the month.

I have 250 feet of 4 Rail Kentucky fence and the rails are absolutely shot. I think the fence is about 15 years and most of the post are solid. On my cursory inspect I know of three that will be yanked and replace. Since I do not have animals I plan on using treated poplar rails.

What are your opinions on using screws vs nails? I was thinking of using deck screws and impact drivers. My friend thinks we should pre-drill I do not think we will but I have never used poplar.

How long do you wait before painting? I figure about a month, assuming the wood is dry.

Thanks

boggen · Sep 2, 2012

personally try to use screws when ever possible. but i know on some things nails should be used on. but i honestly have no idea on what. exception when i can use my air nail gun. then nails just makes things easy. and will load up generator and air compressor just to use air nail gun.

as far as pre-drill vs not. you will be going into a lot of ends of boards. were boards are most prone to splitting. it might be worth pre-drilling. some times i am fine in hard woods and soft woods. and go all day without a split, other times, every time i go to put in a screw or nail the wood splits.

screws do not hold up to "side forces" if you had animals, cows to horses. they would try and get there head through the boards or over the fence. and could snap a screw head right off. on other hand nails. would bend on side forces placed on them. nails can back out over time. and screws less likely will back out. screws you can easily strip out the heads on the screw, and nails you can easily bend over when nailing them in.