Attaching cedar pickets to rails?

Wes Billups

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72
Location
Central Ohio
I hope this is in the correct forum. If not please feel free to move.

I'm getting ready to build a 42" high cedar picket fence to try to keep my kids corralled in our yard. I have a 1/4" pneumatic stapler and was wondering if 1-1/2" long staples would be sufficient to hold the pickets in place. The place I'm buying the materials from says that you have to use ring shank nails which I can get for my framing nailer but thought they may be overkill. Plus they are extremely expensive.

What does everyone think? Are 1-1/2" staples enough? I would plan on nailing two in at both the top and bottom rails.

Thanks,
Wes Billups
 
Wes I build fences for part of my living and I would go with hot dipped galvanized ring shank nails.

Assuming your pickets are 3/4" thick and you're fastening them to 2x4's on edge (1 1/2" thick) I would use 2" ring shanks :thumb:
 
Thanks for everyone's help. Nails it is. Now I'm looking for suggestions on where to buy 21 degree full head galvanized ring shank or stainless steel nails.

Thanks again,
Wes
 
Thanks for everyone's help. Nails it is. Now I'm looking for suggestions on where to buy 21 degree full head galvanized ring shank or stainless steel nails.

Thanks again,
Wes
Wes, go to a local retail fence company, buy aluminum ring shank fence nails. A pound will fill a coffee can. No rust, ever. Phil
 
Phil, thanks for the reply. I'm nearly done with the fence and I went the route of using stainless steel nails in my framing nailer. It's working very well, other than the one section of pickets I nailed with the wrong spacing. I had to resort to my reciprocating saw to remove the pickets as those ring shanks wouldn't pull out.

I'll shoot some pictures tonight and post them for everyone along with my technique for spacing and determining picket heights.

Wes Billups
 
Fence completed!

The fence has been completed for a while so I apologize about the tardiness of these pictures. I'm pretty happy with the results. I inset the 2x4 horizontal members into notches cut in the 4x4 posts. The picket heights were determined by using a sagging extension cord on the first section. Then I used gauge blocks for the rest of the sections. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help on this project.

Enjoy.

Wes Billups
 

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Looks good Wes, that should keep your yard apes at bay for a while (my Dad used to call us Yard Apes, and the way we carried on, I think he was right!) :thumb: :D
 
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