A straight run of fence is mostly rhythm and repetition. Corners and curves are where a timber paling fence tests your planning, layout, and eye for detail. Get these turning points right, and the fence reads as one continuous line. Get them wrong, and even a casual passerby will notice the hiccup. This guide draws on years on the tools, from small suburban boundaries to long rural perimeters that travel over uneven ground and wrap around garden beds. If you are a homeowner tackling a section, or a timber paling fence installer looking to refine methods, the principles here will save time, timber, and backtracking.
The brief: what corners and curves ask of you
Corners concentrate loads, end rails, and two directions of line tension. Curves add geometry, forcing you to choose between a true arc and a series of short chords that simulate it. With paling fences, we also juggle privacy, drainage, and the realities of timber movement. Most projects will include at least one right angle, one odd angle, and one garden-friendly curve. Each needs a slightly different approach to posts, rails, and palings.
The best timber paling fence builders I have worked with share a habit: they slow down at layout. A few extra minutes in the setup means far fewer fixes later. Corners and curves reward that mindset more than any other part of a fence.
Reading the boundary and the ground
Before you put a peg in the soil, confirm the legal boundary. On more than one job, I have found an old fence line drifting 100 to 150 mm inside the actual boundary, especially at back corners. Pull records, find the survey pegs, and if they have been disturbed, call a surveyor. Moving a fence even a handspan after installation gets expensive and awkward with neighbors.
Pay attention to ground contours. A gentle fall that is fine for a straight run can pinch a corner that turns uphill, or expose the bottom rail on the low side of a curve. Around corners and through curves, mark spot levels at least every two or three meters. I like a water level for long runs and a laser level when the line of sight is clear.
Finally, note services. Irrigation often snakes around curves, and old clay stormwater pipes sometimes cut near back corners. Hand dig the last 300 mm of every footing in suspect zones. The one time I trusted an old plan over my spade, I found a shallow conduit the loud way.
Materials and dimensions that behave on bends
Most timber paling fence contractors can build with whatever the yard has in stock, but corners and curves reward thoughtful choices.
For posts, MGP10 or F7 treated pine works well, but I upsize at changes of direction. On straight runs 100 x 100 mm is common, yet a corner post benefits from 125 x 125 mm or a pair of 100 x 100 mm posts dogged together. It resists the inward pull when you tension rails and nail palings. On sloping corners where racking loads bite, the bigger section matters.
Rails are usually 75 x 38 mm or 100 x 38 mm treated pine. For curves, narrower rails bend more willingly. If the radius tightens to less than 7 to 8 meters, laminating two thinner rails or kerfing the inside face makes life easier. With very tight garden arcs, I have used 70 x 35 mm laminated in two layers, glued and screwed, to make a clean, honest curve that holds its shape.
Palings are commonly 100 or 150 mm wide and 12 to 19 mm thick. For curves, narrower palings scribe more cleanly and show fewer flare gaps. Leave at least a 5 to 8 mm gap between palings if timber is green. Gaps will tighten as it seasons. Dry palings can sit tighter, but not jammed, especially on curves where the edges need room to breathe.
Fasteners should be hot dip galvanized or class 3 or 4 coated. I carry both 50 and 65 mm ring shank nails for palings, 75 to 90 mm screws for rails to posts, and structural screws for brace work on corner and gate posts. Curves concentrate expansion and movement, so a ring shank nail’s withdrawal resistance is your friend.
The corner question: hinge, bisect, or splay
You have three honest ways to meet a corner.
A hinge corner keeps the two runs true to their directions, meeting at a single robust corner post. Think of it as two fences that happen to share a post. It is neat and strong, and my default for right angles with decent access.
A bisected corner splits the angle, effectively creating a short bay across the corner. Car parks use this trick with bollards. On timber paling fences, a 45 degree splay 600 to 1200 mm long softens movement around a tight garden corner. It trades a little land for flow and reduces wind load that hammers a sharp exterior corner.
An odd angle corner, say 103 or 128 degrees, works either way. The choice comes down to space and sight lines. If the driveway edge cuts close, splay. If a shed sits tight against one leg, hinge the corner and keep the run compact.
On a windy coastal job, we once rebuilt a flapping 90 degree corner by swapping in a bisected 45 degree bay about a meter long, upsizing the two flanking posts, and adding a diagonal brace hidden between the middle and top rails. The corner stopped acting like a sail, and the neighbor stopped complaining about late-night racket.
Laying out a crisp right angle
When a client calls a timber paling fencing contractor, the first visible sign of competence is a clean layout. For square corners, run your first string line along the longer boundary. At the set corner peg, set a temporary stake and pull a second string. Confirm the angle with the 3-4-5 rule scaled up, for example 3 meters along one string, 4 meters along the other, and 5 meters across the diagonal. Adjust until that diagonal matches. This is faster than fiddling with an angle finder on soft ground.
Mark post centers. On a hinge corner with a single post, shift the post center slightly into the property by 10 to 20 mm if regulations allow. That gives you meat to flush cut paling ends later without risking the neighbor’s side. If a fence shares boundary responsibility, agree in writing on where the corner post sits relative to the survey point.
I prefer to set corner and end posts first, then pull a tight string between them before boring the intermediate posts. On a corner, set the post slightly proud. You can always trim, but you cannot add height once the concrete sets.
Footings that do not rock or heave
Corners and curves add side loads that test footing shape. For standard suburban fences around 1.8 to 2.1 meters high, a 600 to 700 mm deep footing works on stable ground. For sand, reactive clays, or windy pockets, dig 800 to 900 mm. Bell the bottom of the hole with a post hole digger or spade so the concrete forms a mushroom that resists uplift. On corners, I also widen the top 200 mm of concrete to create a collar that holds lateral pressure.
Slope the top of the concrete away from the post so water sheds. Keep the concrete 40 to 60 mm below finished ground and backfill with soil to hide the collar, or cap with a neat mortar fillet if the area is paved. Do not bury palings or rails in concrete. Timber set in concrete holds water against the grain and rots.
If you pour on a hot, dry day, wet the hole before pour, tamp as you fill to knock bubbles loose, and guard against shrinkage cracks. On curves, I sometimes set alternate posts in concrete on day one and infill the rest on day two. It keeps the geometry honest.
Rails through corners: strength and eye lines
A clean corner starts with rails that respect the geometry and meet with strength. Avoid running a single rail across a sharp inside corner and nailing palings over the kink. It looks lazy and it will telegraph the bend through the paling edges.
For hinge corners, cut rails to land center on the corner post faces. Stagger the rail joints so they do not all meet at the same bay. If the top rail on the north face meets at the corner, aim for the middle rail to meet one bay back on the east face. This spreads stress and avoids a knot of fixings in one spot.
Use coach screws or structural screws into pre-drilled pilot holes on the corner post for rails. Nails can split the end grain on a cold morning and encourage future rattle. Keep the top rail height consistent within 3 to 5 mm across the corner. Your eye will pick up a proud or sagging line immediately, and it gets worse when the cap goes on.
On splayed corners, treat the short bay like any other, with rails parallel to the run. For a neat aesthetic, rip a slightly narrower cap for the splay so it does not stick out where it meets the standard cap on either side.
Palings at the turn: avoiding the zipper look
The giveaway on a rushed corner is a zipper of mismatched gaps where palings twist to follow the kink. Keep palings square to their rails, not pivoted to chase the other face. On a hinge corner, the last two palings on each face should be cut to a crisp edge that meets cleanly at the outer corner. If there is a visibility concern into a yard, add a narrow infill https://oranier7.gumroad.com/ strip behind the meeting edge on the inside, nailed to the corner post, to close any slit of daylight.
When the two faces meet at a right angle and privacy matters, I sometimes add a 30 x 30 mm stop bead up the inside edge of the corner post before palings go on. It gives a backer for the meeting edges and stiffens the corner without making a fuss.
Curves, true and faceted
You have two honest choices for curves. One is to build a real arc with bent rails and palings that follow. The other is to build a sequence of short, straight bays that approximate the curve. Both look good if you commit to the method.
A true arc reads soft and deliberate. For a generous radius - think the outside edge of a lawn sweeping around a patio - it is my pick. Pull a center point with a stake, set a string of the desired radius, and mark the fence line with paint or pegs. For layout, try a short, rigid spacer between two strings so the string line sits at a consistent offset from the arc marks. That keeps post faces aligned to the curve rather than drifting inside the line.
Rails can bend more than you think if you persuade them evenly. Clamp the rail in the middle first, then work to the ends in small bites, pre-drilling where the curve is tight. For stubborn timber, kerf the inside face with shallow saw cuts every 150 to 250 mm, stopping 5 to 8 mm short of full depth. The cuts close slightly as you bend the rail to the posts. Seal kerfs with preservative. Laminating thinner rails is tidier but slower, best for high-visibility garden curves.
A faceted curve uses short bays, 600 to 1200 mm wide, each slightly offset. This is a great approach when the radius tightens, when the budget is firm, or when the timber is too stiff to bend cleanly. The trick is consistency. Keep every bay the same width, stick to a fixed change of angle per bay, and do not randomly lengthen a bay to dodge a root. Nothing screams amateur like a long bay stuck in the middle of a smooth sequence.
Palings on a true arc nail on just as they do on a straight run. Palings on a faceted curve will show tiny triangular gaps along the outside faces. Narrower palings and smaller bays reduce the visual impact. A simple cap board will hide most of it from the top view, which is where people notice it most.
Spacing posts on curves without cursing later
On a straight run, post spacing is a comfortable meter to 2.4 meters depending on local practice and fence height. On a curve, chord length matters more than your habitual number. If you space posts evenly along the chord, the inside of the curve crowds and the outside stretches. To keep rail fixings cleaner, space along the arc, not the chord. In practice, lay out your pegs along the painted arc line using a measuring tape that follows the curve, not as the crow flies.
It helps to dry fit one rail along the proposed post positions. If you see that the rail wants to kink between two posts, split that bay now. It is easier to add one more post than to watch a top rail pooch out a year later.
Slope meets corner: rack or step
A corner that turns uphill asks you to choose how the fence climbs. Racking tilts the rails so the palings stay vertical while the rails are angled, keeping the top line smooth. Stepping keeps rails level but lifts each bay up like stairs. For paling fences, racking reads gentler and looks more custom. Stepping is faster and sometimes better near a gate or a clean retaining wall line.
At corners, mixing the two can look odd. If one leg must step, consider stepping both legs for two or three bays so the corner feels intentional. If you rack, check that your palings still hit rails with enough landing room for nails. Paling ends need at least 20 to 25 mm of meat beyond a nail or they will split as the timber moves.
Gates near corners
Gates and corners are like siblings who bicker. They can get along, but only if you give them space. A gate hung on a corner post overloads the post that already handles two rail sets. Whenever possible, add a dedicated gate post one bay away from the corner and oversize it. A 125 x 125 mm post set 900 mm deep with extra stone or a belled footing settles gate sag before it starts.
Hang the gate to swing toward the higher ground if possible so it does not plow the gravel after rain. Brace the gate rails so the compression member pushes into the bottom hinge. Most timber paling fencing installers know that rule, yet I still find gates braced backward on rushed jobs. Correctly braced gates near corners last years longer.
A short field checklist for corners and curves
- Confirm boundary pegs and mark true corner points before layout. Upsize corner and gate posts, and bell footings in poor soils. Decide early: hinge corner, bisected splay, or odd-angle treatment. Choose curve method: true arc with bent or laminated rails, or consistent facets. Keep rail heights and cap lines flowing through turns within a few millimeters.
Stepwise method for a right-angle corner that looks factory made
- Set the corner post deeper and larger than standard, with a belled footing and the top of the concrete sloped away. Run and square two string lines using a scaled 3-4-5 check, then set end posts and confirm both faces. Hang and fix rails to land on the corner post faces with staggered joints, pilot drill, and screw rather than nail. Nail palings from each face toward the corner, keep gaps even, and scribe the meeting palings for a clean edge. Fit cap and plinth boards through the corner, check the top line by sight and level, and dress ends for a seamless look.
Avoiding the common traps
I have seen the same five mistakes repeated by eager DIYers and the occasional overworked timber paling fence builder.
First, post holes too shallow at turning points. A corner post needs depth and bell to resist the diagonal pull of the rails. Even a 50 mm difference in depth shows up as movement at the top after the first storm.
Second, rail joints crowded at one bay. Rail ends all landing within 400 mm of each other turns that bay into a hinge. Stagger joints and you spread the forces across the run.
Third, lazy curves. Setting posts by eye along a garden edge, then forcing rails to connect, leaves a lumpy top line. Mark a true arc, measure along it, and your cap will read as one calm sweep.
Fourth, ignoring timber movement. Green palings packed tight on a sunny day will swell and push each other into scallops when the weather turns. On curves, this looks worse. Leave the right gap for the timber you have, not the timber you wish you had.
Fifth, rushing the cap. A cap hides small sins and frames the fence. On curves, rip the cap narrower if needed and pre-bend or laminate it. A proud or flat-spotted cap steals attention from an otherwise tidy job.
When to call in a pro
Corners and curves are where hiring a seasoned timber paling fence contractor pays back in time and fewer callbacks. A professional crew carries the jigs for bending rails, knows when to split a bay, and sets footings that do not budge. If you are adding a gate right at a corner, working in reactive clay, or pushing a very tight radius along a driveway, ask for a site visit from a timber paling fencing builder. Good installers will talk you through hinge versus splay, offer examples from recent jobs, and price the slight material increase for a more graceful turn.
Homeowners sometimes comparison shop by the meter. That can undercount the extra work at corners and curves. A transparent timber paling fence installer will show you how many posts change size, where the rails need laminating, and why two extra bays on a curve avoid a clumsy kink. That kind of clarity earns trust more than shaving dollars.
Durability add-ons that matter more at turns
Water finds the weak spot at corners and along inside curves where mulch and leaves settle. A plinth board set 30 to 50 mm off the soil protects paling ends from splash and stray whipper snippers. On corners, miter plinths carefully, back them with a small scab block, and seal the cut ends with preservative. A capping board does more than dress the top. It reduces end grain exposure on palings and makes a curve read clean even after a few seasons.
If you can, specify treated timber with an appropriate hazard class for your region. In wet, coastal, or termite-prone areas, stepping up a class for posts and plinths is cheap insurance. Stainless steel fixings might be overkill for most suburban settings, but within a kilometer or two of surf they pay off, especially at rail joints where condensation lingers.
Time, tools, and an honest estimate
A straightforward 25 meter side boundary with one corner and no curve is an easy two days for a small crew, weather cooperating. Add a splayed front corner, a 7 meter garden curve, and a gate near the turn, and you are looking at three to four days once you include curing pauses and careful layout. A solo worker can do it, but plan more time, especially for handling longer rails on curves.
Tools that earn their keep at corners and curves include a long, straight edge, a flexible batten for arcs, a decent laser or water level, clamps with wide jaws, and a circular saw you trust for clean, shallow kerfs. Toss in a small block plane for adjusting cap miters and a sharp chisel for cleaning rail housings around the corner post.
A neighbor-friendly finish
Fences at front corners show to the street. A little extra care with paling selection pays back. Put your straighter, cleaner boards at eye level around corners and on the outer face of curves. Save knotty or cupped palings for the back runs where landscaping will hide them. Sand the cap edges with a quick pass to knock down splinters, especially at the turning points where hands tend to rest.
If you are a timber paling fencing installer running a crew, build a quick photo file of your best corners and curves. Show it to clients during quoting. It reassures them you have more than one way to solve a turn and helps them choose a finish early, saving on change orders.
A last word from the job site
On a hillside property outside town, we faced a nasty combination: a 120 degree back corner that turned uphill into a vineyard, plus a gravel driveway curving tight to the fence line. The owner wanted privacy but hated the look of a hard corner near the gate. We split the corner with a 45 degree splay one meter long, racked both legs gently for three bays to ease the climb, then switched to a faceted curve along the driveway with 900 mm bays. Rails were laminated from 70 x 35 mm stock, palings 100 mm wide with 6 mm gaps. The corner post was a 125 x 125 set 900 mm deep with a belled base. Two years later, after a couple of gully-washers and a windy spring, it still sits square, the cap reads smooth through the turns, and the gate does not drag. That is the payoff for treating corners and curves as design moments, not afterthoughts.
Whether you are a homeowner with a good eye and a free weekend or a timber paling fence builder juggling multiple jobs, slow down at the turn. Choose the right corner type, commit to a curve method, and size posts and rails for the loads they will see. A fence that flows cleanly through its corners and curves feels calmer, lasts longer, and quietly advertises the craft of the people who put it there.
If you need a hand, a local timber paling fence contractor can price the tricky bits, supply bent rails or laminated sections, and line up the details that make a corner disappear. And if you are in the trade, keep refining your corner playbook. It is the difference between a fence that is merely up and one that looks like it belongs.