Project book · an hour or two

Replace broken fence pickets

Pop the bad ones off, screw new ones on. An hour for most fences.

How many pickets?

pickets

This fits in a car

About 56 lb of materials. Comfortably inside what a car carries (200 lb), so any shopper can take it.

Before you start

Old pickets are full of rusty nails — wear gloves, and bend over or pull every nail before the boards go in a pile anyone might walk through.

What to buy — untick anything you have

Fencing

Hardware

Tools — already ticked off, since most people have them

Tools

It lands in the shopping form, where you can edit anything and say what you think each thing costs. Nothing is ordered until you send it.

How it goes · about an hour or two · beginner

  1. Pry each broken picket off from the back of the rail, working the bar at each nail rather than yanking the board.
  2. Pull or hammer flat every old nail left in the rails.
  3. Hold the new picket in place with a scrap block underneath so it matches its neighbors at the ground and the top.
  4. Drive two screws into each rail, a little to the side of the old nail holes.
  5. New pressure-treated boards will look brighter for a season. Stain the fence once they have dried out if it bothers you.

Something else

Build a raised garden bedMulch a flower bedPaint a roomPut up garage shelvingFix a patchy lawnBuild a fire pitMount a TV on the wallCookout for a crowd

Feeding people instead? The recipe book works the same way — pick a meal, say how many, every ingredient lands on the list.

Replace broken fence pickets — everything for it, in one tap · DriverRuns