DIY PVC Pipe Privacy Screen

​text by Vicki     Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email!

The inspiration for this project was a decorative fence we saw at Walt Disney World's Epcot as well as the upholstery print in a booth at a Culver's restaurant! Inspiration is everywhere!

Steph has been wanting to replace her garbage can privacy screen and this idea seemed like a perfect fit!

We spotted this screen last March at Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival.

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Where do you find inspiration? We find it in so many ways. On our way back home from Miami, we stopped @culvers (which is an amazing restaurant we wish we had in Tallahassee) where the fabric on the booth seats inspired a project idea! In the coming weeks, you will see a PVC pipe vision of that fabric in a simple home improvement project from us! #trylearnshare #ideas #inspiration #diy #projects #pvc

A post shared by Vicki & Steph (@motherdaughterprojects) on Aug 3, 2018 at 9:17am PDT

This is the existing privacy screen at Steph's. It was here when she bought the house, but who knows, it could have been original to the first owners. It had seen better days.

Materials:

• (2) 1”x10’ PVC (Home Depot)
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• (2) 1” elbows (Home Depot)
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• (2) 1” tee (Home Depot)
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• (2) 4”x2’ PVC (Home Depot)
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• (4) 1 -1/2”x2’ PVC (Home Depot)
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• (2) 3”x2’ PVC (Home Depot)
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• (3) 2”x2’ PVC (Home Depot)
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• (4) 2’ rebar (Home Depot)
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• Gorilla 9 oz. Construction Adhesive (Home Depot)
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Tools:

• RIDGID 12 in. Dual Bevel Sliding Miter Saw (Home Depot)
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• DEWALT 20-Volt MAX Lithium-Ion Cordless Band Saw (Home Depot)
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• Ryobi 18-Volt ONE+ Power Caulk and Adhesive Gun (Home Depot)
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• DEWALT 20-Volt MAX Lithium-Ion Cordless Brushless 5 in. Random Orbit Sander (Home Depot)
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• RIDGID 16 Gal. 6.5-Peak HP Wet/Dry Vacuum (Home Depot)
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The first step in building the new screen was to sand all the PVC pipes to give them a little "tooth" to help the adhesive stick a bit better. Tip: I turned my orbital sander upside down and clamped it to the workbench so I could use it hands free. It worked perfectly. The board directly under the battery is to help it clamp better to the table.

We started by making a frame out of PVC. The measurements of the new screen were based on the old one. The sides are 45" tall and the top and bottom pieces are 35" wide. Two elbows and two tees are used to connect the pieces.

We made the cuts on a miter saw. It's messy and the pieces fling unpredictably out of the saw. Safety gear including safety glasses, a mask and ear protection is a must for this project. Keep a wet/dry vac handy to continually clean up the PVC bits.

We cleaned up the cut pieces on the sander.

This is the extra PVC we bought after we realized we were going to need way more pieces!

We used construction adhesive to join the PVC slices to each other. It was tedious work. The Ryobi battery powered caulk gun proved essential in this project. The gluing moved a lot faster when we decided to each work independently across from each other.

We used two pieces of rebar inserted into the PVC tees to keep it in place. This also makes it removable during hurricane season.

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We love the view from the street!

We added an extra 2.5" of pipe to the left side to compensate for the slope of the side yard.

We were almost ready to throw in the towels when it came to gluing this, but we persevered and love the results. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I would make another project with PVC slices!

If you're wondering who Jacob and Noah are that we say hello to in the bloopers, they are Steph's little neighbor boys that are in awe that she's on YouTube! They are so cute. 

Please note: This is not a sponsored post.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP!

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