My New Floating Backyard Fence

Floating Fence

I know that there will be some who will be wondering how one would build a floating fence, or even state outright that such a fence cannot be built. So I will explain how and why I built such a fence. My wife and I live in a coop housing community that consists of 33 units which range from 1 bedroom units to 4 bedroom units. In October of 2017, after my wife decided to add another cat to our home, for a total of 4, I made the decision that I wanted a dog. I didn’t want the dog because we had so many cats, but because I wanted a reason to be out walking everyday, no matter what the weather was like. I enjoy walking and it’s one of the few activities I’m still able to do with my bad back, and now my ever worsening knees. Unless you want a pile of crap on your floor, you don’t have much choice but to take your dog outside. I do know some people who would rather clean up the crap and urine than take their dog outside to do their business, but neither my wife or I would tolerate a dog that wasn’t house trained.

Sunny Days

New Backyard Fence created with pressure treated wood
New Backyard Fence

So back in October, 2017, we got a purebred Beagle named Sunny. Sunny was 4 months old when we got him and was still working on his house training. He loved to be outside and at first we were putting him in our backyard and used a long cable we purchased at PetSmart to keep him in the yard. But, the time we spent untangling the cable began to make it a pain in the ass to put him in the backyard as someone was constantly having to go outside and get Sunny’s leash out of the rocks and trees and whatever else he could find to get the cable wrapped around. But now we had no choice but to bring him out for a walk when he needed to do his business, even when it was raining or snowing outside.

Materials Just Appeared

This past Spring, the fence behind the units on our side of the street came down with some strong winds. As the fence was old and starting to rot, it was decided that it would be best to build a new fence. The materials that were left over from that construction were put aside to be picked up, but no one showed up to get the leftover lumber. Since there was no other use for it and it would most likely just warp and rot sitting on the ground, I decided to put it to better use.

Fence Construction

To build a floating fence, I decided to build it in two sections and then put a door in the middle. Since the span of the fence was 19 feet, the two sections at 8 feet each worked the best and that left 3 feet for the doorway. Perfect! I made some cleats for each side of the fence to attach to the current fence on each side and then used spikes to tack down the bottom of the fence. I put a piece of 2 x 4 on the bottom of the doorway to hold the two sections together so they wouldn’t move and keep the doorway straight. It actually worked quite well. The one blunder I made was not checking the door frame to ensure it was square before I nailed the fence boards on. So, the boards on the door are coming down at an angle across the top and are not quite as high as the sections on each side. So I will have to remove the boards from the doorway and then nail them back on at the proper height, but otherwise, the fence is good to go and the door works well. Even the dog was happy to see the new fence and spent some time in the backyard doing some running which he hasn’t been able to do there for some time now.

Building the fence also gave us some time to take our minds off the events of this past Friday when tornadoes blew through Ottawa and the Gatineau areas and caused severe damages to many homes and businesses. One of our friends on the Gatineau side lost her home to the tornado and it seems likely that her vehicle will be a write-off as well considering the damage it sustained from the EF-3 tornado. More on the tornado and the damages caused on a future post.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the Comments section.

Cheers,

G-Man

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