CardBoard Dock Pilings for Halloween Fence

Halloween on my street can get very crowded. Last year we had over 1300 trick or treaters from 3pm-9pm (town curfew) and have found funneling kids away from the slate steps to be the best way to avoid traffic jams and accidents. Unfortunately, we also have a very small yard so lawn space is at a premium for decoration placement. Tiny hands can ruin a display very quickly so all props must be behind a barrier of some kind. The generic halloween fence we have used in the past finally broke beyond repair and no one really liked it anyway so we were happy to come up with a better barrier that was more theme related. PIRATES!! ARRR!!!!!! Hence Dock Pilings. Enjoy and please remember to vote if you like our project. Thanks

Step 1: Gathering Materials

We used carpet tubes for the main bulk of this project (picture is from google but most of ours also came from HD). They were very easy to get at the local hardware and carpet stores. Caps for the tubes were made from plastic recyclables. Each piling had a 3/4 inch PVC tube in the center to secure it to some rebar. Rope was salvaged from a broken hammock ( a huge pain to unwind) and yard work remnants. We used paint we already had on hand so overall cost of this project was very low as most of is was either free or already owned. Only the PVC and some heavy duty velcro needed to be purchased.

Step 2: Cutting and Stacking Tubes

The tubes were cut on our table saw to save time. Each piling needed 3 different size tubes but each size was not always exact because they didn't need to be. The small tubes were about 2.5 ft, medium about 3-3.5 ft, and large about 4 ft but they were approximate sizes. Each set was grouped around a pvc tube sized to the medium tube on each set, glued with gorilla glue and secured with a rubber band to dry.

Step 3: Cap and Paint

Plastic caps had been cut out of recyclables like milk jugs and lettuce containers, painted white and glued in place also with gorilla glue. Using different shades of brown and tan paint was added using more of a dry brush method to try to achieve a wood grain look. After several coats were applied and darker details brushed on the sets were set aside to dry thoroughly. The white foam rounds in the last picture were used for a different prop.

Step 4: Place and Attach Rope

The pilings were spaced so that they did not obstruct any of the display behind the fence. Velcro was added to the back of each set on the tallest post. The rope from the hammock was very long and was able to be doubled up and draped between every other set, secured with more velcro, till we reached the end then draped back on the ones that had been skipped to create a barrier between the sets. If that doesn't make sense look at the pictures. it worked out well and kept the kids away from areas they did should not be.

For more pictures of Halloween please visit: http://mapleavehalloween.weebly.com