How to Bolt a Wooden Fence to a Stucco House

Add the thickness of your wall's stucco layer, stucco lath and wall sheathing to calculate the distance between the stucco's exposed surface and the underlying framing. These materials increase the distance between the actual corner of the wall and the centers of the studs. You must accommodate for their increased thickness when you measure stud locations from the corner of a stucco wall.

Add three-fourth inch, which equals half a standard stud, to the previous sum. Because the side of the corner studs is covered with stucco, lath and sheathing, this dimension roughly equals the distance between the wall's actual corner and the center of the wall's corner stud.

Add the dimension to the average spacing between your wall's studs, usually 16 inches. The result of this equation equals the distance between the wall's corner and the center of the wall's second stud. Stretch a tape measure across the top of the wall, from corner to corner. Use a pencil to mark the location of the studs that fall on either side of the fence's desired anchorage location.

Move the tape to the bottom of the wall and use the pencil to create corresponding marks. Pull a chalk string line between the corresponding marks, stretch the line taut and snap the string to create a vertical chalk line between the marks. Snap a vertical line between the remaining marks.

Stretch the tape along one of the vertical lines. Mark the vertical location of ledger boards along the line with a pencil -- the upper ledger board supports the upper fence rail and the lower board supports the lower rail. Align one side of a level with the marks and the opposite side with the remaining vertical line. Use a pencil to transcribe the ledger location marks to the remaining vertical line.

Mark the length of a ledger board on a piece of framing lumber. The ledger should span between the outside edges of the studs. For example, the ledger would measure roughly 17 1/2 inches long on a wall with studs spaced every 16 inches. Cut the ledger to size with a circular saw. Mark and cut an identical ledger. Mark two bolt holes at each of the ledgers' ends, roughly three-fourths inches in from the end of the board.

Select a wood bit slightly larger than the diameter of the lag screws' shanks. Mount the wood bit to a power drill. Bore through the ledgers' bolt holes with the drill. Align the ledgers with the ledger lay out marks on the wall. Press a pencil through the ledgers' bolt holes and transcribe the holes' positions onto the wall's surface.

Mount a masonry bit to the drill and bore through the stucco at each bolt hole mark; stop short of drilling through the wood. Select a wood bit slightly smaller than the diameter of the lag screws' shanks. Mount the bit to the drill and bore pilot holes into the framing at each screw hole. Slip washers over the lag screws' shanks.

Mount a nut driver to the drill. Align the ledgers' screw holes with its corresponding pilot holes on the wall. Mount a lag screw into the nut driver and drive the screw through the ledger and into the wall framing. Drive screws into the remaining holes. Align the remaining ledger with its holes and anchor the ledger to the wall with lag screws.

Mark the position of the fence rails on the ledgers with a tape measure and pencil. Align fence brackets with the rail marks and fasten the brackets to the ledgers with a hammer and nails. Hoist the fence's rails into the brackets. Fasten the rails to the brackets with a hammer and nails.