Ingredients:
2 of 75mm by 50 mm by 3.6 m treated timber
18 of 47mm by 22mm by 3.6 m yellow roofing battens
I get all my timber from a timber merchant rather than a DIY store. It’s far cheaper and usually much better quality.
4 of 4mm by 40mm screws for outdoor use. ¿decking screw?
4 of 4mm by 50mm screws for outdoor use. ¿decking screw?
4 of 5mm by 100mm screws for outdoor use. ¿decking screw?
8 of 5mm by 75mm screws for outdoor use. ¿decking screw?
Some sort of fence paint/preservative
Tools:
Electric drill – I pre-drill pilot holes for all my screws
Electric screwdriver – do you really want to screw in 80+ screws for each panel by hand?
Tape measure
Electric mitre saw – you can do it by hand but a power tool makes it easier, quicker and, if you’re as cack-handed as I am, more accurate
Spirit level
(Two 60cm bungee cords)
Method
Measure the gap, measure at the base and at the top. It is very rare for two concrete posts to be vertical, especially if they are old, and adjust your measurements accordingly. Also check to see if the base is horizontal, more adjustments will need to be made if it is not: the easiest ones are adding a triangular piece of timber to the base of the panel or cutting/planing one off. I am going to proceed assuming that the base is horizontal and the two posts are vertical.
Make the frame first and put it into place between your concrete posts and on the plinth/base panel. It’s a fairly simple construction but quite unwieldy. If your neighbour will allow you to go into their garden to put on the battens from that side so much the better but it is still fairly straightforward doing the whole job from one side of the fence, especially if you have a tool like this for drilling and screwing round corners: this one is specifically for working at right angles but there are others that are more flexible.
There are two ways of cutting corner bracers:
Both are straightforward with a mitre saw.
There are two approaches to spacing the battens properly. Before you start it is advisable to make two 38mm spacers. You can do this by cutting a small amount off one of the battens or a leftover piece of 75by50.
You can either start the battens from the bottom – although this means having to calculate where the bottom batten will have to be – and then putting the spacers on top of one batten to position and fix the next.
Or you can start from the top, making sure your 18th batten is flush with the top of the frame (or your 17th is 38mm below the top), using the spacers to keep the battens apart and the bungee cords to hold the lower batten in place while you fix it. One 4x40mm screw at each end is sufficient but I put two in each end of the top one.
The 38 mm gap is to provide an overlap between the slats on either side so that, viewed horizontally, the fence is not see-through but it still allows air to flow through.