DIY fence made of corrugated board

In this article: requirements for country fences; characteristics of corrugated fences; how to choose a professional flooring; types of coverings for corrugated board; optimal corrugation height and metal thickness; stages of self-creation of a fence from corrugated board; prices for corrugated board.

The openness of the dacha territory, its accessibility to any outside observer is an undoubted advantage if you participate in one of the popular reality shows today. But we do not live in the conditions of any TV show and, as a rule, do not intend to expose intimate details of our personal life for a general review. Therefore, fences for summer cottages are urgently needed by any summer residents and the fence of a summer cottage is one of the first positions in the list of works on it.

The question is what materials the fence will be made of and how serious an obstacle the future fence should be for all kinds of outsiders. An important cost item will be the need to attract hired labor and heavy construction equipment – for example, you can quickly build a concrete fence from finished reinforced concrete products, but it is impossible to do this work on your own, because a crane is required for all stages of work.

It is more profitable for the owners of summer cottages to invest their funds in landscape design and landscaping of their summer cottages than to spend a lot of money on some kind of special fence around the perimeter. And in this case, it is especially advantageous to install a fence made of corrugated board:

• such a fence is installed quickly. It is only required to determine the fence line around the perimeter, install pillars and transverse racks, attach sheets of corrugated board to them;
• it is impenetrable to an outside observer, unlike fencing made of a chain-link mesh or metal lattice. The height of the corrugated board fence can reach 7 meters – even a giraffe cannot look behind such a fence;
• in addition to protective functions, a fence made of this material will become an excellent sound-reflecting screen that reduces sound both from external noise sources and prevents sounds from escaping from the summer cottage;
• installation of a fence made of corrugated board practically does not require the involvement of specialists, you just need to have some construction tools and skills to work with it;
• to create fences, you can choose a corrugated board of color according to your taste. The service life of fences made of galvanized corrugated board is up to 20 years, with a polymer coating – more than 30 years.

Fence sheeting

This coating is made of galvanized steel sheets with a thickness of 0.5 mm (sometimes thinner, do not choose it!). Profiling – the formation of a wavy surface gives the sheets of corrugated board rigidity, i.e. their shape is fixed.

Sheets of corrugated board produced by various manufacturers have different coatings:

• galvanized layer – the classic covering of the corrugated board. A zinc layer 25-30 microns thick is applied to the steel sheet by hot method. Wall corrugated board with such a coating is the cheapest – its price will be on average 160 rubles / m²;
• coating made of polymers (plastics or synthetic resins). Its protective properties are higher than that of a simple galvanized corrugated board – layers of polymer coating are applied over the zinc layer. In addition, this material is more attractive in appearance, because when forming a polymer coating, a pigment is added to it, which gives the coating a rich color. Price of one m² corrugated board with a polymer coating averages 230 rubles;
• polyvinyl chloride coating (plastisol). Its thickness is from 175 to 200 microns, if the coating is applied on both sides of the steel sheet – on each side of 100 microns. This type of coating is the most resistant to any mechanical damage, but it is sensitive to heating by direct sunlight – at temperatures over 800 ^aboutC quickly loses its properties, so it cannot be used in warm climatic zones. The price of corrugated board with such a coating is on average 260 rubles / m².

For the construction of fences, corrugated board is used, the marking of which begins with the letter “C”, followed by a number indicating the height of the wave (corrugation) in mm and, through a hyphen, the useful (actual) width of a sheet of corrugated board of this brand is indicated (usually – 1150 mm for wall corrugated board). And one more thing – the correct choice would be corrugated board made only under the conditions of GOST 24045-94.

When choosing corrugated board for a fence, you should not choose sheets with a corrugation height of more than 21 mm – it is not profitable, a large wave height here is intended for roofing corrugated board, which requires greater rigidity to withstand seasonal masses of rain and snow.

We build ourselves a fence from corrugated board

The first stage in the construction of a corrugated fence will be an accurate calculation of the perimeter of the fence. Mark the position of the fence, determine the location of the gate and wicket, the installation points for the support posts (their step should not exceed 3 m). Decide on the height of the fence around the perimeter, the height of the exit gate and wicket – this will determine the required amount of corrugated board and the length of its sheets.

We install support pillars. They can be metal pipes, both round (with a diameter of at least 76 mm) and square (at least 60×60 mm). Before installing on the upward side of the post, the hole must be completely welded to prevent moisture ingress. To place the pillars, you will need to dig holes from a meter to one and a half meters deep and about 150 mm wide using a hand drill. The higher the fence is supposed, the greater the depth it is necessary to open the foundation holes – on average, the underground part of the pillar should be buried by a third of the aboveground height of the fence. A high-quality foundation for a fence formed by sheets of corrugated board is necessary due to the effect of winds on its area – they can simply overturn part or all of the fence if it is not sufficiently strengthened.

Middle fraction gravel is poured onto the bottom – with a layer of up to 200 mm, then a metal pillar is installed and concrete mortar is poured (the ratio of cement / sand is 1/8). Important: try to install each post strictly vertically (along a plumb line), fix it in this position using two diagonal supports made of a metal bar, weld (attach) them to the post and drive them into the ground by 200-300 mm. For complete solidification of the foundation, it is necessary to stop work for three days.

After the period of foundation hardening, we proceed to the installation of a transverse steel profile (lag) for the subsequent attachment of corrugated sheets to them. As a lag, use a profiled pipe of the required length, with a section of 40×25 mm. Their number in each section of the fence made of corrugated board determines its height: up to 1700 mm, two parallel logs installed at a distance of 300-400 mm from the ground level and at the same distance from the upper edge of the fence are enough; if the height of the fence is from 1700 to 2000 mm, then it will be necessary to install the logs in three rows (the upper and lower logs at a distance of 300 mm from the ground / upper edge of the fence, the middle one is in the middle). It will be necessary to fasten them to the support pillars by electric welding – this is more reliable.

After installing the lag, it is necessary to cover them and the supporting pillars of the fence with a layer of primer – it will protect the metal from corrosion.

The final stage is the installation of corrugated sheets on the prepared logs. The corrugated board is fixed with self-tapping screws for metal (length 35 mm) with a step of 500 mm. Adjacent sheets of corrugated board are overlapped with each other. Be sure to work with gloves – the edges of the profiled sheeting are quite sharp. If, during the work, scratches appear on the sheets of corrugated board, they can be easily eliminated using the appropriate paint from the spray can (there will be scratches, so buy a couple of spray paint in advance).

You should not consider the decision of a fence made of corrugated board as temporary – take care of its aesthetic appeal by closing the support pillars with brick or stone cladding. Be careful when buying corrugated sheets – as a rule, an attractive low price means a small metal thickness (less than 0.5 mm), mediocre rolling and low quality of a protective polymer layer (galvanized).