Fences Walls and Hedges | Hour 1

things have in common? They define boundaries. They also shape spaces, because that's what a boundary does. It defines the shape of a space, and they contour whatever setting they find themselves in in the third dimension. We so often think about our yards, our gardens front back, otherwise as forwards, backwards, left and right. These flat spaces, a fence, a wall, a hedge, regardless of its height, they rise up into

the third dimension. They bring a three dimensional aspect to our yards, which is critically important for a dynamic and a romantic and a beautiful yard. And of course they also provide, to whatever degree they are able, if they're on the perimeter, privacy and or security. I'm going to try to attempt to do this today. I'm going to speak both from a builder side and from the designer side, flopping back and forth between the two so that we

don't have to ignore one or the other. Where we're going to start is on the simple side of things. I want to talk about wood fences. Wood fences are still primarily the majority of fences that are out there. If we're deconstructing a fence, from a builder's point of view, a fence is not a thing. A wood fence is three things. It is an assembly of three things. It is the hole for the posts, post holes. Okay, that's

the first thing that a fence is. The second thing is the frame, and that is the posts that go in those holes and the rails that run in between those posts. That's the frame of the fence. And the third thing on the fence is the skin or the slats. Right, chances are, if there's something wrong with your fence, there's something wrong with one or maybe a couple of those things, but maybe not all of them. The reality is that if you know, people often say, oh, my fence, it's

falling apart, I need to replace it. Well, the reason I'm sharing these three distinct components assemblies with you. Is so that you can become a better doctor of evaluating your fence that may be in trouble on some level. Now, yeah, of course there are some fences that are just like done. They're done, they've been neglected, they are over and they need to be pulled and replaced. The point is you need to look at all three components of your fence

to figure out what exactly is going on. Almost all the time, what is quote unquote falling apart on your fence is not all three components, but one maybe two. So you look at the posts and if the posts are solid, then they're solid. They can be they can continue. The rails, which are the horizontal boards that run in between the posts on a wood fence, and we're specifically talking about a wood fence here. The rails, that's a

separate component. And if you've got a rail that's failing, then the slats can be removed carefully and the rail can be replaced, and then the slats reapplied and boom, what have you done. You've only spent money on you know, a two by piece of material and the little bit of time that it takes to reinsert that into the fence assembly and boom, your fence is back in action.

Most likely, most of the time, it's slats that are taking most of the abuse from use in the yard and exposure to the weather, and slats fall apart, and slats can be replaced. So that's the point. The moral of the story is that now a lot of confusion when it comes to the most intimidating part of the fence. If we're doing a new fence, and what is that the post and the hole, Right, it's always the question how deep, how big of a hole do we need?

The depth of a post hole for a wooden fence, typical wooden fence, and yes there are always exceptions to this role, but the depth of a post hole is at least a third. Sometimes you might want to go even further up to a half, but one third to

one half the height of the fence. Okay, that means that if your fence is going to be a six foot tall fence, that means that you're going two to three feet down, all right, A six foot high fence post above the ground needs at least two feet down in the ground, and to really really sink it in three feet. So half of the height up is the distance that we go down for the hole. How about

the width? Okay? Now, this is where I have been in so many situations and built so many different kinds of fences that I'm going to give you a couple of different points here. Not every fence has to be anchored into concrete or into some kind of fence anchoring material.

really tight hole. You want to keep the hole as tight to the size of the post as possible so that you get the most stability with undisturbed soil around it. All right, depth still the same, okay? So how wide is the post hole tight? If it's temporary tight okay, or if you're really going to go permanent. Now, the standard rule and that is three to four times the width of the post for wood, okay. And if it's a steel post, either a steel net. And I know

you're saying, wait, you're talking about a wood fence. Yeah, the best, most permanent wood fences use often steel posts. The perimeter of fence around my property, for instance, we used steel channel posts that are specifically designed to have wood rails attached to them, and guess what, twenty three years later, those posts are still perfectly intact. And if at any point I'm going to redo my fence, the posts are not moving. They are just going to have

new rails and new slats attached to them. So three to four times the width of the post, if it's wood, okay, That means if you're using a four by four, then it's about twelve inches of post hole in diameter down the two or three feet, and if you're using steel, then at least eight inches wide. There you go. You got that. You get all that written down?

Welcome home. We're talking about fences and walls and hedges today. We're going to return to that conversation in just a bit. But time to go to the phones. Let's talk to Lou. Hey, Lou, welcome home.

is it serpentem? And the third question I have would it be wise to flush them occasionally with the old garden host.

And yeah, there's nothing wrong with a low flow toilet. Does not hurt the toilet, does not hurt the pipes, does not hurt your plumbing. You are golden and good to go with a low flow toilet, and you know, just helps the fact that they don't have to use as much water anymore. A better design for a toilet not as much water to get the same work done. Secondly, if you're looking down underneath the toilet and you see kind of that squarely pipe there, that's because a toilet

has a pea trap built into it. Okay, a pea trap is basically allows it to after a flush, hold on to a level of water, and that level of water acts as a stop gap plug basically to keep sewer gases from coming back up the line and into the toilet. And so it's simply a design of the toilet fixture. A lot of people are surprised that the piping underneath a toilet, like in your slab or in your house, does not have a pea trap located there.

It's actually in the toilet itself, and that way we can just keep the flesh line nice and clean and straightforward. So you know, you've got a pea trap underneath all of your vessel in your house, all of the sinks, they've got this pe shaped kind of squirrely thing underneath it. That's just what you're seeing there, built into the actual structure of the toilet itself. Finally, should you ever have to flush them with a garden hose? Nope, you should

be good to go. The only time you've got to put anything down there other than you know, the water that you've flushed with is if for some reason you've got some kind of a clog or otherwise. But otherwise you are golden. I want to talk to Henderson. Henderson, welcome home. Are you there?

blaring out. You can see it from across the room. So just know, as a general rule, the more reflective the paint is, the more perfect that surface has to be, otherwise it's going to show off all of its flaws. Okay, So we don't want shiny shiny shiny as a general rule anywhere. However, you're absolutely right. The reason why paints are as reflective as they are is because a high

gloss paint. The more gloss that's in a paint. As a general rule, okay, as again a general rule that I'm going to make exception to it in just a second, but as a general rule, the more gloss that is in a paint, the higher the solids are in the resins, and that means that it's harder paint. It's a harder surface, and as a result, it's easier to keep clean from things like you know, grease splatters and dirt and so

on and so forth. Any contractor with their salt should not be telling you to put flat paint in a kitchen.

make a direct product recommendation to you. And yes, Benjamin Moore is a sponsor of this show, but only because I went out to get them and said, you have to sponsor my show because I've been using your paint for thirty nearly forty years now professionally and I'm your best advocate. So Benjamin Moore has two paints here, Aura au are A or scuff X. Okay, I have painted the entire inside of my house, our cottage in scuff X.

Tina and I have. And here is one of the reasons why the scuff X is actually designed to be a commercial paint for like educational institutions and libraries and public spaces, because it is so dang tough and it is easy to clean. However, it comes in multiple sheens

and they're all cleanable, including Matt. That's the key Matt finish. Okay, it's scuff X does not come in a flat, but it comes in a Matt and Matt is just ever so slightly the tiniest bit of sheen, not enough to be reflective, but enough to be like tough, I mean

like tough. So what you want, okay, regardless of what brand, you don't have to go with my recommendation, but whatever brand that you're looking for, that you end up with Henderson to paint the house with point is we want a little bit of sheen that makes it cleanable, but not so much that makes it shiny, so definitely not not gloss or semigloss. The secret of painting a kitchen is getting that, you know, balancing act between non reflectivity

and clean ability. Thanks for calling in. When we come back, we're going to get back to that wood fence that we were talking about. We're going to talk about what we are putting in that fence, post hole, what's anchoring the post, what kind of a post, and how do you get them all lined up the right way? All of that and more. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.

Number one, it's a nice convenient to distance in terms of the rails because you get two by four lumber as rails that are eight feet long. Now, of course you can get larger two by fours than that longer two by fours, but anything beyond eight feet what we end up seeing is sagging, and what we don't want is a saggy fence. What goes in the hole? Well, the post, right, what is that post made out of? On a wood fence? Without question, the wood post should

be pressure treated lumber. Pressure treated lumber is different than regular lumber. Regular lumber is in no way, shape or form ever rated to be in direct contact with soil or moisture. Pressure treated lumber is what that is. For now, some of you were saying, well, listen, we're going to splurge, Dean.

We're going to use the best stuff. We're going to put in redwood fence with redwood posts or a cedar fence with cedar posts, and the redwood and cedar, as we all know, is totally moisture and rot proof and bug proof. That is incorrect, that's not true at all. Redwood and cedar, as a natural red product, is certainly far more rot and moisture resistant and far more insect resistant than standard Douglas fir or what have you. However, it doesn't even come close to the moisture resistance of

pressure treated lumber. And that's why I'm telling you use pressure treated posts and rails. Use a pressure treated frame for your fence. Okay, now you're like, well, but our design of a fence, you're gonna see the post. Great, take a couple of extra of those cedar or redwood slats that you're using, those flat one by redwood slats and cut them to wrap the outside of your post so that it looks cedar or redwood and matches everything

else but inside the heart of it. Use pressure treated lumber. Now, you could also use galvanized steel posts going down there, and like I said earlier, there is a whole slew of them that are made. They're more expensive by maybe twice as expensive as a pressure treated wood post, but they also, you know, last forever, and they're a lot stronger as well. The last thing to tell you right now is what do we fill that hole with? And how do you, if this is a brand new fence,

make it all straight. We already know the kind of post you're going to use, a pressure treated post or some kind of galvanized steel post in your fence. Now what do we put in the bottom? About six inches of gravel? Okay, that's it, Just some loose gravel at the bottom. That's what the post is actually going to sit on, so that the water, whatever water works its way into that hole has a place to drain off. That is our preferred method for setting posts. Then the post.

Now what goes in post hole cement? There is post whole cement mix available on the market today and this is not a hack on my part. This is how it's made ready mixed post whole cement. Literally, you break the bag open, you pour the dry stuff just right down into the hole, and then you pour the water in with the hose. You let it fill up in, swish it around, maybe just a smidge.

the post hole. And amazingly, it's kind of like the same stuff that comes in the spray cands that expand out when you're trying to fill holes around the house, right expansive foam, except this stuff just keeps going and going and going, and it will literally fill up the entire post hole if you've sized it properly. Fifteen bucks, so as opposed to the ten that you're going to spend on the cement, you spend fifteen for this. You do not lug around one hundred pounds of the cement.

And I don't know a single builder who is serious about post holes that hasn't switched over to this Honestly, now, I will tell you this, this is the one caveat not for structural stuff. Foaming posthole cement is not for setting the posts and the piers of your new deck or anything that has a foundation. Really, anything that's going to bear wait on top of these posts. Okay, but a regular fence, everything from the post that holds your mailbox out front, to the gate posts to just your

regular perimeter fence posts. This stuff will get the job done. And the beautiful thing about it is that how long do you How much bracing do you have to do with the post? Right, because I'm about to talk to you about if you use cement, We've got to brace these posts in two directions with a board heading one way and another to get this post perfectly plumb, to hold it in place, preferably overnight, for the posthole cement

to set up so that you go back the next day. Okay, Now with the foaming post hole foam, how long do you have to wait? Well, all you need is a very very simple little three dollars post hole level, which is a little right angle level with a rubber band around it. You just wrap it around the post and you put the phone in and you sit there, level it with your hand and stand there for all of two minutes, and then two minutes later you walk away and it's done. I will throw one more benefit at it.

This is closed cell foam. Okay, it doesn't get all huge bubbles in it. Okay, it's closed cell foam. And so it actually forms a complete waterproof barrier around the post inside the hole in the ground. So post hoole cement is cement, and as you've heard me say so many times before on the show, cement is nothing but a stone sponge. Moisture moves right through it. So even though you surround your post in cement, you're not protecting

it from moisture. That's why you used the pressure treated wood. Now you're still going to use the pressure treated wood no matter what. Okay. But the expansive post hole foam. The thing that I maybe love most about it, other than its utter lightweight, convenience and speed, is the fact that it is going to wrap the entire base of this post in a It's gonna seal it from moisture. One last thing, how do you make a fence line straight? Here's how you do it. You go to the corners.

One corner, you set a post plumb and straight. Then you go all the way and the next post that you're gonna set is at the other corner, at the other end of the fence line. You set that post both end posts first, and then you run a string line or a laser between the two posts, and every post in between has to hit that line or line up with that laser. And that is how you're gonna get your fence perfectly straight, no matter how long the run.

So much more to come your home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper kf I, Dean Sharp the House Whisper, Welcome home. We're talking about fences and walls and hedges. We're going to be talking walls next, but right now, near the top of the hour, it's time to go to the phones. I want to talk to Kelly. Hey, Kelly, welcome home.

of the pipes. Because the water in the pea trap is what blocks the sewer gas that's in the sewer line from getting into our homes via our sinks and tubs and so on. That is usually the reason for that. Kind of like when you walk into an empty home or a home that's for sale that hasn't been lived in for a while, sometimes you get that weird smell

and you know what's going on with this. It's because probably the pea traps have dry out and there's a little bit of sewer gas leaking in, giving that off smell. The other reason, if it is a bathroom that gets used a lot, could be the same kind of thing happening underneath the toilet, if the toilet seal is starting to fail or has cracked. And that's because and the reason wouldn't apply the same way to sinks and faucets is I think I mentioned this to an earlier caller

who just got brand new toilets. But the pea trap in a toilet is up inside the toilet itself. Therefore, even if the toilet's full of water, if the gasket or the seal underneath the toilet where it connects to the flange is cracked or broken open, then the sewer gas can leak out there because there's no pea trap stopping it before it hits that point. That's another thing.

And the third reason for the typically that we get a smell in a bathroom or coming out of a sink or a tub drain is that there's for some reason or other kind of an overgrowth of bacteria that's not a hygiene thing. It's just something that can happen sometimes with water content and so on, and so have you Have you tried like a pouring vinegar or something down the drain there?

I'm not exactly sure though, Kelly, that that you know, just to that that's exactly putting your finger on the issue. But those are the three typical causes. What I'm trying to sit here and work through in my brain is that what what about the recent storm and influx of water would actually cause this to happen for you and

your neighbors as well. I'm just one. I think it's probably a good idea to follow through with the environmental team just to have them take a look around and see if a sewer line hasn't opened up somewhere underneath the the you know the area, uh, and if that isn't somehow contributing to you. Because here's the thing. If there's going to be if there's sewer gases like underneath your house, if you're going to get into the house, they're more likely going to move through anything that is

a penetration in the floor of your home. And those penetrations are most plentiful in the bathrooms, right because we got drain lines coming up through there, as opposed to bedrooms or anywhere else where the floor is just solid and there are no perforations. So you may I would definitely recommend that you continue to take a look at

the other causes. It may just fix itself. But if it were for any reason one of the typical issues, it sounds most likely that it may be a bacterial thing in your drains, and that I would give it, you know, two three four treatments, or you can go down to the hardware store or the big box store and actually get an anti bacterial drain cleaner to kind of like nuke it, like a broad spectrum antibiotics sort

of for your drains to really kick it back. Try that and you might actually end up seeing a resolution to the issue. Sometimes just bacteria will grow on the inside of our drain linings, and for whatever reason, given a certain set of circumstances, it just starts to flourish, regardless of how much hot water we run down the drain or how clean we keep our bathrooms. Kelly, thank you for your question, really good one. Do you are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI.