Introduction: My Lovely $100 Pallet Wood Picket Fence!

By Ravensmoon Artisans
About: I make stuff. All sorts of stuff. I prefer to use materials that would otherwise be headed for the landfill. It's the best seeing someone's face when you tell them what that nifty item is made from (post-po…

So, the wife wanted a fence in the front yard.  I am currently... let's say, less than full time employed.  So we put our heads together...  I saw an instructible from LAWNMUSIC on how to make a spooky halloween prop fence out of pallet boards.  This got me to thinking... why not make a REAL fence out of pallets?

The pressure treated lumber posts (I am NOT going to go through all this trouble, just to have regular wood posts rot in 5 years), concrete that the posts were set into and outdoor wood stain were purchased.  The screws were left over from an earlier (paying) project.  All of the other lumber was remilled from found shipping pallets (read: FREE).  In these pictures the fence is not completed in it's entirety, but it has been finished.  Pics will continue as the landscaping becomes more complete.. 

I spaced the posts 4.5' (about 1.25 M) apart, using a piece of unistrut and a level to insure level height of the posts along the length of the fence. Dug holes, set the posts in concrete, let that all set overnight.  Next day, I chopped apart a couple of pallets to begin.  Setting the fence on the table saw to 1.5", I ran the stringers (the long piece that has the forklift blade cutouts)and rip the wood, cutting off the part that has the forklift cutouts.  This made a nice length of 2X2 to use as a rail between the posts.


Once I had the rails in (I used two, top and bottom), now came the pickets.  Pallets are notorious for being... how shall I say... not exacting in all measurements? One MUST remember this when working with pallets.  You want uniformity?  Go to a saw mill.   I could not get a uniform width of board for the pickets.  In came the handy dandy table saw!  I ripped pallet planks down to whatever width I could get them, trimmed them to length and mitered the top corners.  I placed these in a random succession, making sure that when I came to a post, the picket used was wide enough to cover it completely from the front.  This was to keep the uniformity of the picket gaps (It looked weird otherwise).


The arbor between the two sections of fence was built from 2X2 that was milled from pallet stringers.  To be honest, it was kinda done "on the fly".  But it turned out nice!