Halloween Fencing Made Out of Recycled Materials

This easy to make Halloween fencing cost me nothing to make but a little time. Each section took me about 20 to 30 minutes to make.

Step 1: Gather Materials / Construction

Parts list:

-Survey stakes (lots of them)
-1x4 boards or something similar
-Nails or Carpenters Glue
-Zip ties
-Posts of some type (I found snow fence rods that had been discarded)

To gather the materials I needed I went construction dumpster diving in new communities. It`s all clean materials, discarded wood from houses being built. If a board has a crack in it, is cut the wrong way, or is the unneeded end of a board it gets thrown out.

In the same area I found survey stakes littered all over the ground. NOTE: If you see any stuck in the ground they are in use. DO NOT pull these out. I only picked up the ones that were lying on the ground that were no longer needed. If they are cracked and broken, take these as well as they add the run down effect of a neglected fence.

As you can see in the photos, I did not worry about the writing on the stakes. That will fade with time, besides, I think it adds to the look. Like they've had graffiti on them and are run down. Also, in the dark it will be hard to see the writing.

[Picture 1] Survey stakes are long so I cut my survey stakes down to a height I wanted my fence to be at. I cut mine to be 35 inches long, about the height of my thigh. It looked like a good height to me. I then went about cutting all my stakes the same size.

[Picture 2] Next I took the 1x4 boards and ripped them in half lengthwise so I would have two 1x2 boards. I used an 8 foot long board (Much longer than that and storage after Halloween becomes an issue). You don't need to rip the boards, but I wanted to save weight and make the boards look proportional to each other. I also made a couple shorter sections for smaller areas I had to cover. The photo in the intro to this article is a picture of one of the smaller sections.

[Picture 3] I used one of the straight stakes to line up the two cross boards so they were even with each other. I then laid the first stake down and nailed it to the cross boards. You could just glue them, but the wait time for them to dry is much longer. My first attempt I glued them and then used my air staple gun to hold them while the glue dried but I was not too impressed with this method. The staples didn't give a good enough hold while the glue dried. Nailing took a little more work but had more hold, I still put some glue under each board to ensure a good hold.

[Picture 4] I cut two spacers of equal size out of the cut offs from the stakes so I would have equal spacing without having to measure each time. I cut my spacer to be 3.5 inches long.

I placed each stake with 6 inches hanging over the bottom cross board. The distance I used between the top and bottom cross boards was 17.5 inches

Step 2: Using Broken Boards for Effect

Every so often I would add a broken board for effect. Some were broken at the top and would only be nailed on the bottom cross beam. Others were broken on the bottom. I also nails a few at an angle. Even leaving one missing fits into the look.

Step 3: Placing Your Fence

I used snow fence rods I found. They were rather long, so I used a hack saw to cut them in half. You could use any type of stake to make this work.

As a note of caution!! If you have an underground sprinkler system, be sure to know where your pipes are before you start driving stakes... You don't want any costly surprises in the spring.

[Picture 1] Decide where you want to start your fencing. Drive your first stake/rod into the ground at this spot. I drove mine about a foot into the ground.

[Picture 2] I then used long zip ties to connect the stake to the fence. Now drive your next stake into the ground at the end of the first fence. Place the next fence and continue.

Step 4: Add Your Finishing Decorations

To add to the look of the fencing, you can add spiderwebs and other details to bring it all together.

Sorry that the fences are not really spotlighted in the videos. You can see however, In the dark, and with other decorations added, they help finish the scene.

(Shameless plug...) I have used my past Instructables to help fill out my graveyard over the years... Can you find them....?