Trash Container Corral

I believe I know what you're thinking. Why do trash receptacles need a corral since they can't/don't move on their own? My reasons are as follows:

1. They aren't aesthetically pleasing as they sit in front of the house.
2. High winds whip off of the bay, which is a mile away, and knock the cans over.
3. Storing the bins in the back yard is inconvenient year round and impossible during snow since access becomes blocked.
4. My house ... my rules.

I have this Instructable entered in the Organization Challenge, so we'll see what happens.

Galvanized poles, brackets, screws, and caps

Concrete

Pressure treated 2x4x10 (x2) and fence pickets (x28)

Timber screws (x2)

Stainless steel screws

Miter saw, table saw, drill, driver, portaband, marking jigs

I failed to get hole digging progress photos, but I assure you, it was thrilling. Fist sized rocks within the solitary front hole, tons of gravel within the two back holes, and some frozen ground since it's January. Hole depths are between 20-24" because I hit a very large rock in one hole and the others were perpetually caving in with gravel. That should be more than adequate for the task at hand.

The initial plan was to set the posts, chuck in some concrete, and let it cure overnight. However, temps are getting below freezing overnight, and that's generally not ideal for concrete.

I opted to poor footings/plugs in the warmth of my basement. A cardboard mailing tube was cut into 12" lengths and hot glued to a melamine board. The poles were set perpendicular and held in place with the aid of the brackets and a scrap 2x4 clamped to the top of the table saw.

Note: There is a chance these poles will need to be pulled when it comes time to expand/redo the driveway, so I didn't want massive concrete substructures.

The next day I just peeled the plugged poles from the melamine, considering removing the cardboard for three seconds, and called it a success. They were placed in the holes, plumbed, and backfilled.

I have very few measurements since it was just as easy to use the trash cans to determine minimal width and build the length to conceal the oddball foundation wall.

I started with the two front long boards. The brackets were roughly set to 12" of the round, board flushed with the corner bracket and left to run long on the open end. Check for level and fasten with four screws. I used a 23" long spacer block to set the upper brackets and the process was repeated for the upper board.

The side boards were cut to fit and each overlapped corner secured with a timber screw.

Note: Corner brackets are available from other manufactures, but they'd have to be ordered and I find this method acceptable.

The long running board on the open end were trued up using a door board [DIY saw track] and a circular saw. The galvanized poles were cut to a standardized height using a portable bandsaw.

In order to match the existing fence and continue the theme, I'm employing the board on board design. Instead of overthinking the process as usual, I decided to just start at the open and and let the chip fall where they may. The first board was ripped so that it wrapped the corner. 1.5" left side rip and whatever remained became the first front board [Fig.1].

This first layer of boards was tacked in place with brad nails. The top/staggered layer was then attached with stainless steel screws.

Note: All boards were cut to a height of 50".

Jig Information [from left to right] [Fig. 4]

Spacer gauge: Width of 3 1/4" for board spacing.

Screw centering jig: The small top plate sits on top of a horizontal 2x4 and the long board is 1 3/4" wide, which centers your mark/screw location within said 2x4.

Note: You could just brad nail all the boards and then run a chalk line for the screws, but the galvanized brads corrode over time and cause staining. You could also shoot stainless nails and not worry about an OCD straight line, but I wanted to be able to easily replace boards as necessary and I wanted to straight line.

Offset jig: Just a scrap board with a rabbit to mark the screw location 9/16" in from the edge of a board. The board overlap amount is 1 1/8", so this centers the screw within that overlap.

Quick and relatively simple project completed over the course of three days. It ties in with the fence and cleans up the look of front facade.

My gut says that the MA placard should be lower, but that's a fix for another day.

For now I'll take the win knowing the cans won't get throttled into my truck and spew trash all of the neighborhood.