How to fence corners on a lot that is not square?

Question

I'm interested in installing a wood privacy fence myself. I've watched a bunch of tutorials and feel pretty confident with the process except for one thing. Everything I've seen talks about squaring up the corners, however, my lot is not square. How do you do corners that are less than 90 degrees (corners B or D) or more than 90 degrees (corners A or C)? I'm also a little stumped about what to do with corner C. Would the post go on the outside of the fence?

Update: Thanks everyone for your input. There were a lot of comments about building a fence on the easement. The permit was previously approved even with the fence going over the easement. However, I've reached out to the utility companies and they said I might not be able to put the fence on the easement but they were going to review my plat of survey and maybe come do a site visit. So, I called my village permitting department and they said that it's my property so I can put the fence there regardless of what the utility companies say. That response seems a little strange to me, so I'm not sure what the outcome will be. My backdoor neighbor already has a fence along the back of my lot so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I would consider using their fence instead of building my own, but it's a two rail split rail fence and won't really do a good job at keeping the dog in.

Final update: I ended up cutting across the diagonal from B to D without any removable sections. I feel like it ended up pretty good for a first attempt. Thanks, everyone for your help! Here's a photo of the final product:

Answer 1

Any code I'm aware of doesn't allow permanent structure to block easement. And by privacy you are speaking of stockade style fencing? Just want to be clear.

But your questions: Place post C on the outside or two on the inside if you insist with each placed flush with end of that section of fence.

For acute angles use scrap to shim angles, or one post per side of angle as close to end of fencing.

For ease of installation and aesthetics, unless there is a particular reason you need a complex corner, I would eliminate post (corner) C completely and consider fencing the angle from B to D. If C is the 10' clearance then set B and D farther away from that corner and don't sweat the minimal real estate lost.

Answer 2

Squaring the corners

In the context of a wood fence "squaring up the corners" means to me to ensure the post is plumb and that it is rotated at the "right" angle to match the fence design. Assuming a post with square cross section, when building a 90 degree corner the post would be rotated so that its faces are perpendicular to the rails coming into that post.

Because your corners are not 90 degrees you could rotate the post so that one rail will be perpendicular or split the difference across the two directions. In either case the ends of the rails would be cut at an angle to match the face of the post.

A sliding T-bevel is a tool that may come in handy for transferring the angle from the field to the chop saw/miter box. (Thanks to Home Depot for the photo)

Thoughts about the easement

If you're in the USA your use (rather, the utilities' use) of the easement-encumbered space is probably governed by state law. Law in my state provides that the public utility must repair at its own expense things such as a fence, grass, low-lying vegetation, irrigation, and concrete which it might disturb while working in the public utility easement. If a property owner places other improvements in the easement the property owner does so at his own risk. A utility which disturbs a tree or a shed in an easement, for example, has no duty to repair or replace that thing.

Check the laws applicable in your area. The utilities themselves, your municipality, or a state public utility commission may be of help. Or you could try searching the state code yourself to learn the specifics. We can infer from the plat map drawing that your lot is an interior one on a block of maybe 18 other lots. In my opinion it's extremely unlikely that a utility is going to want to drive any truck down the middle of the block, especially since you mention that there are no overhead utilities. In the unlikely event they needed to perform work back there they'd much prefer to park on the public road out front and access your rear yard via the 11 foot opening on the left side. You'd likely be within your rights to deny them entry there, but if you did they could instead have their way by traversing along the easement.

Honestly... if it were me I'd build the fence with the BCD corner included into the lot and in such a way that the fence can be readily disassembled. Building a portion of it as a gate is a clever way of doing that but might be more work than is warranted. "Easily disassembled" might just mean using hardware to mount the rails and pickets such that at most two pickets have to be removed and then the whole panel can be lifted away intact.

Answer 3

I ended up cutting across the diagonal from B to D without any removable sections. I feel like it ended up pretty good for a first attempt. Thanks, everyone for your help! Here's a photo of the final product: